Padres No Match for Reds, 15-5 : Bowa Singles Out Players Afterward in Verbal Attack

Padre Manager Larry Bowa bolted his clubhouse doors Wednesday. Then he ordered the doors outside those doors bolted.

And, in the wake of a 15-5 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, he delivered the most direct clubhouse speech of his brief major league managerial career.

Bowa said he told his players: “There are 20 of you guys who would go through a wall for me. But there are three or four of you . . . you can get the hell out of here any time you want.”

The speech continued in that manner for 10 minutes, with Bowa all but sticking his finger into the chests of the three or four players. But he would not name them, not to anyone, including his players.

Wednesday night, he was openly upset with pitcher Eric Show, who allowed six runs in 2 innings, and third baseman Chris Brown, who didn’t start for the sixth straight game with a sore wrist.

It was not a night for heroes as the Padres allowed 19 hits, falling behind 6-0 before cutting it to 6-4. Then they watched a three-run homer by Dave Parker finish it in the sixth.

Well, not quite finish it. The Reds got their 15th run, in the eighth, when a fly ball dropped among shortstop Garry Templeton, left fielder Stanley Jefferson and center fielder Shane Mack and, for a few seconds, they tapped it around like a volleyball.

“I’ll never point out the players I am talking about (now),” Bowa said later. “I know who they are and the players know who they are. If we are to do this program right, and continue it in the same positive direction, we have to get these three or four people out of here.

“All I can do is give our president (Chub Feeney) and general manager (Jack McKeon) the names of these players, which I have done. From there, the ball is in their court.”

In Bowa’s impromptu court Wednesday, there was little screaming. Nothing was thrown, and all that was broken may have been a few egos. It came at a time when the Padres, despite their second straight loss, have been playing better; they have gone 24-23 since June 4.

But the players said they have never seen Bowa more serious--or more correct, according to one of them.

“Yeah, we all know there are people dogging it,” said a player who asked not to be named. “Everybody knows it. You can’t fool the players. We’re in here every day.”

The whole matter so upset Bowa that for 20 minutes afterward he couldn’t talk. When he finally did, he was controlled and frank.

“We have people here with the ability who don’t want to play,” he said. “They are going through the motions. I don’t mind getting our butts beat, as long as I’m getting our butts beat with the team that’s supposed to be out there.

“I had a guy tonight who didn’t move once from the bench. Not to congratulate a guy on an extra-base hit, nothing. To me, that’s sickening. I told them, if they don’t want to play, come to me before the game and tell me, then turn in their uniform and go upstairs and sit with Chub and Jack, or whatever.”

Wednesday had turned rotten for Bowa by early afternoon, when he called Brown into his office. With X-rays on Brown’s wrist showing no fracture, it is up to Brown when he starts again. For five straight games, Brown had said he couldn’t. Wednesday made six straight.

“I just told him, ‘Chris, I can’t go bugging you everyday to play. When you are ready to play, you come tell me,’ ” said Bowa, whose team’s offense heavily depends on Brown, who has played in just 13 of 20 games since arriving from San Francisco in a trade. “I can do any more with him.”

Things got worse by the top of the third inning, when pitcher Show, trailing 4-0, was the second batter due up.

“My pitcher came up and asked me if he was hitting,” Bowa said. “That shows me he wants out of the game. He’s only down 4-0, and he wants out of the game. Show showed me something there.

“There comes a time in a guy’s career when he needs to bear down and grab a little extra. I would expect a young kid to say that, not a veteran pitcher. I always thought Show was one of the top 10 pitchers in the league. Maybe that’s where I’m wrong.”

Show was allowed to hit. He struck out and then allowed two more runs the next inning before finally being removed from the game for Greg Booker. The rarely used Booker came on with a runner on second and didn’t let him score, allowing just a bloop single in his two-thirds of an inning. This is after being hit twice with line drives in Sunday’s home game against Pittsburgh.

“Here’s a guy who was drilled in the leg, drilled in the thigh and still wants to pitch,” said Bowa. “This guy’s a winner, and I don’t care if he’s 0-and-20, he’s still a winner.”

The pitching situation only got worse. Reliever Lance McCullers was unavailable because of a forearm bruise that, before Wednesday’s game, somehow turned his fingers blue. Starter Andy Hawkins is home rehabilitating a bad shoulder. And starter Storm Davis has been on the disabled list with torn cartilage in his rib area since June 30.

After Keith Comstock relieved Booker and pitched a long three innings, allowing three runs, Mark Davis was forced into the game and was left out there for one brutal inning, allowing five runs on five hits, because there was nobody left to pitch.

Well, almost nobody. Infielder Luis Salazar, making his second career appearance, threw the ninth.

“Our starting pitchers just can’t get us deep into the games,” Bowa said. “Comstock and Davis are just dead. They are pitching on guts. If I had my druthers, I would have left Show out there.”

Or maybe just start Salazar, who didn’t pitch that badly, allowing one run on two hits. That run scored on a wild pitch when Salazar simply couldn’t cover home plate quickly enough.

He last pitched June 10 in a 10-1 loss to Houston, going one inning, allowing no runs on one hit.

“I pitch on 49 days’ rest,” said Salazar of Wednesday night. “Of course I have my control.”