Just Call Show ‘Mr. Lucky’; Padres Win

Eric Show, who says people can now stop feeling sorry for him, got lucky again Tuesday night in a 7-4 Padre victory over the Houston Astros.

His right elbow hurt from the minute he woke up Tuesday morning, but he managed to get a career-high fourth straight victory, pitching five touch-and-go innings.

The Astros touched most of his pitches.

And the ball would go flying everywhere.

But Graig Nettles and Marvell Wynne kept making outstanding defensive plays, and Wynne, Tony Gwynn, Garry Templeton and Terry Kennedy touched off some blasts of their own.

Suddenly, the Padres have won two straight here and are only 2 1/2 games out of first place.

“Some guy I know was saying recently, ‘Geez, you have bad luck, Eric,’ ” Show said. “But I told the guy, ‘Don’t even tell me I’m a tough-luck pitcher. Don’t tell me I’m unlucky. Don’t tell me I lose the hard ones all the time. I don’t want to hear it.’ From now on, I’m Eric Show--the lucky pitcher!

“And look what’s happened to me since then--a four-game winning streak. I don’t want anybody to tell me I’m a hard-luck pitcher anymore. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want anybody feeling sorry for me.”

Show has what’s called flexor tendinitis in his elbow, and his fastball goes pretty slow because of it.

“It’s sort of a challenge in a weird sort of way,” Show said. “You feel like an unarmed man out there, but it’s really fun to see if you can get people out and not actually have a whole lot, to see if you can trick them. I don’t want to do that the rest of my career, but it’s really sort of a challenge in a perverted sort of way. It’s exciting in a perverted sort of way.”

This game got exciting for the Padres in the second inning. Kennedy got the first of his two hits (he had three Monday night) and then scored when Wynne doubled sharply down the left-field line.

In the fourth, Templeton singled and scored on Kennedy’s double. Kennedy’s been hot ever since he got a batting tip from coach Harry Dunlop recently, a tip that helps him keep his weight back when he swings.

Templeton, Gwynn and Wynne added RBIs in the sixth inning, after the Astros had trimmed the lead to 3-2. Templeton had two RBIs, giving him 19 RBIs in 19 games. Templeton also has four three-hit games on this road trip.

“Do I?” said Templeton, who batted fifth for the second straight game. “At right about the end of the last home stand, I started feeling great,” he said. “My back stopped hurting and my leg stopped hurting. And it wasn’t my knee that hurt. Everybody keeps telling me my knee is hurting, and I keep telling them I ain’t hurt my knee in two years.”

Just Monday, Templeton blasted Boros, saying the manager needed a mean streak.

“I think what Tempy said got him fired up,” Gwynn said. “Sometimes you create controversy just to get yourself going. I don’t know if that’s true, but he’s raised his average 30 points.”

There were two truly great defensive plays--one by Wynne and one by Nettles.

In the sixth, Wynne ran down a Kevin Bass drive in deep center. Boros wanted Wynne playing more shallow (to prevent short bloop hits), so he had to run a long way for an over-the-shoulder catch.

In the ninth, the Astros cut the Padre lead to 7-4, and Goose Gossage entered with a man on second base. Pinch-hitter Jim Pankovits lined one hard to left, but third baseman Nettles dove--like he used to with the Yankees--and snared it.

“All those dives over the years has taken a lot out of my shoulders,” he said. “Both are sore. I’ve broken my thumb twice. But it’s all instinctive. You can’t think about it. You do it.”

Padre Notes Infielder Randy Ready, who was placed on the disabled list when his wife collapsed and went into a coma, will begin working out with the Padres this week and will then will go to Las Vegas for a 20-day rehabilitation. “I’ve got people here to take care of things,” Ready said from his home in Tuscon, Ariz. “It’s time for me to go back to work. If I had a regular job, I’d be back at work by now. It’ll be tough to do, but I’ve got to do it.”