Padres, Understandably, Get No Respect : San Francisco’s Struggling Mike LaCoss Chalks Up an Easy 7-0 Victory

The Padres made a star out of Mike LaCoss, who hadn’t won a baseball game since July. LaCoss had lost a National League-high eight straight games, but his pitches still confounded the Padres during the San Francisco Giants’ 7-0 victory Tuesday night.

The previous night, Terry Mulholland had won the first game of his major league life (he’d been 0-6), so these goodwill Padres have now lost on consecutive nights to pitchers with a combined 0-14 record.

Meanwhile, the Giants looked pretty good. Before the game, someone had congratulated outfielder Candy Maldonado on his season (he leads the team in homers), and Maldonado said, “Season’s not over.”

For sure. He went out and hit home run No. 14 in the first inning with two men on, and Bob Brenly followed in the third with a two-run homer. That was it.

LaCoss seemed to tire in the sixth inning, but Padre hitters couldn’t find holes in the infield. With two men on in the sixth, John Kruk lined one hard, right at shortstop Jose Uribe--who started a double play.

And the next batter, Kevin McReynolds, lined one right at third baseman Brenly. Inning over.

Padre pitcher LaMarr Hoyt couldn’t get anything over. Hoyt walked five batters in four innings and when he did throw strikes, the Giants hit home runs. In their last four games, Padre pitchers have walked 30 batters. No one ever said this was the way to win games.

Manager Steve Boros refused to admit his team is giving up.

“Our position players haven’t quit when we’ve been down,” he said. “We came back and scored six runs in the top of the ninth inning in Philadelphia. . . . I don’t see any lack of life. What I see is a lack of adequate pitching from our starters in our last four ballgames. That’s what I see. Too many walks. But I don’t see anybody quitting out there. The walks. It isn’t from a lack of effort. We’re just fouled up right now.”

This was Hoyt’s first game here since an 18-1 debacle back on June 23. That day, Hoyt gave up 13 hits and nine earned runs in 3.

But he didn’t walk any. And he didn’t give up any homers.

His pitching line Tuesday night? Four innings, five earned runs, three hits, five walks, two home runs, one hit batter and one balk.

And a loss. (He’s 7-10). It’s amazing to think that Hoyt walked only 20 batters last year. This year, he has walked 51.

“I can’t believe it,” Boros said. “You’re talking about a guy who’s an ex-Cy Young Award winner, a guy who has won 20 games and has a career won-loss percentage way over .500. We’ve tried all kinds of different things. Galen (Cisco, pitching coach) went to the mound with a suggestion; I went with a suggestion. We talked to him between innings. He just cannot get the ball in the strike zone. His curve is flat; he’s throwing sinkers chest high and high fastballs and high changeups. There’s something mechanically wrong with his delivery, and we just haven’t found the answer yet.”

For Bip Roberts, Tuesday wasn’t overly pleasant, either. He had had six hits in his last two games, so he led off Tuesday night. But he had a shaky night in the field. On one double play ball in the seventh, he failed to tag second base for the forceout and then threw wildly to first.

Two errors on one play.

And the next batter, Brenly, doubled in a run off Dave LaPoint (who had been moved back to the bullpen), and then Bob Melvin hit a bloop RBI single.

Roberts--who is from the Bay Area--came up to bat the following inning and was booed by his hometown fans.

It was a rough road trip. In 11 days, the Padres lost seven games, lost relief pitcher Goose Gossage to a suspension and--at least in San Francisco--lost some respect.

Padre Notes Second baseman Tim Flannery, who recently had complained about headaches and chest pains, underwent tests in San Diego Tuesday and will have more today. Manager Steve Boros said that Flannery has checked out fine so far. “He’d been complaining about the headaches for over a week,” teammate Jerry Royster said. “He’d say, ‘I got a headache again.’ But this was serious enough for him to be sent home. I mean, you don’t normally go home with a headache, so it must be serious. Tim is an uptight person, so maybe it’s stress. This is a stressful game.” . . . Rookie John Kruk walked to the plate last weekend in New York, and a fan screamed, “Hey Poundcake!” So plastered above his locker stall here in San Francisco--where his nameplate used to be--was one word: Poundcake. And Boros said: “And this nickname will stick.” . . . Pitcher Dave Dravecky, who has a sore left elbow and hasn’t pitched in a game since Aug. 26, threw in the bullpen Tuesday. But pitching coach Galen Cisco said: “If he pitched in a game now, he’d have to go back to square one. He’s better (physically), but there’s no reason to push it.”