Hayes’ Bloop Double Beats Padres

Oh, no, not another bloop.

Hours before the Padres lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4, Carmelo Martinez had waltzed into the clubhouse and had seen the lineup card: “Martinez . . . Left Field.”

He had come to the plate in the second inning. He had a fat pitch to hit. He had popped it up to the first baseman and he had hit himself in the head for being an idiot.

But he had another fat pitch in the fifth and he had homered to left--to give the Padres the lead.

But the Philadelphia Phillies had tied it in the bottom of the fifth, and then Bip Roberts had committed an important error with two outs in the eighth. Von Hayes had come up to the plate against Craig Lefferts.

Oh no, not another bloop.

Hayes lifted the ball high to shallow left, putting Martinez in the situation that so often gets him booed in the city of San Diego. Martinez just can’t seem to make those plays in shallow left. The bloop double fell inches in front of Martinez’s glove, and the Phillies won.

“Let me tell you something,” he said. “I got a great jump on that ball. I knew if Lefty (Lefferts) threw a slider, he (Hayes) would have to reach out for the ball and hit it to left. I did the best I could. I didn’t lose it in the lights.”

And Roberts hardly felt any better. The error he made ended up costing his team. Phillies center fielder Milt Thompson, with two outs in that eighth inning, had chopped one high just to the right of Lefferts. Lefferts leaped, but the ball rose above his glove. Roberts hadn’t charged the ball and was late arriving. He fielded it and threw on the run, but the throw was in the dirt, and Thompson was safe.

Roberts: “It was a slow, high chopper and when he (Lefferts) put his glove up, I lost the ball for a couple of seconds and lost a couple of steps. But I should’ve gotten him.

“But it’s just the way my year has been--in and out, sporadic here, sporadic there.”

It’s been this way for an entire team.

In the top of the ninth, for instance, Terry Kennedy doubled. There were two outs with Garry Templeton up. He was facing Kent Tekulve, and he lined the first pitch just foul in left field. An inch to the right, and it would have been tied.

Instead, he flied out.

Ed Whitson gave up three homers (including back-to-back shots by Juan Samuel and John Russell in the fourth). He says he’s never given up that many homers, and he was angry because, he said, “I finally got some runs to work with and I screwed up.”

He is convinced the team as a whole is trying too hard.

By the way, Whitson lost a $300 gold chain while he was pitching. It’s out in the artificial turf somewhere, but nobody could find it.

“Shows you the way the year’s gone,” Whitson said.

Padre Notes Manager Steve Boros said pitcher Dave Dravecky, whose left elbow still is stiff from tendinitis, won’t start again this year as a precautionary measure and will be used in the bullpen. Boros also said that Eric Show will not pitch again this year.