Padres Stranding Around : Show Receives No Support in 2-0 Loss to Phillies

As is their weekly custom, Padre hitters gave Eric Show no support Friday night. Since Show couldn’t shut out the suddenly surging Philadelphia Phillies, he lost, 2-0, his record falling to a misleading--yet mediocre just the same--3-3.

Afterward, he sat quietly, munching potato chips.

There were no chips on his shoulder.

“Well, it seems like the law of averages wouldn’t let this happen,” said Show, whose teammates have scored 31 runs in his 11 games, a 2.81 average. “But it’s happened, and there’s nothing I can do about it . . . except throw shutouts, I guess.

“I keep thinking it’ll change, but I’ve been thinking that a long time,” said Show, laughing out loud. “This guy I know, his theory is that when guys see I’m pitching and know they’ll be in a close game, sometimes they’ll let down subconsciously and figure they don’t need a lot of runs. I don’t know, but that’s a possibility. I don’t know if it’s true.

“But 11 times in a row? I think it would get to anybody. We’re only human. But I try very hard just to keep it all out of my mind. I don’t think about rotten luck or chink hits or balls that should’ve been caught. I don’t think about that. All that does is drag you down. You can’t let yourself dwell on it, though it’d be easy to.”

On Friday, Phillie pitcher Kevin Gross threw a neat little eight-hitter. The Padres threatened in the first, second, third, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings--and came up absolutely empty.

Their best chance came in the eighth. With one out, Kevin McReynolds hit in his sixth consecutive game--a line drive to center. Steve Garvey, batting .261, blooped a single to left, advancing McReynolds to second. Graig Nettles stepped up. Gross admitted that giving up a home run crossed his mind, so he made sure to keep the ball down.

Nettles still hit one up in the air to right but it was catchable.

Carmelo Martinez stepped up, but Gross jammed him and the result was a simple pop out.

“I think the eighth inning was probably the one (inning) that could’ve got me in big trouble,” Gross (4-5) said.

And the Padres continued their strands across America.

Garvey missed a homer in the fourth by five feet. Instead, he doubled and was stranded.

Tony Gwynn doubled in the first. Stranded.

Terry Kennedy doubled in the second. Stranded.

Tim Flannery doubled in the third. Stranded.

Garvey and Martinez had singles in the sixth. Stranded.

Kennedy missed a homer by seven feet in the ninth.

How did Show take it all in the dugout? Manager Steve Boros said: “Very well, very well. No temper tantrums.”

In the Phillie fifth, Jeff Stone singled, advanced to second on Milt Thompson’s ground out and scored on Juan Samuel’s line single to right. Show said he “quick-pitched” Samuel--going to a quick delivery to catch him off-guard--but it failed.

With Samuel on first , Mike Schmidt lined another quick-pitch to left-center. McReynolds ran over and booted it--literally--the ball hitting off his right shin and bouncing free. Samuel came around to score.

Still, it was only McReynolds’ second error of the year.

“Two too many,” he said.

One by one, some Padre players came over to Show afterward to congratulate him.

“They don’t say, ‘I’m sorry,’ but they say, ‘Good game, man’ or ‘Too bad,’ ” Show said. “They’ve said it so much now that everybody doesn’t come by anymore. But everybody’s trying their best, just like I am.”

Let the record show that Show has 10 quality starts (six innings with three earned runs or less), the second most in the National League behind Zane Smith of Atlanta (11).

“One of these days I’ll go out there and get bombed,” Show said. “And it’ll be a lot easier on me because it’ll be over right away, not that I plan on doing that.”

Asked how a six-run lead sounded, he said: “That’d be nice.”

“It (Friday’s game) was kind of a good one for me, but I didn’t win. Tonight, though, I’ll be able to put my head on the pillow knowing I did the best job I could.”

And let the record show that the Padres do try to score runs for Show.

Gwynn said: “It’s not like we say, ‘Oh no, Eric’s pitching! Let’s scuffle!’ It’s frustrating. We all want to win. He makes one bad pitch, they score and we can’t do anything to help him. . . . Well, tomorrow’s another day.”

And Show’s not pitching.

Padre Notes

Would you believe that Carmelo Martinez has yet to commit an error in left field? It’s a fact. After making a long run Friday, he dropped a fly ball hit by Philadelphia’s Steve Jeltz, but the official scorer ruled it a hit. “They take care of their boys here,” Padre Manager Steve Boros said. Meanwhile, Martinez was asked to explain his errorless streak. “If I don’t get to the ball, how can I make errors?” he said. “Ha! Ha! Just kidding.” . . . Boros said Bip Roberts will likely come off the disabled list this coming weekend in San Diego. Just to make sure, though, they will time him running from first to second. If he runs in the 3.3- to 3.5-second range, they’ll consider him 100% healed. . . . Catcher Terry Kennedy, 6 for 39, continues to hit seventh in the batting order. “We’ll have him there a while until he gets straightened out a bit,” Boros said.

PADRES AT A GLANCE

Scorecard FIFTH INNING Phillies--With one out, Stone singled to left. Thompson grounded to second, Stone taking second. Samuel singled to center, Stone scoring. Schmidt singled to left-center, Samuel scoring on McReynolds’ error with Schmidt stopping at second. Hayes was walked intentionally. Wilson struck out. Two runs (one earned), three hits, two left.