Padres Witness Another Blowout

Just 38 games into the season, the Padres have 30 losses and about a trillion opinions. Saturday night--after the Padres had laid another egg, losing, 9-0, to the Philadelphia Phillies--reliever Goose Gossage tried explaining “Bowa Ball.”

“I’ve never been through anything like this,” Gossage said. “You couldn’t consciously try to play like this, and actually play like this. I mean, if we went out there and didn’t even try, we might be better off!

“Ha! I was telling the guys the other night, I said, ‘Man, if this were a car, I wouldn’t take it out of town. You don’t know what’ll go wrong.’ I’ve always compared a baseball team to a car. All the parts got to be working for it to be running right. Every night, this car breaks down.”

And so, in Gossage’s words, the 1987 Padres are a lemon, an automobile that needs to be recalled. Saturday night, they never did get started and were shut out by left-hander Don Carman, who, by the way, is making a remarkable comeback from a car accident.

Carman, who gave up only three hits, was driving with his wife near Reading, Pa., in January when an approaching car hit an ice patch and slid head-on into his car. A teen-age boy in the other car was killed. Carman suffered a broken left thumb.

He has recovered more quickly than the Phillies had hoped, and he certainly had gas on his fastball Saturday night.

Padre third baseman Kevin Mitchell said Carman threw only fastballs to him.

“He went right after us,” Mitchell said. “He probably figured, ‘Look at the Padres’ lousy record. They can’t hit me.’ ”

Mitchell, like Gossage, was full of opinions Saturday. A year ago, he was a member of the New York Mets, who went on to win the World Series, and now he’s one of the lemons. Apparently, that’s a big difference. Mitchell said Saturday that when the Mets fell behind last year, they’d “go out and hack and come back.” But when the Padres get behind, they just mope.

“I hate all these sad faces here,” Mitchell said. “I go home at night and start talking to myself. I’m going crazy. Nobody wants to take control here. Man, I’m going to start hitting and getting on people. I’m going to scream at the pitchers like Keith Hernandez did in New York last year. . . . “Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe we need some life. We’re not setting people’s shoes on fire in the dugout. I started that in New York, you know. Me and Howard Johnson and Tim Teufel. I was talking to myself last night in my room, and I said, ‘Man, what does it feel like to win?’ ”

It’s been awhile. The Padres have lost five straight games and 10 of 11.

The Padres travel to New York next week, and Mitchell would rather return under happier circumstances.

“I mean, I can’t wait to get over there and talk to (Met batting coach) Bill Robinson,” he said. “That’s the first thing I’ll do. I’ll be out there at 1 o’clock, working with Bill. No offense to Deacon (Jones, the Padre batting coach), but Bill has always been around me, my entire career. He’s like my daddy.

“But, you know, those guys on the Mets are going to let me know about our record, especially Straw (Darryl Strawberry). I hate to go back like this.”

Saturday’s game was so typically bad that Manager Larry Bowa was virtually speechless.

“It’s always the same things, and always the same questions from reporters,” he said. “What am I supposed to do? Make up answers?”

Nearly every game, the Padres blow it with one horrendous inning. Tuesday in Pittsburgh, the Pirates had a five-run eighth; Wednesday, the Pirates had a three-run sixth and a three-run seventh; Thursday, the Pirates had a five-run seventh; Friday here in Philadelphia, the Phillies had a five-run fifth.

Saturday?

A six-run fourth.

Rookie pitcher Jimmy Jones, making his first start of the season, gave up all the runs that inning, all with two outs. For the Phillies, Jeff Stone, Juan Samuel, Mike Schmidt and Glenn Wilson had the RBI hits.

Bowa, asked about Jones’ performance, said: “I don’t want to make a comment on it.”

Then, he said: “Well, he’s not doing any worse than the other guys.”

Actually, Storm Davis, demoted to the bullpen a few days ago, gave up only two hits and one run in 4 innings.

But no one cares about that when the final score is 9-0 and your season record is 8-30. Right fielder Tony Gwynn was taken out early Saturday night, and he listened to the rest of the game on radio. Phillie broadcaster Harry Kalas said: “Good thing the Padres are in town, because the Phillies can sweep three.”

Gwynn, who agreed with Kalas, offered one final opinion: “Right now, we stink.”