Padre Mistakes Help Astros Gain 6-3 Win

The Padres woke up in the seventh inning. But a big, chunky, punk-hairdoed pitcher named Charlie Kerfeld said good night to their rally, so the Padres wake up today tied with the Dodgers for third place in the National League West.

The Padres probably wouldn’t have lost, 6-3, Friday, if they hadn’t butchered the baseball most of the night. Bip Roberts could have turned an important double play in the first inning, but he forgot to tag the lead runner, Bill Doran (he said later that he thought Doran ran out of the base line to avoid the tag). Pitcher LaMarr Hoyt forgot to keep his curveball down and gave up a first-inning triple and homer. Marvell Wynne and Roberts forgot to communicate on a shallow first-inning fly ball and let it drop for a double.

Kevin McReynolds forgot to concentrate and dropped a seventh-inning fly ball that cost a run. And, finally, Padre pitchers forgot to pitch to the Houston pitchers, as Bob Knepper doubled and scored, and that man again--Kerfeld--got his first major league hit, a bases-loaded single.

“That was a big game out there today,” Padre infielder Jerry Royster said. “It might have been the biggest game all year.”

Don’t forget, though, that Houston quietly has built the third-best record in baseball. Manager Hal Lanier--Mr. Cliche--is ready for the playoffs with these insightful quotes: “I look at it like we have a long way to go. It’s only August. I don’t count anyone out in our division. It’ll come down to September. We’ll take one at a time. Our attitude is we don’t get too high when we win or too low when we lose.”

The Padres were low until the seventh. It was 5-0 entering that inning when they picked up a run on a Garry Templeton double. But with runners on second and third and one out, Terry Kennedy popped out to short. Kerfeld, 6-foot 6-inches and 245 pounds, was summoned to face pinch-hitter Royster, who struck out.

In the eighth (Kerfeld had just driven in his run to make it 6-1), Roberts started a two-out rally with a single, followed by a Tony Gwynn single. McReynolds singled in Roberts, and then Steve Garvey singled in Gwynn. The lead was down to three.

But Kerfeld silenced the crowd of 22,108 by getting Templeton to fly out.

The Padres went quietly in the ninth.

“Well, that wasn’t the kind of start I had in mind for this series,” Manager Steve Boros said.

The loser was Hoyt (5-7), who began the game by walking Doran. Davey Lopes then hit a grounder to Roberts, who couldn’t turn the double play. Denny Walling, who has a career .475 average against Padre pitching, tripled off the top of the wall in center, scoring Doran. And not much later, Kevin Bass hit his 15th homer of the season, this one to right-center.

In the fifth, winning pitcher Knepper (14-7) hit a double to right off Hoyt. Knepper’s single scored Walling.

Facing Dave LaPoint in the seventh, the Astros got two men on. Walling lined a ball to left. McReynolds came in, but the ball came out of his glove, a run scoring.

Finally, in the eighth, LaPoint gave up a single to Bass, a single to Alan Ashby and a walk to Craig Reynolds. The bases were loaded for Kerfeld, who was a bigger tub of goo than Terry Forster before going on a crash diet this winter.

Kerfeld made contact, flipped his bat a la Reggie Jackson and watched the ball fly over the head of surprised center fielder Wynne. The baserunners were surprised, too. They didn’t think the ball would carry that far, and stayed near their bases. Only one run scored.

“If I pull that ball, it’s a grand slam,” said a disappointed Kerfeld.

Padre Notes As expected, Jerry Royster didn’t play third base against left-hander Bob Knepper Friday. Graig Nettles had hit two homers Wednesday, and Manager Steve Boros smelled a streak coming (Nettles usually gets hot all at once). So Royster--who usually starts against lefties--took a seat, even though he is streaking, too--4 for his last 11 with one homer. Boros must have a lot of confidence in Nettles’ streaks because Nettles was only 1 for 8 (.125) lifetime against Knepper before Friday; Royster was 15 for 56 (.268). And Nettles (before Friday) was hitting just .176 against left-handers this season. “When it’s my turn to play, I want to play,” Royster said. Nettles went 0 for 2, striking out twice against Knepper. Royster struck out against Charlie Kerseld. . . . Boros said John Kruk will be back in the lineup today and Sunday, but who Kruk replaces is the real question. Boros said it will be either Steve Garvey, Kevin McReynolds or Marvell Wynne, but the manager hasn’t decided yet. . . . Astro pitcher Nolan Ryan is on the disabled list with a sore elbow, but in the two starts before he was disabled he gave up only three hits and two runs (one earned) in 14 innings with 24 strikeouts--this while he was in pain.