Old and New Padres Pitch In for Victory Over the Astros, 6-2

At most times in this Padre summer, it has been inconceivable to think of the team’s past and impossible to see its future.

What do you know? Friday night against the Houston Astros, one 2 1/2-hour game contained both.

Shortstop Garry Templeton, 31, with one year left on his contract and who knows how much time left on his sore right shoulder and knees, had his first three-RBI game of this season, and one of his best double-play pivots of any season.

Relief pitcher Lance McCullers, 23, who is expected to be the eventual successor to Goose Gossage but who must first learn to succeed, had his best outing in more than a month. He threw 2 hitless innings in earning his first save since June 13.

The Padres defeated the Astros, 6-2, and for once, they are even able to stomach the present. On the road, where they have a 17-36 record, the Padres have won two straight games. It was their ninth victory in the last 17 games. They improve to 26-23 since June 4, the best in the National League West since that date.

And they are having fun. Starter Ed Whitson was having so much fun that when he was taken from the game after 6 innings, he wouldn’t go into the clubhouse and ice his arm like a good pitcher. He wouldn’t even leave the dugout.

With the Padres leading 4-2 with two out and runners on first and third, McCullers came on to face Glenn Davis, who has had two home runs and eight runs batted in in his last seven games. Whitson leaned on the dugout railing, standing on the top step with Manager Larry Bowa, brown jacket draped around his right shoulder until the ice could reach it.

Davis lofted a McCullers’ 2-and-1 fastball to center field. Stanley Jefferson picked it out among the white girders, made the catch and ended the inning, and then Whitson was really happy.

“I come off the field and there he is,” said McCullers with a laugh. “He’s congratulating me, thanking me for saving his inning.”

Pause. “I guess I have blown a few for him.”

Said Whitson: “I was all over him. I wanted to stick around long enough to make sure I got out of that thing.”

Nobody takes any chances here anymore. The Padres grabbed a 3-1 lead with three runs in the second, but they have learned there is no such thing as enough. They scored another run in the seventh inning on three straight hits and then added two in the eighth, both with two out, to cinch it.

In the past four games, the Padres are hitting .331 (48 for 145), and have increased their team batting average to a season-high .262. Last night what Bowa enjoyed seeing more was his club’s performance with two out and runners in scoring position. In that situation, the Padres went 3 for 4 to increase their mark over the last four games to 10 for 21 (.476) with 11 RBIs.

“This team is much better team than it was in April,” Bowa said. “Ask me in October, and I hope that I can say we’re better than on July 31.”

Was this the same Bowa who just three days ago had a 10-minute criticism session with his players after a 15-5 loss in Cincinnati? Maybe not. Or maybe all those things he has been pounding into these heads are finally starting to kick in.

Take the seventh-inning surge. After John Kruk opened with a ground-rule double to right, rookie catcher Benito Santiago was entrusted with trying to move him to second. In an attempt just to put the bat on the ball, with two strikes, Santiago blooped a single to right, and the rally was on, leading to Templeton’s RBI single to left.

“I don’t care if he gets that hit or not,” Bowa said. “At least he’s finally thinking about moving the runners along. At least he’s making contact.”

Or take the eighth-inning noise. With two out and none one, Carmelo Martinez singled to right. Rookie center fielder Shane Mack, who just entered the game in the seventh for defensive purposes, hung in on a Larry Andersen fastball for a single to center, and the rally was on. Santiago broke a bat for a single to center to score a run, and Templeton came through again with a single to left for another run.

“That is just what we want Shane Mack to do,” Bowa said. “We just can’t throw him in there every day. He’s not ready. So we need him on nights like tonight. And I told him, I don’t care what he hits, next year it’s going to be almost impossible for him to not make this team.”

The only constant in all the above was Templeton, who will finally take a day off Sunday, but who has already played in 93 of the club’s 103 games, bad shoulder, bad knees and all.

“He’s hurting bad, and he’s out there every day, and I know it looks like he can’t get to some of those grounders, but giving it everything, and I’ll never complain about that,” Bowa said.

In addition to the hits, Templeton helped save the game for Whitson in the fifth, when, with runners on first and third and one out, he turned a double play with second baseman Tim Flannery to end the inning. It was a bouncer off the bat of Alan Ashby. Flannery caught it on the short hop, barely got it to Templeton in time to beat Davis at second, and Templeton barely got out of Davis’ way to pivot and throw to first.

“It really took something to hang in there like that,” Whitson said.

“I just want to play every day,” said Templeton, hitting .230. “Sometimes I don’t know if I play hard enough, but I play as hard as I can. It hasn’t been my kind of year, but I can’t stop trying.”

Padre Notes

The long-awaited return of third baseman Chris Brown to the Padre starting lineup is set for Tuesday in Atlanta. Brown, who has started in just 10 of 22 games since being traded to the Padres, has missed eight straight starts with a sore right wrist. Before Friday’s game, he told Manager Larry Bowa that he would like to play in Sunday’s series finale against the Astros. Bowa said fine, but then Brown experienced more pain when he took special batting practice with batting coach Deacon Jones. Afterward, Bowa and Brown met, kneeling together behind the batting cage, and decided that, because of Monday’s off-day, it would make more sense to take two more days of rest for the price of one game. . . . Though lauding reserves Luis Salazar and Randy Ready, Bowa says that the club is missing Brown’s ability at third. “A guy like Ready, he’s gone above and beyond the call of duty, he’s given us everything, and I will never complain about him,” Bowa said. “But they best help us as utility men.” . . . First baseman John Kruk, hitting .336 after going 1 for 2 Friday with a double and two runs scored, finished the night just shy of qualifying for the league batting race. Because qualifying hitters need to average 3.1 appearances per game the play, Kruk enters tonight’s game 4.4 appearances shy. As soon as he qualifies, which should be next week, he’ll fit in somewhere among the league’s top four of Tony Gwynn, Pedro Guerrero, Tim Raines and Andres Galarraga. . . . Bowa will not hold an off-day workout Monday in the August heat of Atlanta. The day’s agenda will consist of golf. . . . The Astros have placed pitcher Jim Deshaies on the 15-day disabled list because of tendinitis in his left shoulder. They have recalled Jeff Heathcock from Triple-A Tucson (11-6, 3.47 earned-run average) and will start him today against rookie Eric Nolte. The Astros’ Mike Scott will move back to Sunday when he will face the Padres’ Mark Grant.