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Boros Has Busy Day Planned After Sweep : Manager Considers Options After Padres’ Fourth Straight Loss, 4-0

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<i> Times Staff Writer </i>

Having been swept by the mighty San Francisco Giants this weekend, San Diego Manager Steve Boros has planned a manic Monday.

He’s not entirely sure, but he might order his batters out of bed today for an extra batting practice session. On Sunday, the team lost 4-0 to the Giants, stranding seven base runners.

All told, the Padres stranded 27 in this four-game series, and the team’s season batting average with runners in scoring position is .155.

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“A few guys will hear about it,” said hitting coach Deacon Jones, who admits shutouts make him look bad. “It’s early, but I don’t want this thing to snowball. And it could easily do that.”

Boros will chat with Bip Roberts, who was moved down to eighth in the batting order, who is still hitless (0 for 16) and who defied orders on Sunday to choke up and use a bigger bat. Boros and Jones had decided Roberts had been swinging too much like a power hitter and told him to use a heavier bat. They went to the bat rack with him and said: “Find one you like.” Roberts chose Steve Garvey’s 34-ounce bat, but decided at the last minute Sunday that it was too heavy.

He used his own little one.

He forgot to tell Boros or Jones.

He went 0 for 2.

“We will be talking with that young man,” Boros said.

He will decide if he wants to make Tony Gwynn his leadoff hitter. On Saturday, Boros asked Gwynn what he thought about it, and Gwynn said he had no problems.

“We got to get something going,” Gwynn said.

Boros: “It’s something I have to think about. We need to get something going at the top of the lineup. Our leadoff men have scored one run all year (actually two). Moving Gwynn to leadoff is something to think about.”

He will fret about reliever Lance McCullers’ rib injury, suffered Saturday. As of now, the status of the injury will not be known until Wednesday. The good news is that LaMarr Hoyt made his 1986 debut in relief on Sunday, threw two perfect innings and might be McCullers’ temporary replacement in the bullpen.

Other than all of this, it’ll be an ordinary Monday for Boros.

Sunday was extraordinary for the Giants.

The last time they had swept the Padres in a series of four games or more was 1971, and the last time they had even won a series from San Diego was 1981.

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And all of their runs Sunday came unearned in a thrilling third inning. Pitcher Vida Blue, who won his 200th career game Sunday, was walked by Dave Dravecky to start it. Then, when leadoff man Dan Gladden bunted, Dravecky threw wildly to first, the ball flying 10 feet over the head of Roberts, who was covering. Blue charged around to third, while Gladden took second.

“The ball just got away from me,” Dravecky said. “A bad play. I’ve got to make those kind. That’s just giving ‘em away.”

Roberts: “It was unreachable. I thought maybe if I dove for it. . . . Nah.”

Next, Will Clark popped a fly ball to shallow right. Garvey ran into first base umpire Paul Runge and could not catch up to the ball. Gwynn, the right fielder, couldn’t catch up to it either. Instead, it was Roberts who caught it off-balance in foul territory. Blue tagged up and beat the throw to the plate for the game-winning run.

Three more runs came in. Jeffrey Leonard singled in Gladden, and Chili Davis then connected for his first home run of the year, a line drive to left. A crowd of 39,548 was here to see the surging Giants, and about 548 of them jumped out of the stands to grab Davis’ home-run ball. Winning 200 games is a lofty goal, but Blue achieved that Sunday. Gwynn, in his first at-bat, doubled to right, but Blue retired Kevin McReynolds (0 for 15 in the series) and got Garvey to line out to third.

Carmelo Martinez and Garry Templeton led off with singles in the second, but Blue retired the next three hitters--Bruce Bochy, Roberts and Dravecky.

“Blue was waiting to get beat,” Jones said. “And we got ourselves beat.”

Blue almost made a boo-boo in the third. With Gwynn on third and Garvey on first, he faced Martinez. The count went to 0 and 2, but Martinez fouled off nine consecutive pitches. At one point during the confrontation, Blue screamed: “Breaking ball!” Martinez laughed, but Blue really did throw a breaking ball. Martinez managed to foul it off again.

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Finally, Martinez flied a ball to left, and it kept carrying and carrying. Gladden, as he crashed into the fence, made the catch.

“I was ready to kiss him (Gladden), but I settled for a hand shake,” Blue said.

And afterward, teammate Bob Brenly drenched Blue with champagne. This was the third time he was going for win No. 200, and twice before he’d been denied. Last week in Houston, the team had six bottles of champagne waiting for him, and he lost.

Sunday, they had one bottle.

And he won.

“It’s a big win for me personally,” Blue said. “I’ve been waiting for this a long time. It was part of my motivation for coming back (from cocaine problems).”

Hoyt appears to be back in form after his alcohol problems. He replaced Dravecky (who gave up just three hits) in the fifth inning and retired six consecutive batters on just 18 pitches.

“Eleven strikes and seven balls,” Hoyt remembered. “I threw fastballs, curveballs, sliders and changeups and could throw every one for strikes. . . . It was very satisfying.”

Hoyt said he thinks the shoulder troubles he had earlier this year were attributed to tension.

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“The tension resulted in the tightening of muscles,” he said. “And I imagine the tension came from what has happened in the last two, two and a half months. At Hazelden (where he went for alcohol rehabilitation), I didn’t sleep too good. The beds were too soft. I probably didn’t sleep the first 10 days I was there. I slept maybe four days total. . . . You try going through it and see how many nights you sleep.”

Roberts said he hasn’t lost sleep over his batting slump, but maybe some other Padres are. Jones has spent hours working privately with Roberts, and when Roberts was hitting line drives with Garvey’s bat before Sunday’s game, Jones threw a fist in the air.

“Oh boy!” he said.

Then, right before the game, Jones told Roberts the things to think about at the plate. Roberts left, and Jones said to reporters: “We got the game plan down. We’ve got the X’s and O’s. Let’s see if he can put it into action.”

Robert did not.

“We’ll have to have a serious man-to-man talk,” Jones said, echoing Boros’ feelings. “I want to know why (he switched bats). We work on one thing and then he goes back to the old stuff. I thought we had it ironed out. That was a real shocker. I’m a little peeved. I want to know what’s going on.”

Roberts: “I’ve got to do what I can do to get going. I can’t do what everyone else says. I’ve got to be me.”

And the Padres have got to be the Padres.

“I don’t think anyone thought we’d come up here and get swept,” Gwynn said. “San Francisco is a team we should handle. Whew.”

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