Padre Notebook : Rain Keeps Score, Little Else, Down

Rainy days and Mondays . . .

- Can’t get Mark Thurmond down: He was awakened Monday morning by a telephone call and told that his wife, Deborah, had given birth to twin boys, later named Dane and Drew. Before returning home to Houston, he pitched three shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners.

Third baseman Jerry Royster earned a cigar, by the way. The Mariners loaded the bases in the first inning and infielder Jim Presley hit a roller toward third. Royster charged the ball, barehanded it and threw out Presley by an inch.

- Can’t get Bobby Brown down: Always the prankster, he wore Amos Otis’ jersey during Monday’s game. Otis, a former Kansas City Royal star and currently a minor league instructor for the Padres, said: “I figured it would help him. I thought maybe it’d inspire him to get a few hits.”

Brown went 0 for 3.

- Can’t get Jack McKeon down: He did not reach an agreement on pitcher Lance McCullers’ contract. So McKeon and the pitcher’s agent, Jerry Kapstein, agreed that McKeon will renew the contract at whatever figure the general manager wanted (although it has to exceed the major league minimum of $60,000).

McCullers’ contract will be open for negotation throughout the season.

- Can’t get Bip Roberts down: He got on base again Monday, walking twice and stealing a base, which encouraged Boros.

But he was picked off second base, which did not encourage Boros.

“We want Bip to be more patient at the plate, so he’ll walk more,” Boros had said before Monday’s game.

- Can keep the score down: The Padres and the Mariners only were able to get in 5 1/2 innings. The Mariners led, 1-0, after Gorman Thomas’ sacrifice fly in the fifth when the heavy rains made it much to damp to play. Padre pitcher Tim Stoddard kept slipping off the mound, and the game was called.

Padre Notes Center fielder Kevin McReynolds missed his second straight game Monday because of a sore tailbone. However, he took batting practice and should be able to play Wednesday against the Oakland A’s. . . . Padre players were not allowed to drive their own cars here from Yuma. Instead, they all had to ride the team bus. Apparently, it’s the Kurt Bevacqua Rule. Last spring, Bevacqua, en route from Yuma, drove exceedingly fast, wiped out and was lucky he just slid into cactus bushes instead of an oncoming car. So there’s no such nonsense this year. . . . Tim Flannery has spent some time at third base this spring, which brings up an interesting thought: What if anything happens to Graig Nettles? Would Flannery and Jerry Royster platoon at third as they did last year at second base? . . . Manager Steve Boros, when asked if he was aware of Padre dissension last year, said: “All I had to do was pick up a newspaper.” . . . San Diego travels to Mesa today to play the Cubs. Ed Wojna will be the starting pitcher.