Phillies’ Denny Blanks Padres

Time to bring on the football season in San Diego.

After the Philadelphia Phillies’ 2-0 win over the Padres Saturday afternoon, San Diego sports fans might have felt like putting their Padre caps in the closet and breaking out their sweat shirts for today’s Charger season opener.

Coupled with the Dodgers’ come-from-behind, 7-6 win over the Mets Saturday, the Padres fell nine games behind with 28 to play. The Reds, 9-7 losers to the Cubs Saturday, fell 8 1/2 games off of the pace. Guess it’s time to start calculating the Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the National League Western Division.

The number continues to dwindle in direct proportion to Padre hit and run totals and attendance at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Only 11,141 fans, the smallest home crowd of the season, saw right-hander John Denny throw a five-hitter to outduel Andy Hawkins.

Hawkins allowed only six hits in seven innings, but two were blasts by Mike Schmidt--his 26th home run of the season in the fourth inning and a run-scoring triple to right-center two innings later.

That was it for a game that was played in two hours, one minute. The starting time was 12:20 p.m., 40 minutes earlier than usual for afternoon games because at one time this was supposed to be the televised game of the week. As it turned out, it wasn’t even a backup game.

Saturday’s heroes were only too happy to talk baseball. And when the heroes are Denny and Schmidt, you are in for a mouthful.

That is, if Denny doesn’t pull his right-handed version of Steve Carlton. He was talking on Saturday.

“I have been using my changeup more lately than I did for the last couple of years,” said Denny, who was 7-7 last season and is 10-11 this season. “When used in the proper situations, it really complements my other pitches.”

Saturday was one of those days. The Padres had only three mild threats in a game in which they managed only four singles and Kevin McReynolds’ fourth-inning double.

Tim Flannery lined a single to left in the first. Flannery was batting leadoff in place of Garry Templeton, who was out of the lineup with a bruised knee. Nettles walked with two out. Both were stranded when Terry Kennedy struck out swinging.

In the third, Tony Gwynn walked and Steve Garvey singled with two out, but Nettles bounced to second. Mario Ramirez, starting at shortstop in place of Templeton, struck out following McReynolds’ two-out double in the fourth. “It’s been an uphill battle for me all year,” Denny said, “but things get corrected. I was real pleased with today.”

Schmidt is third in the NL in home runs this season and has hit 25 or more homers in 11 of 13 years, including the last seven.

Since moving from third to first base on May 29, Schmidt is hitting .299 with 20 home runs and 55 RBIs.

“I’d have hit if I never moved,” Schmidt said. “I don’t think it had anything to do with it, but it happened when I moved, so it obviously has had something to do with it.”

An answer that would make Yogi Berra proud.

Getting behind in the game was Hawkins’ (17-5) biggest mistake Saturday.

“I can’t really complain because this was the first time this season I was on the losing end of a shutout,” Hawkins said. “I’ve always had some runs to work with.”

Until Saturday.

To use terminology appropriate for the upcoming season, Hawkins needed a field goal against Denny and the Phillies.

Padre Notes Last time John Denny pitched in San Diego, he was thrown out of the game after getting in a fight with Tim Flannery. After Flannery tripled, the two exchanged words at third base. Words turned into fisticuffs. “It was very unfortunate, and you want to forget it right away,” is what Denny said about the incident on June 4. . . . Manager Dick Williams said LaMarr Hoyt threw to hitters for 15 minutes Saturday and is expected to start on Tuesday night in Cincinnati. Hoyt has suffered from a sore right shoulder and has not pitched in a game since Aug. 18. . . . Williams expects Garry Templeton, out Saturday with a bruised knee, to be back in the lineup today. He also said Bruce Boche would start behind the plate, Jerry Royster at second and Kurt Bevacqua at third against left-hander Steve Carlton. . . . Carlton (1-7) will face Mark Thurmond (6-8) at 1:05 in the final game of the nine-game home stand. The Padres are 2-6. . . . Craig Lefferts struck out four and retired all six batters in his two innings of relief work Saturday. . . . Saturday’s crowd of 11,141 pushed the season total to 1,990,129, which surpasses the team’s all-time high of 1,983,904 set last season.