Good Things Come to End for Padres, 7-6

The Padres blew a 5-0 lead Friday night, and their six-game winning streak came to an end.

But Manager Larry Bowa remained calm after the game, even though his bullpen, which has been brilliant recently, gave up five runs in the seventh and eighth innings. And even though third baseman Kevin Mitchell made a two-out, two-run throwing error in the seventh.

Bowa simply said his bullpen was entitled to be off and he had praise for the opposition after the San Francisco Giants defeated the Padres, 7-6, before 19,288 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“Nobody likes to lose,” Bowa said, “but you have to give the other team credit. They got some big hits. They’re a good hitting team. They’ll get their hits.”

But the Giants had lost six straight, and they were down. Padre starter Dave Dravecky was cruising along with a three-hitter and his team was ahead, 5-0, going into the seventh.

But Dravecky tired and walked Candy Maldonado and gave up a single to Chili Davis (who broke an 0-for-25 spell) in the seventh. Still, the Padre bullpen had not allowed an earned run in the last 20 innings.

So much for that streak, too.

“My bullpen has been doing a great job,” Bowa said. “They’re entitled to have an off night.”

Dravecky, making his second straight excellent start, allowed just four hits and two runs and struck out six in six innings. Then came the seventh.

“He did his job,” Bowa said. “He ran out of gas. He said he was laboring a little and he had thrown around 100 pitches.”

Enter Lance McCullers with runners on first and third and nobody out in the seventh. McCullers hadn’t allowed a run in his last 11 innings. Until Friday.

“He felt great, he said,” Bowa said of McCullers. “But his location probably wasn’t where he wanted it.”

McCullers struck out Bob Brenly and Will Clark. But Eddie Milner, batting for Matt Williams, hit a liner to left that Stan Jefferson almost made a shoestring catch on, but the ball hit the ground. Milner had a double and an RBI.

Chris Speier, batting for pitcher Randy Bockus, followed by grounding to third, but Mitchell’s throw sailed over the head of first baseman Carmelo Martinez and two runs scored.

“Any error is a big play,” Bowa said. “But an error is a part of the game. People are human. Nobody feels worse about it than him.”

It was suddenly a 5-3 game when McCullers got Robby Thompson to pop out to catcher Benito Santiago.

The Padres had lost the shutout in the seventh, but they lost the lead in the eighth.

With one out, Jeffrey Leonard singled off McCullers. Maldonado doubled to right-center, scoring Leonard. Davis lined a double down the right-field line, scoring Maldonado. It was tied at 5-5.

When McCullers walked Brenly, he was replaced by Craig Lefferts. McCullers allowed five runs (four earned) and four hits in 1 innings.

The left-handed Clark, who had struck out in his three previous at-bats, lined a 2-2 pitch from Lefferts to right center for a double that scored two runs and the Giants led, 7-5.

“We jumped on them,” Padre Tony Gwynn said, “but they scrapped back.”

For the seventh game in a row, the Padres scored in the first inning. Jefferson singled, stole second and came home on a single to center by Gwynn, who had two singles and a triple. After Gwynn stole second, Shane Mack’s looping double over first base gave the Padres a 2-0 lead against Giant starter Mark Davis.

The Padres doubled their lead in the second on a two-out double to left center by Jefferson, a looping single to right by Randy Ready and a line single to left by Gwynn.

An indication of just how well things were going for the Padres and how poorly they were going for the Giants came in the Padre sixth.

With two out, Jefferson struck out, but reached first on a passed ball by Brenly. Ready followed with a single to left that scored Jefferson from first. Jefferson ran through a stop sign by third base coach Harry Dunlop.

Bowa didn’t say if he would fine Jefferson for running through the sign. He was not in that kind of mood. Instead, Bowa complimented his team on scoring a run in the ninth on a triple by Gwynn and an RBI ground out by Martinez.

“We could have folded our tent but we didn’t,” Bowa said. “After all the adversity we’ve gone through this season, this game won’t have an effect.”

Padre Notes Donald Fehr, head of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., said Friday that he expects representatives on both sides of the LaMarr Hoyt case to meet with arbitrator George Nicolau in New York on Monday. The MLBPA hopes to get Nicolau’s view on whether the Padres violated the spirit of his ruling Wednesday when they re-released Hoyt. On Tuesday, Nicolau ruled that the Padres’ first release of Hoyt on Jan. 7 was invalid. On Wednesday, the Padres put Hoyt on waivers and agreed to pay him the balance of his guaranteed $3.2-million contract, but Fehr is still upset. “The bottom line is, you cannot release someone for lack of skill when obviously that’s not why you’re doing it,” he said. “I’d like to see if we can get this resolved without other nonsense.” Howard Frank, Hoyt’s attorney in San Diego, said Hoyt told him on the phone Thursday that he still “has no interest in talking with the media at this time.”

The Padres stole four bases in four attempts Friday night. Stan Jefferson, Tony Gwynn, Carmelo Martinez and Shane Mack had the steals. San Diego has been successful in 28 of its last 35 stolen-base attempts in the last 17 games. Coming into Friday’s game, the Giants had caught more opponents stealing than any team in baseball (42) and had the highest success rate catching attempted base stealers in the National League (42 of 95 for 44%). Giant catcher Bob Melvin had thrown out 24 of 53 runners (45%) before Friday’s game. Melvin was removed in the sixth inning after being hit with a foul tip on the middle finger of his right hand. The finger was badly bruised.