He Likes It Hot When Heat is On : Hawkins Administers a Big Chill to Astros in Pressure Situation

From behind Andy Hawkins, an electric fan helped to cool the training room--which is similar to the chilling effect the Padre pitcher had on the division-leading Houston Astros Sunday.

Hawkins (8-7) cooled the streaking Astros with a 5-1 victory, allowing seven hits and six strikeouts in 7 innings. The victory averted a potentially disastrous sweep by Houston, which had won 12 of its previous 15 games and held an 8 1/2-game lead over the fourth-place Padres after winning the first two of the three-game series.

“I love a big game, I love it,” Hawkins said. “You look back--I don’t want to blow my own horn--but I’ve won some big ballgames for us. Give me the ball and I’ll keep it. I want the ball and I want it for keeps.”

Sunday, Hawkins didn’t get the ball for keeps, but he had it long enough to win his second straight game. Last Monday against Cincinnati, he left leading 5-0 after 8 inning and eventually settled for a 5-2 victory.

After his last two starts, Hawkins is beginning to resemble the pitcher that went 18-8 last year, not the one who has been struggling most of this season. He didn’t give up a walk Sunday, and has 11 strikeouts and one walk in his last two outings.

“I feel like I got a lot of momentum,” Hawkins said. “I’ve got a lot of confidence. It’s an intangible and people don’t realize how important it is. When a player struggles, it’s hard to put your finger on it. It’s not usually that cut and dried.”

Hawkins pointed to his rising confidence and inward-curving fastball for his recent success.

“Everyone is thinking fancy,” Hawkins said. “I don’t care--the hardest pitch for a hitter is a fastball, especially when it curves inside, and that’s what mine has been doing. That’s what’s won the last two games for me, without a doubt.”

Said Padre Manager Steve Boros: “He’s more aggressive; he’s not walking people. He’s eliminating the walks and not running the count out. And it shows.”

Hawkins controlled the Astros for most of the game, allowing just one runner to reach second base--center fielder Billy Hatcher stole second after a single in the fourth--before yielding an eighth-inning leadoff home run by shortstop Dickie Thon.

He then struck out pinch-hitter Alan Ashby before giving up a single to pinch-hitter Jim Pankovits. That was it for Hawkins.

“It was a good time to take me out,” he said. “I just made my two worst pitches of the game, although I think it was more due to a mental lapse. I didn’t feel like I lost anything.”

Manager Steve Boros, however, was not convinced, especially after his pitcher picked up his second hit of the game, a double in the left-field corner in the seventh. “I think the running hurt him a little,” Boros said.

“I had a good time running around first base,” Hawkins said of his first major league double, which was greeted by a standing ovation. “(Second baseman Phil) Doran said as I went by, ‘That’s our strategy--make you run the bases and tire out.’ Turned out he was right.”

Hawkins will have time to recuperate as the Padres finish their homestand with three games against Atlanta and then head to Houston, where the pitcher will get his next start.

“Right now I feel like I’m on a good run,” Hawkins said. “I just want to keep it up and help us down the stretch.

“Things are starting to go my way. Ground balls are easy outs instead of tough plays. It’s not a big difference, but it builds confidence. It makes you feel like you’re going to win every time out--that’s the difference between winning and losing.”