Hoyt Wins With New, Old Look : Padres Defeat Cubs as Pitcher Earns 1st Victory Since May

LaMarr Hoyt--his hair a lot shorter, but his stint on the mound a lot longer--pitchedhis first complete game in nearly a year Friday night in a 4-1 Padre victory over the Chicago Cubs in front of 17,028 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Whereas earlier in the year he was throwing sidearm, Hoyt threw mostly overhand and overwhelmed the Cubs with a season-high seven strikeouts in his first victory since May 28. Dane Iorg, who wasn’t here in 1985 when this was almost a daily occurrence, was startled by the speed of Hoyt’s pitches. Even his breaking balls, the ones that usually travel about 70 m.p.h., were up in the 80s.

“Boy, he’s fast!” Iorg said.

Marvell Wynne is fast, too. He scored the game-winning run--breaking a 1-1 tie--in the fifth inning. Wynne was standing on second base with two outs when Kevin McReynolds grounded a ball to shortstop Shawon Dunston. Dunston fielded it but his throw one-hopped first baseman Leon Durham and bounced free. Wynne, smart enough to keep running on a certain out and quick enough to reach home plate, scored standing up.

“Oh, I’m running all the way on that one,” Wynne said. “With two outs, you’ve got to take a chance. If I pulled up like it was a routine play, I wouldn’t have scored. I like to run balls out. You never know what’ll happen.”

Wynne has been the regular Padre center fielder for four games now, and San Diego keeps winning (three out of four). Fans on local talk shows keep saying they like Wynne.

“Around town, only little kids have recognized me,” Wynne said. “As far as grownups, now. Little kids have baseball cards.”

Hoyt’s baseball card has him with long hair. But it’s shorter now, just in time for the summer heat. When he reported for spring training this year, his head was like a mop. It stayed that way until the Padres stayed in a Houston hotel last week that was adjacent to a shopping mall.

“I was just walking through this mall and went into this place to buy conditioner, and I needed a trim, so I asked how long the wait was,” Hoyt said. “They said not very long. So I went ahead and had it cut.”

Funny, but Hoyt’s catcher, Terry Kennedy, also showed up with a new hairdo Thursday--a perm.

Still, this game was a pleasant flashback to 1985 when Hoyt went on his 11-game winning streak and won the MVP award in the All-Star game. His last complete game came right in the middle of that streak last year--July 7--when he beat the Pirates in Pittsburgh, 3-0.

This game Thursday was just like it. He did not walk a batter and pitched fast, so fast that his fielders stayed on their toes. The game lasted two hours, five minutes.

Hoyt, don’t forget, missed spring training with personal problems.

“I think he’s over his spring training blues,” shortstop Garry Templeton said.

Manager Steve Boros said Hoyt (3-4) had been throwing sidearm earlier in the year, and noticed him going back to the overhand approach a couple weeks ago in the bullpen. Hoyt said getting beat 18-1 by the Giants 10 days ago “ticked him off,” and he said he worked harder on ticking other people off with his pitches.

A good example: In the eighth inning, the Padres were clinging still to their 2-1 lead when pinch-hitter Ron Cey came up. The count got to 1 and 2, and catcher Kennedy called for a slider. Hoyt shook him off, knowing he wanted to throw fastball.

But why fastball? Cey is a fastball hitter and Hoyt is a breaking-ball pitcher.

Why fastball? Because fastball was the only pitch Cey wouldn’t expect--not from Hoyt.

“That’s why I threw it,” Hoyt said.

Cey never got his bat off his shoulder. He struck out, looking.

By the way, Templeton was looking good out there again. He drove in the Padres’ first run on a fourth inning double and now has 20 RBIs in his last 21 games. San Diego added two insurance runs in the eighth on RBIs from Steve Garvey (sacrifice fly) and Graig Nettles (single).

Even Hoyt hit. He slapped a single to center off loser Dennis Eckersley, and stood on first base giggling. Cub first baseman Durham laughed back.

Hoyt explained: “I said something like, ‘Miracles never cease.’ ”

Padre Notes Lance McCullers is abandoning Goose Gossage, his buddy. McCullers gets his first major league start tonight. Since he arrived in the majors last year, he has been outstanding in relief and was always said to be the heir apparent to Gossage. But inconsistency from Mark Thurmond prompted a change in the rotation. McCullers, though, is such a flame thrower, and there’s a question as to whether he will be able to throw with the same velocity for a longer period of time as a starter. “When I started in Las Vegas (Triple-A), I never lost anything off my fastball,” he said. “So I don’t think I’ll have to pace myself.” Manager Steve Boros said Thursday that McCullers will throw about 75 pitches tonight (five or six innings). How long before he can go nine innings? “I’ll say three or four starts, probably,” Boros said. . . . Dave Dravecky and Eric Show--both of whom have sore elbows on their pitching arms--visited Dr. Cliff Colwell Thursday. Colwell told Boros that neither will have to lose a turn in the starting rotation. “Probably there’s a good chance they won’t be able to go nine,” Boros said. “I mean, I’d be very surprised. We hope to get them to the fifth inning, and it’s inning by inning and pitch by pitch after that.” . . . Randy Ready, whose wife is still in a coma, rejoined the Padres and began working out. He likely will stay a couple days and then join the Triple-A team in Las Vegas on a 20-day rehabilitation program. Ready sat on the bench during Thursday’s game. . . . During Ballard Smith’s big meeting a couple weeks ago, Tony Gwynn blurted out that the team needs new uniforms. The players laughed, but Gwynn wasn’t trying to be funny. “Only two teams in all of pro sports have these colors--us and the Cleveland Browns,” Gwynn said this week. “And the Browns can’t wear any color other than brown! Look at these (he pointed at the uniform)! Brown and orange? I was serious at that meeting. They thought I was joking. We need to change our colors to blue and red, or red, white and blue, or anything but brown. I know we want to be different, but damn!”

PADRES AT A GLANCE

Scorecard FOURTH INNING Padres--McReynolds beat out a grounder to shortstop. Garvey grounded to second, McReynolds taking second. Templeton doubled to left, McReynolds scoring. Nettles walked. Kennedy struck out. Flannery forced Nettles. One run, two hits, two left.

FIFTH INNING

Cubs--With two outs, Speier homered to left, his fourth. Eckersley struck out. One run, one hit.

Padres--With one out, Wynne doubled to left. Gwynn grounded to third, Wynne holding at second. McReynolds reached first on Dunston’s throwing error, Wynne scoring. McReynolds was caught stealing. One run (unearned), one hit.

EIGHTH INNING

Padres--Gwynn beat out a grounder to Hoffman and took second on his throwing error. McReynolds singled to left, Gwynn taking third. Garvey flied to right, Gwynn scoring and McReynolds taking second. Templeton was walked intentionally. Nettles singled to right, McReynolds scoring, with Templeton out going for third and Nettles stopping at second on the throw. Kennedy flied to center. Two runs, three hits, one left.