Reds Deal 4th Loss to Padres : Grooved 0-2 Pitches Twice Prove Costly in Tough 6-3 Setback

“Yo,” says Padre catcher Benito Santiago every time the count reaches 0 and 2.

He’s talking to his pitcher.

“Yo,” he says, “Throw it anywhere but over the plate. Hear me?”

His pitcher hears him.

But sometimes his pitcher messes up and throws the 0-and-2 pitch smack down the middle.

This happened twice Friday night.

So the Padres lost their fourth straight--6-3 to the unbeaten Cincinnati Reds--and Manager Larry Bowa locked his clubhouse door afterward for a good 10 minutes to say, among other things, that his pitchers had better listen to Santiago.

A good example is the second inning. The Padres and Reds were tied, 2-2, when Red shortstop Barry Larkin came up with a runner on third and two outs against Padre starter Storm Davis. The count became 0 and 2.

“Yo,” Santiago said.

Davis threw it down the middle.

Larkin singled to left, driving in the go-ahead run.

Another good example is the seventh inning. The Reds led, 5-3, and had runners on second and third against a pulled-in infield when first baseman Terry Francona came up against Craig Lefferts. The count went to 0 and 2.

“Yo,” Santiago said.

Lefferts threw it down the middle.

Francona singled to left, driving in an insurance run.

And so it goes for the Padres, who are O for ’87 and get either the Reds or Giants in 9 of their next 13 games. The Reds and Giants--along with the Astros--are the class of the National League West, which doesn’t say much for the Padres getting off to a quick start.

As left fielder John Kruk put it, “It’s not like we’re losing to Podunk U.”

The Reds aren’t a Podunk team, which means pitching mistakes by Padre pitchers just can’t be tolerated. For instance, on Friday, the Padres jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead on a triple by leadoff man Stan Jefferson (3 for 5), an RBI single by right fielder Tony Gwynn (batting second again) and an RBI double by cleanup man Carmelo Martinez (who started at first base for Steve Garvey).

But before you could say, “Yo,” the Reds came right back in the bottom of the first. Davis--acquired from the Baltimore Orioles over the winter--was making his first NL start, and the first batter he faced, Kal Daniels, doubled off the top of the center-field wall.

One out later, Dave Parker homered off a 1-0 changeup, and the game was tied.

“Every time we score, that next half-inning is very important,” Bowa said. “In other words, if we scored two runs in the first and shut them down in the bottom of the first, momentum swings our way. But they came right back and got the momentum their way.”

Davis had faced Parker once before--two years ago in spring training--and Davis actually remembered that he got Parker out with a changeup. So he tried it again. But Parker didn’t make an out, he hit it out.

“I thought he (Davis) had good velocity,” Parker said. “If he gets his breaking ball over and gets his location down, I think he’ll be all right. One fastball he threw me must have been 91, 92 m.p.h.”

Parker was right, in that the problem with Davis right now is his location. He walked three batters on Friday--including Red starting pitcher Ted Power--and he is outwardly frustrated. First of all, he’s dealing with new umpires. He said he thinks the strike zone is different, and he has noticed this already. Also, for the first time in his career, he had a balk called against him. The same thing happened to LaMarr Hoyt when he came over from the American League.

“Yes, but I can’t start dwelling on it, or the umpires will get on me,” said Davis of the strike zone and balk rule.

So when Davis gets ahead--as he did against Larkin in the second inning--the last thing he wants to do is throw that 0-and-2 pitch down the middle. He says he doesn’t mean to, but the bottom line, according to Bowa, is that he does it. It’s inexcusable, Bowa says.

Davis knows this, of course, but he doesn’t need Santiago or Bowa or anyone else reminding him all the time. All that does is make him think too much, which he says is counter-productive. He said his former manager in Baltimore, Joe Altobelli, used to fine pitchers if they didn’t throw 0-and-2 pitches way off the plate. Davis hated that.

“At 0 and 2, you’ve got to be aggressive,” Davis said after Friday’s game. “ . . . I tell you, if guys start pressing on it, it’ll be harder to throw. O and 2 is when you relax more and make your pitch. You can’t be out there all tense.”

Bowa’s point is that he doesn’t want to be out there all night. He wants his pitchers to get outs.

“These 0-and-2 hits are killing us!” Bowa said.

Eric Davis, the Reds’ center fielder, is killing every pitcher in baseball right now. He went 2 for 4 Friday, stole a base and scored a run. His season batting average is .600 and his season on-base percentage is .714. He has four steals this month and has scored six runs in three games.

Friday, he also had the RBI that put the Reds ahead for good--a fifth-inning single off loser Dave Dravecky that scored Larkin. Larkin, by the way, had singled and stole second, so he’s not bad, either.

Asked if he cringes every time Davis steps to the plate, Kruk said: “Nah. He’ll never bat 1,000. He might bat .400, but not 1,000.”

Asked if he cringes every time Bowa has a team meeting, Kruk said: “If you’re not winning, the manager has to get mad. He’s not going to say, ‘Gee, we lost. Let’s have a beer.’ If he does that, he wouldn’t be a good manager. . . . We’ve just gotta win a game, just to prove to ourselves we can. And we’ve got to bury someone. We can’t squeak one out.”

Out of everyone, Santiago was the most frustrated Friday.

“The pitcher has to think more,” he said. “At 0 and 2, you don’t have to throw it right down the middle. If you throw a fastball down the middle, he will hit you, because he’s waiting for that pitch. I wait for that pitch, too, but pitchers don’t throw it to me right there (down the middle) on 0 and 2. If they do, I hit that sucker.”

After Friday’s game, Santiago walked slowly up the clubhouse stairs, whereupon he saw Bowa.

“Yo,” he told Bowa, “I give up.” Padre Notes

As expected, Manager Larry Bowa benched Steve Garvey Friday night, though Garvey did pinch-hit in the ninth and struck out on three pitches. Garvey is 0 for 11 on the season. “Hey, Garv’s still the first baseman,” Bowa said before the game. “I’m just changing the lineup a little bit. I’ve got to see if I can win a game. He’s not the only reason we’re losing.”