Padres Bent On Making It a Race, Take 2 From Mets

Every other minute or so, a paper airplane would come flying down onto the Shea Stadium playing field Friday night, and although the likely reason was fan boredom, could it have also signified the beginnings of a Met nose-dive?

Because the Padres swept a twi-night doubleheader here Friday, winning 6-1 and 3-0 before 45,156, and the Mets were suddenly in second place, one game behind St. Louis. The Padres are in the midst of a nose-dive, too, though it’s of an entirely different sort. San Diego has won 12 of 16 games (including five straight), but it still has lost one-half game in the standings to the Dodgers. San Diego trails L.A. by 6 1/2 games.

Still, as the players witness their own timely hitting and see that the bullpen has become uncharacteristically reliable, they realize what it all means.

“I told you not to mess with us?” said Jerry Royster, lecturing reporters. “Don’t write us off. When we were playing bad, you were. I’ve got the articles. We lost because we didn’t run, didn’t score runs. We didn’t have clutch hitting.”

Garry Templeton saw fit to join in.

“If we had any clutch hitting a month ago, we’d be with the Dodgers,” he said.

Tim Flannery: “It’s time to turn it on, and everyone knows it. It’s our last shot. If we go into a slump, we won’t win. The Dodgers? They know we’re there.”

Why do they talk this way? In essence, it’s because of the pitching. It has to be the pitching. In a rather strange occurrence, the Padres swept the Mets by starting Mark Thurmond in Game 1 and Roy Lee Jackson in Game 2. In the first game, Thurmond threw 5 innings, hit two singles, had an RBI and scored a run.

Then Tim Stoddard, usually a sight for sore eyes, tossed three scoreless innings in relief until the Mets loaded the bases with one out in the ninth. Craig Lefferts sprinted in from the bullpen, retired pinch-hitter Rusty Staub, and then catcher Terry Kennedy picked off Rafael Santana at third base.

Whooptie-do, they all said. For the Dodgers were losing in Montreal at the time, 3-0.

And, in Game 2, the Rev. Jackson (he’s a preacher in the off-season) pitched four innings of no-hit baseball before Danny Heep led off the fifth with a single. Jackson, who previously had only worked out of the bullpen, eventually left after five innings, but the led 2-0 at the time on Steve Garvey’s second homer of the inning.

After Jackson left, Lefferts re-entered and threw three innings of scoreless ball, particularly avoiding a rally in the seventh when Larry Bowa lined out to the third baseman Royster, who immediately doubled Tom Paciorek at first.

In the ninth, however, Lefferts walked leadoff man Daryl Strawberry. Manager Dick Williams signaled for rookie Gene Walter, who promptly walked Heep. The catcher, Bruce Bochy, came out, gave him a speech, but the next batter, Howard Johnson just missed a home run, the ball curling foul in left. The count became full, and Walter threw a slider that looked high, but then dipped instantly.

Johnson was called out looking.

With two right-handed batters coming up, Williams then signaled for Lance McCulllers, the last man, and probably the best man, in the bullpen. He faced Gary Carter. He got behind 2 and 0.

And then he struck out the Mets’ catcher on three pitches.

Last was Bowa, the former Cub who was signed days ago and who celebrated his first game with that Royster double play and also a fielding error. McCullers got him to ground out, ending it.

“How’d you like that young kid?” Williams asked New York writers. “You have your (Dwight) Gooden, but we’ve got our left-hander (Walter) and right-hander (McCullers).

Incidentally, McCullers is still a rookie in the eyes of his teammates. They had arrived in New York late Thursday night, and McCullers had fallen asleep on the team bus back to the hotel. No one bothered to wake him up, and the driver, oblivious to it all, took off. Thirty minutes later, McCullers woke up, saying: “Hey bussie! Where am I?”

But where would Padre pitching be without him? Also, San Diego pitchers, since this trip began five games ago, have three shutouts and have yielded only two earned runs.

The hitting, too, is better. The players actually told Williams they didn’t need batting practice before Friday’s game, so the team bus didn’t leave for Shea Stadium until late, just 1 1/2 hours before game time. Once at Shea, the bus driver made a wrong turn or two and then security guards wouldn’t let the bus pass to the player entrance. After an argument, the players decided to walk to the entrance, and players such as Garvey and Graig Nettles were hounded with cheers and boos.

In game 1, Garvey and Nettles hit back-to-back homers, the first time there had been consecutive home runs by a Padre since the home opener April 15. Their homers made it 6-1, but San Diego had really won the game with a four-run sixth when they hit five consecutive singles with two outs.

In game 2, Garvey’s homer was the game winner, but it was unusual in that he’d just missed a homer three pitches before when a shot to left just curved foul.

“Sometimes that works psychologically against you,” Garvey said. “Because you say: ‘Darnit. I just missed.’ But I didn’t let it get to me, and I got another pitch I could drive.”

Later, Carmelo Martinez hit a solo home run, making it 3-0, making it a sweep and making it clear that the Padres intend to have a pennant race.

“The Dodgers just don’t seem to want to cooperate,” Garvey said.

PADRES AT A GLANCE

Game 1 Scorecard SECOND INNING Mets--With one out, Strawberry walked. Strawberry stole second. Strawberry stole third. Foster blooped a single to center, Strawberry scoring. Knight flied to center. Santana forced Foster. One run, one hit, one left.

SIXTH INNING Padres--With two outs, Martinez singled to left. McReynolds singled to left, Martinez taking second. Flannery singled to center, Martinez scoring, McReynolds taking second. Thurmond singled to right, McReynolds scoring, Flannery taking third, Thurmond taking second on the throw to the plate. Templeton singled to center, Flannery and Thurmond scoring, Templeton out going for second. Four runs, five hits, one left.

SEVENTH INNING Padres--With one out, Garvey homered to left, his 15th. Nettles homered to right, his 14th. Kennedy popped out to second. Martinez struck out. Two runs, two hits, none left.

Padre Notes

The 1985 season is now in jeopardy for Padre pitcher LaMarr Hoyt. His injury has now been diagnosed as tendinitis of the rotator cuff in his right shoulder, and he will miss his scheduled start for today. Instead, Dave Dravecky will go a day early, and Eric Show will face Dwight Gooden on Sunday. Said Hoyt: “I just hope the soreness comes out. If it doesn’t, I may not pitch anymore this year. The doctor said I’d be taking a tremendous chance with my career if I pitched with it. There’s no sense. With a little bit of rest, I can be 100 percent and go out and feel good about it.” . . . Goose Gossage (knee) was eligible to come off the disabled list Friday night, but did not, of course. He is scheduled to throw on the side today, and the tentative (extremely tentative) date of return is Sept. 1.