Despite a Pregame Fit, Boros Can’t Make His Losing Padres Into Hit

Once again, Padre Manager Steve Boros tried firing up his crew with a closed-door meeting Saturday. And this time, he even yelled. He was angry that some of his players had spent too much time in the clubhouse Friday night (apparently playing cards) and had missed the start of the game. So in his meeting before Saturday’s game, Boros screamed: “If anybody does it again, they’ll be fined a day’s pay!”

The threat did nothing to inspire the team, which lost again to the Houston Astros, 6-2, and is in a fine mess.

For the life of him, Andy Hawkins can’t figure out how to get Denny Walling out. Walling hit his fourth homer against Hawkins this season (with two men on) and finished with four RBIs. Walling is batting .750 (6 for 8) against Hawkins this year, so maybe Hawkins would be smart to walk him next time he faces him.

“Well, he’s obviously having a heyday with me, but I’m not going to dodge him,” Hawkins said. “I’m not going to pitch around him. Only way I know how to get big league hitters out is to challenge them and go after them with my best stuff. Right now, he’s just uncanny. He’s the only one doing this to me. But I’ll keep going after him until I get him out. It’s just a matter of time. . . . He hit my best stuff tonight, and that’s all I can say.”

Said Walling: “I don’t think there’s anything to it. I got ahead of the count tonight, and I think he tried throwing a running fastball away (on the home run pitch) and it stayed over the middle of the plate. The ball barely went out anyway. I didn’t crush the ball. There’ll be other days when he gets me out. That’s how this game works.”

Regardless, the Padres--who have lost seven of eight and five straight--assured themselves of last place for another day. Their only runs came on a Steve Garvey two-run homer (his 16th), but they trailed, 5-0, after two innings and that was too much to overcome.

“It is for us, anyway,” Boros said.

At least Garvey’s homer (off winning pitcher Jim Deshaies) gave them hope. But reliever Charlie Kerfeld gave them fits and earned the save. Kerfeld threw four innings of no-hit ball.

A crowd of 38,169 sat in the stands here at the Astrodome and went crazy for their first-place Astros. Signs such as “Astro Mania Rules” and “Astros are Awesome” hung from the rafters. The left-handed Deshaies (7-3) kept them cheering with five strikeouts. Once, he got Dane Iorg on a called strike three, and Iorg was so mad that he hurled his bat into the dugout.

It was another frustrating night for Padre batters. Tony Gwynn’s 15-game hitting streak was snapped and the team got only one runner (John Kruk) in scoring position. If not for Garvey, they might have been shut out again.

Hawkins (8-8) got started on the wrong foot when he walked leadoff man Bill Doran in the first inning. Doran had been hit in the head in Friday night’s game but was ready to play Saturday. Tim Flannery, a friend of Doran, saw him and said: “Billy, got a hangover?” Doran laughed.

Doran walked and went to second on Billy Hatcher’s single. Then everybody scored on Walling’s homer. Hawkins proceeded to walk two batters, and the bases were loaded for Deshaies, who struck out to end the inning.

Doran led off the second with another walk and stole second. He scored on Walling’s double, a liner to the left-field corner on a Hawkins changeup. Walling scored on Jose Cruz’ single. In the sixth inning, Glenn Davis hit his 24th homer of the year off Dave LaPoint.

Doran, asked if getting hit in the head knocked some sense into him, said: “I sure hope so.”

But Boros must feel dizzy. This was his fourth team meeting, but are they doing any good? At least he yelled this time, and that’s what people like General Manager Jack McKeon have wanted him to do--be mean.

“He really yelled,” infielder Jerry Royster confirmed. “That’s all he did.”

But one Padre, asking for anonymity, said: “I guess it was a nasty meeting. For him, anyway.”

But, again, did it do any good?

“Well, it doesn’t look that way, does it?” Boros said.

Padre Notes

Reliever Dave LaPoint threw four pretty good innings Saturday, yielding only one run--a homer by Glenn Davis. “It’s the first time since I’ve been here I’ve felt like a pitcher,” LaPoint said. “I knew my sequences and where I wanted to throw it. I actually felt like a pitcher.” LaPoint also said: “It’ll take some kind of freak play to loosen this team up and get us going. Or some joke. We need a good joke.” . . . Until Steve Garvey homered in the fourth inning Saturday night, the Padres had an 18-inning scoreless streak going. . . . Andy Hawkins--whose personal, two-game winning streak ended Saturday--is the only National League pitcher who’s been a starter all season and hasn’t either won three straight or lost three straight. He has been consistently average. “That’s why I’m 8-8,” Hawkins said. “I’m good and I’m bad. That’s the way my year has been. I throw two good games and then two bad ones.” . . . The Padres’ Double-A team in Beaumont, Tex., is for sale and probably will be moved to Austin or Corpus Christi. Owner Ted Moor, who purchased the team six years ago, said Beaumont hasn’t been a good enough baseball town. The team draws crowds of 1,000 per game and has lost $350,000 in the last four seasons. “It was a real blood bath,” Moor said.