Padres Lose to Expos; Offense Is Still Absent

Silence was golden again in the clubhouse after the Padres’ latest loss, 2-1, to the Montreal Expos in front of 12,939 fans Sunday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

As for Manager Larry Bowa, he had only one main topic on this day: the performance Sunday of rookie second baseman Joey Cora.

Cora threw away Tim Raines’ apparent double-play grounder in the sixth inning to set up Montreal’s second run.

A 2-0 deficit proved to be too much for the slumbering Padre bats to overcome as San Diego managed just four hits off Montreal’s Floyd Youmans (2-3) and Tim Burke. The offensive drought came on the heels of Saturday night’s 6-0 loss, in which the Padres had only two hits off Neal Heaton.

On Sunday, the Expos took a 1-0 lead in the sixth on an RBI single by Mitch Webster. Webster was on first with one out when Raines hit a sharp two-hopper to Cora at second.

Cora caught the grounder but threw over shortstop Garry Templeton’s head, and the ball sailed into left field. Webster went to third and scored when Eric Show (1-6) walked Andres Galarraga with the bases loaded.

Bowa is not one to criticize his players for physical mistakes, but he said Cora has been making the same throwing mistake over and over this season.

“Every day, Joey comes out and works with (coach) Sandy Alomar on that play,” Bowa said.

Bowa then got up and demonstrated what he thought it was Cora was doing wrong.

“He’s throwing the ball across his body,” Bowa said. “He’s got to turn his hips to get rid of the ball more easily. He’s made the mistake three or four times now this season.”

Cora sat staring blankly into his locker after the game.

“I just didn’t have the ball in my hand,” Cora said. “If I have the ball cleanly, we have a double play. Maybe I rushed it a little bit because Raines was running.”

The misplay again raised the question of whether the Padres are thinking of sending Cora to the minor leagues. Cora himself had brought up that notion late last week.

“I guess you have two options,” Bowa said. “You can either keep throwing him out there or you can send him down to Triple-A. We have not discussed sending him down at all.”

Bowa indicated that this might be a good time to insert a veteran player at second base and give Cora a couple of days to relax and watch from the bench. However, since Tim Flannery is still unavailable (he went on the 21-day disabled list May 6), Bowa will have to continue to use Cora.

“I don’t think Joey will admit to this, but I think he’s just not relaxed out there,” Bowa said. “I know he can make all the plays because I’ve seen him make them. I’ve seen him when he’s playing relaxed, and I don’t think he’s relaxed right now.”

Cora said that he was relaxed and that the play was simply an error. However, it was his ninth error of the season.

“Same old story,” Tony Gwynn said. “We make one mistake and it turns out that it’s enough to beat us.”

Show pitched no-hit ball for 4 innings and had a one-hitter going into the sixth.

But he made a mistake to open the inning, grooving a pitch that Youmans hit up the middle for a single.

“I really didn’t have a superior fastball or slider,” Show said. “I certainly didn’t think this was going to be a no-hitter type of day. Youmans swung the bat better than I thought he did.”

After Youmans’ hit, Casey Candaele sacrificed, and Webster singled to center, scoring the run. Then came Cora’s error.

“My first thought was to just forget about about it and try and go on to the next hitter,” Show said.

As it turned out, the next hitter was Galarraga, because Show first intentionally walked Tim Wallach to load the bases.

Show, who has never allowed a grand slam, wasn’t about to allow one to Galarraga.

“I threw him a lot of close pitches, and he just didn’t bite,” Show said. “It seemed like he was looking for one pitch, and I had a pretty good idea of what that pitch was. I just didn’t want to give in to him. If he hits a home run, the game’s pretty much over.”

The way the Padres have been hitting lately, the run-scoring walk turned out to be too much.

Youmans, who came into the game with a 1-3 record and a 6.75 earned-run average, had his best outing of the season, something a lot of pitchers have had against the Padres.

“These pitchers keep coming in here with these high ERAs, and then they go out and throw great against us,” Gwynn said.

Youmans ran into some trouble in the seventh, walking the first two hitters. Burke came in, and Benito Santiago lay down a sacrifice bunt that nobody could field. It went for a hit and the bases were loaded.

Templeton grounded into a double-play to score one run, but Luis Salazar flied out to right, and the inning was over.

Padre Notes After the Padres managed only two hits off Neal Heaton Saturday night, Manager Larry Bowa decided there would be no batting practice before Sunday’s game. That didn’t seem to work, however. So Bowa said there will be batting practice before tonight’s game against the Phillies. . . . Bowa grabbed a league statistic sheet after the game, and the numbers illustrated how badly the Padres are playing. “Look at this,” he said. “We’re last in pitching (ERA), last in home runs, last in RBIs, last in errors . . .” And last in the National League.

Said Eric Show of the rumors that surfaced last week that he could be on the trading block: “A lot of the speculation concerning me is mostly false. I have heard there could be some major changes. Judging from the way I was handled in the press, I doubt the rumors. I don’t think that (the trade talks) are a reason for the way we’ve played. I think our record would be good circumstantial evidence of that.”

Some final words from Tim Raines, whom the Padres failed to sign as a free agent before the start of the season: “I know the fans were behind me the whole time. Under the circumstances, there was nothing they could do. I’m more sorry for them than for me. They were just crying out to get a free agent. I have mixed emotions about it, I was just trying to get a job.”