Giants Beat Up on Padres : Craig Calls Meeting, Players Respond, 11-2

As far as the San Francisco Giants were concerned, it was a “must-win” game.

With that in mind, Manager Roger Craig held a pregame clubhouse meeting Sunday to remind his players that losing three out of four to the last-place Padres wasn’t the way to win the National League West title.

The Giants then ran away with an 11-2 victory in front of 19,856 in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. The victory kept the third-place Giants within 2 1/2 games of division-leading Cincinnati.

The Giants scored four runs in the first inning off Padre starter Eric Show and cruised to the victory.

“Sure, they hit a couple home runs (actually, three), but we just didn’t execute,” Padre Manager Larry Bowa said.

Bowa was referring to fielding errors on two of the game’s first three plays. Shortstop Garry Templeton booted Robby Thompson’s leadoff ground ball, and after Jeffrey Leonard doubled Thompson home, first baseman John Kruk made an ill-advised throw to third on Will Clark’s grounder.

But it wasn’t just the errors. Aggressive play by the Giants--which Craig stressed in the meeting--also helped. The Giants had lost six of their last seven games, whereas the Padres had won six of seven.

“I didn’t want the guys to get down,” Craig said. “I told them, ‘If you think you’re playing bad, look at the Red Sox. They won the American League pennant last year, and now they’re 12 games out. We’re only a couple games back. We’re still in this thing.’

“I told them I wanted them to be more aggressive, and I helped them along by calling the hit-and-run five times in the first inning. That kind of caught them off guard.”

Catcher Bob Brenly characterized the Giants’ aggressiveness by stealing two bases in one inning, including his first-ever steal of home. He did it on a double steal in the third.

“This was the nicest Father’s Day present I could have asked for,” said Craig, whose clubhouse visitors included his son, grandson and future son-in-law. “Now we can go home and play the teams we have to beat--Cincinnati, Houston and Atlanta. Yeah, we really needed this one.”

The Giants had 12 hits off Show, Greg Booker, Ray Hayward and Jimmy Jones. Brenly, Clark and Matt Williams hit home runs. Meanwhile, Kelly Downs, who had dealt the Padres 1-0 defeats in his two previous starts against them, held them to four hits in seven innings before Craig gave Scott Garrelts two innings of work.

Downs might have had another shutout, but Randy Ready had a two-run homer in the fourth, his first since May 5, 1986, when he was playing for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Defense has never been Ready’s forte, but he made two fine plays at third base. He also had a single and is batting .327 besides playing adequate defense.

With their four home runs, the teams did their bit for the record pace in the major leagues this season and led Craig to join those who contend the baseball is livelier than usual.

“I don’t think it’s juiced up. I know it,” Craig said. “I think a few years ago, they started feeding those cattle down in Haiti (where the baseballs are made) a different kind of grain. It must have made their hides tougher.

“I didn’t notice it until two or three weeks ago, but then I saw little 150-pound guys hitting balls for opposite-field home runs. Whitey Herzog (manager of the St. Louis Cardinals) took an ’86 ball and an ’87 ball and bounced them, and the ’87 ball went a foot higher. You tell me there isn’t a difference.”

Show allowed two doubles and two singles before leaving, but it was obvious that he was disenchanted with his defense.

Downs wasn’t upset about anything, not even the welt he received just below his right shoulder from Kruk’s line drive in the fourth. Kruk got a single on the play and Ready followed with the543715181with the Padre hitters.

“I’ve been hit harder than that,” Downs said of Kruk’s shot. “I iced it down for 15 minutes, and now it’s fine.

“I wasn’t as sharp as I’d been against this club before. I’d get behind 3-1 and give in to them, and fortunately, they’d hit the ball at somebody. If those balls had found the gaps, I would have been in trouble.”

Downs said the Giants’ pregame meeting had been a big factor.

“Of all the meetings we’ve had this year, this was the best,” Downs said. “Baseball is meant to be fun. Craig could see people pressing, and calling the meeting was a good move.”

Padre Notes

Padre Manager Larry Bowa is upset about Tony Gwynn’s low ranking among National League outfielders in the fans’ voting for the All-Star Game in Oakland July 14. Gwynn’s .366 batting average leads the league, yet he is in eighth place. Bowa said: “I think it’s a joke. It’s just because he didn’t hit home runs. It’s a cinch he does everything else.” The fans voted Gwynn into the starting lineup the last three years.

When the Padres lost Sunday, they reached the end of a streak in which they had scored in the first inning eight straight games. . . . Giant Manager Roger Craig used four different batting orders in the four-game series. . . . When John Kruk returned from the injury list, Bowa put him at first base and sent Carmelo Martinez to left field because Martinez is more comfortable in the outfield. Kruk didn’t appear very comfortable at first Sunday, throwing belatedly to third on Will Clark’s grounder in the first inning and dropping third baseman Randy Ready’s throw in the ninth. . . . Batting practice was suspended because of the annual pregame photo session for fans. The Giants didn’t suffer from the lack of work.