Eric Show, in May, Has a Change of Luck : Padre Pitcher Chalks Up First Victory of Season in 4-3 Win Over St. Louis

The merry, merry month of May began Thursday with a victory for Eric Show, who reportedly was very, very happy.

He hadn’t had one of those all year.

Oh, but he had to be sweating there in the ninth inning. Down by a run with two outs, the St. Louis Cardinals had a runner on first base with Jack Clark coming up. As Show stared at reliever Goose Gossage from the dugout, Gossage stared down at Clark.

Clark stared at the baseball.

But he hit it on the ground, and second baseman Tim Flannery flipped it to shortstop Garry Templeton for the force out, and Show--according to eyewitnesses--flipped out in happiness. The Padres had won, 4-3. He had won, 4-3.

Finally.

He wasn’t there to meet reporters afterward, but . . .

“He was glad, and I was very happy for him,” said one of his best friends, Dave Dravecky.

“Oh yeah, he was happy,” added Mark Thurmond.

Gossage wasn’t exactly beaming in the clubhouse, but he wasn’t outwardly nasty, either. The last time he’d pitched--Monday night against the Cubs--he had given up the winning run in the ninth, and when Manager Steve Boros defended him and said, “Goose was tired,” Gossage told Boros never to make such assumptions without asking.

So after Gossage struggled a little Thursday, walking three batters and giving up a run in the last two innings, Boros grinned and said to reporters: “If anyone wants to ask, I don’t think Goose was tired today.”

Later, Boros smiled and told Gossage what he’d just said, and Gossage snapped: “But I was wild.” He wasn’t humored, to say the least.

“Well, he was upset over those three walks,” Boros explained.

It would have been more upsetting if Carmelo Martinez hadn’t hit an eighth-inning homer. The Padres, who now are in second place, led the Cardinals 3-2 at that point, and the extra run turned out to be relevant.

It’s also relevant that it was Martinez who homered. He missed four games recently with tendinitis in his left knee, and he’d been missing the ball, too. We’re talking many swings and misses. Hitting coach Deacon Jones told him to wait a little and not try to hit every ball over the left-field fence.

See, Martinez gets a kick out of long homers.

Martinez did listen to the advice, and he ended up hitting a homer to left anyway.

“You know,” he said, “sometimes I want to look good and try to do too much. Then, I look bad.”

He also looked good on the bases (if that’s possible) as he stole his first base of the season in the second inning and scored three runs on the day. Martinez is one of your bigger kinds of people (about 220 pounds) and doesn’t run very well, but he liked the idea that reporters compared his effort Thursday to Yankee speedster Rickey Henderson.

But Martinez did admit that “when I stole, I got a good jump. It wasn’t my speed.”

Martinez has two career stolen bases.

How about Ozzie Smith? He had three steals this day. He supposedly is St. Louis’ weakest hitter, but he’s leading all the regulars with a .333 average. In the fifth inning, he ended St. Louis’ scoreless streak of 22 innings by walking, stealing second, moving to third on a bunt and scoring on Vince Coleman’s sacrifice fly to center. In the seventh, he doubled, stole third and scored on Coleman’s sacrifice fly to left.

In the ninth, he walked, stole second and scored on Coleman’s sacrifice fly to right.

That’s three sacrifice fly RBIs for Coleman, which tied a major league record. The last time it had been done was 1965.

But Thursday’s biggest thrill came in the sixth inning. Show had walked Clark and Clint Hurdle to begin things, and pitching coach Galen Cisco came to visit.

“Throw strikes,” Cisco said.

He did.

He struck out Andy Van Slyke with a slider, Terry Pendleton with a slow curve and Tommy Herr with a fastball.

“He really dug down and got some stuff that inning,” catcher Terry Kennedy said. “I thought he’d lost it because when he walked those two guys, he didn’t throw hard at all. But--sheesh--then he struck out three guys.”

St. Louis’ Smith doubled to begin the seventh and since Show had already thrown 97 pitches, Boros took him out. Smith did go on to score, but Craig Lefferts kept the rally to a minimum--one run.

And, Kennedy has noticed a difference this year in the pitchers, and he hinted that former Manager Dick Williams might have something to do with it.

He’s not here.

“It’s certainly helped me call the game,” Kennedy said. “I think that definitely none (of the pitchers) is afraid of walking anybody anymore. And that’s really made a difference, because they’re throwing breaking balls more, and that’s why we have so many strike outs. We might be leading the league. And they’re walking fewer people than before anyway.

“You don’t have to worry about looking behind your back or about any second guessing. . . . It (new management) is all really positive.”

And, for once, Show found some luck.

Start No. 1: Seven strong innings on opening day, but he was facing Fernando Valenzuela and lost.

Start No. 2: Seven strong innings against Cincinnati, but Bo Diaz homered to send it to extra innings, and he had a no-decision.

Start No. 3: Seven strong innings and a three-hitter against the Dodgers, but another no-decision.

Start No. 4: Six innings plus against San Francisco as the Padres blew a 5-0 lead, and he had another no-decision.

Start No. 5: He went 10 innings, threw 165 pitches and lost on a 10th-inning homer by Will Clark.

Start No. 6: Ecstasy.

Padre Notes Tony Gwynn, who fouled a ball hard off his left shin Wednesday, missed his first game of the year Thursday. He couldn’t run. The shin had swelled. Somebody said it looked gross. Gwynn said: “It is. It is. It’s really gross.” Somebody said it’s good to take a day off every once in a while. Said Gwynn: “No, it’s not. Ask Garv. If I could’ve run 80%, I would’ve played.” Kevin McReynolds replaced Gwynn in right, McReynolds’ first time there since 1983.