Iorg’s Home Run Lifts Padres, 4-2

They came three hours down that country road to see John Kruk. Kruk’s clan. There were 48 of ‘em. They went to the will call window to pick up the tickets that “Ol’ Johnny” had left for ‘em, and one man said: “We’re from Keyser, West Virginia, and I know y’all have some passes here for us.”

Someone pointed ‘em to the left-field bleachers. That’s where John Kruk plays. They sat down. But, one of ‘em pointed down to the field. Where was John?

On the bench.

And the man who took his place, Dane Iorg--who they’d never even heard of--ended up hitting the game-winning, three-run homer Tuesday night. He hit it in the second inning, and the Padres--behind an erratic Eric Show--went on to win, 4-2.

Now, Kruk normally would have been in there, what with Carmelo Martinez still hobbled by tendinitis of the knee. And Iorg had planned a golf game on Tuesday, not a baseball game.

“Sheesh,” Iorg said. “Didn’t John hit a home run the other day in Chicago? I thought he’d play. It looked like he was starting to swing the bat.”

But Manager Steve Boros, concerned that Iorg hadn’t been swinging the bat enough, wanted to give him some plate appearances. Iorg found out Monday. He was supposed to go to Dave Dravecky’s hometown--Youngstown, Ohio--for a round of golf, but he figured he’d need his rest and backed out.

He just turned 36 on Sunday, you know.

So Kruk’s clan conspired against him.

Iorg said: “They were yelling. ‘Where’s John Kruk? We want Kruk.’ That’s all right. I had to play for Lou Brock in St. Louis. They’d scream, ‘Where’s Lou? Boo-hoo, we want Lou.’ ”

Tuesday’s homer silenced ‘em, anyway. It was only Iorg’s 12th career home run, and it was his first in the National League since he hit one off Pittsburgh’s Luis Tiant in 1981.

“I hit one off him (Tiant) in spring training that year, too,” Iorg said. “I own Tiant. Where is he?”

And where was Show? He earned the victory--his second--but he was not available for interviews afterward. He apparently had walked back to the hotel.

But that figured.

He had walk all night.

In his first four innings, Show walked seven batters. He was throwing hard, but it would be too far inside or too far outside.

“The plate was jumping around on him,” pitching coach Galen Cisco said.

But walks are better than runs. Though there were eight baserunners--one reached by catcher’s interference--in the first four innings, Show didn’t yield a hit until the fifth inning. And when he left after the sixth, he had totaled eight strikeouts.

The Pirates had only one run.

And Show had another quality start (at least six innings with three earned runs or less). He leads the team with seven quality starts in eight appearances, and that’s good enough for third place in the league.

“He was fighting himself tonight,” Cisco said. “But every time he had to get someone out, he seemed to have enough stuff. . . . A lot of guys might have thrown in the towel right then.”

The only real scare came in the fourth. With two men on and two outs, Pittsburgh’s Joe Orsulak hit a line drive to left. Iorg, who hadn’t played the outfield since last season in Kansas City, went back awkwardly, but reached up and caught it.

Kruk’s clan said nothing.

“You’ve gotta make that play,” Iorg said. “But I know. It’s not gonna make any highlight films.”

Terry Kennedy’s RBI single in the third made it 4-0, but the Pirates closed to 4-2 by the eighth. And then, in that eighth, there was a runner on second base with two out and Bill Almon coming up.

Almon’s the guy who homered off Goose Gossage on May 3 to give Pittsburgh a victory in San Diego.

Boros brought Lance McCullers in this time.

And McCullers got Almon to pop up in foul territory. Steve Garvey ran with his back to the ball and made an over-the-shoulder catch.

“I used my ol’ football defensive back skills,” Garvey said. “Like knocking down a fly pattern with your back to the ball.”

McCullers stayed in, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and earned his first save. However, Boros did say Gossage would have been sent in had a runner reached base.

And Boros also said he and Cisco have developed a new theory on how to use Gossage. Instead of bringing him in the eighth inning so much, they’ll wait until the ninth. Why? Partly because of McCullers’ strong performance, and, this way, Gossage won’t have to pitch so many innings and can stay fresher.

“We’re looking for quality (from Gossage), not quantity,” Cisco said.

Speaking of quality, second baseman Bip Roberts, again batting leadoff, had two hits in his first two at-bats. That raised his average to .304 (and he’d been at .000 on April 30). He then made three outs, so the average fell to .286.

Tim Flannery, who is on the bench because of Roberts’ emergence, was classy enough to congratulate him and say: “This guy had the greatest comeback in two weeks that’s probably happened in baseball history. And I ain’t lying.”

Iorg was lying a week ago when he was joking with some baseball writers in St. Louis and said he was going to retire after this season. He didn’t think the writers would print it. Sure enough, USA Today did.

He was mad.

“After I hit the homer tonight, the guys said, ‘You gonna stick around for another year, Dane?’ Goose was saying, ‘I’ll give you half my salary if you don’t retire (which would add up to about $600,000). Just come back. Please, Dane.’ Why did they put that in the paper? When I retire, I won’t make a big deal out of it. I’ll just be gone. Sheesh. Like baseballs’ really gonna be at a loss if I retire. Sheesh.”

Funny, but someone in Kruk’s clan did scream: “Iorg! Retire! Please!”