Pressure Off, Brown Gives Padres a Lift

When the Padres’ seven-game winning streak came to an end Wednesday night, the team was a little disappointed.

“We were, well, I don’t want to say down,” Manager Larry Bowa said. “But we were waiting for something to happen.”

Bowa helped to make something happen Thursday by dropping Chris Brown, who was hitting .228, from fourth to sixth in the batting order.

Brown responded with a three-run double in the sixth inning to lead the Padres to a 5-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“I wanted to take some pressure off him,” Bowa said. “He’s been trying too hard. He puts pressure on himself.”

With one out in the sixth, the bases loaded and the Padres trailing, 3-0, Brown came up against right-hander David Palmer.

For Brown, it was the perfect situation. In his last two seasons, he has hit .370 and .340 with men in scoring position.

Brown brought the crowd of 15,871 to its feet by hitting a long drive to left field. The ball skipped off the glove of Ken Griffey, giving Brown a double and allowing Tony Gwynn, John Kruk and Benito Santiago to score.

“Chris is notoriously known as a good RBI man,” Bowa said. “Today, Brownie ignited us.”

This has been a difficult season for Brown, 25. After a strong start with the San Francisco Giants, he was hit by a pitch in St. Louis and suffered a broken jaw. He missed 38 games and came back to the Giants for 14 games. Then he was hit on the wrist by a pitch during batting practice. And on July 4, he was traded to the Padres in a seven-player deal. Since he joined the Padres, he has been in and out of the lineup with a sore wrist.

“Part of me wants to see this season over,” Brown said. “But another part of me wants to finish up the season strong and help the team move into fourth or fifth place.”

The Padres, who have been in last place all season, are now 3 1/2 games out of fifth.

Bowa said he might leave Brown in the fifth or sixth spot, and Brown said he felt comfortable there. But Brown still is not completely comfortable in other ways. He said that whenever a pitcher throws inside to him, he has flashbacks to the pitch that broke his jaw. And his wrist is still sore, particularly when he checks his swings.

Brown hit the ball well Thursday. In the second inning, Dale Murphy jumped at the wall to catch his drive.

“I hit that ball harder than the one that went to left,” Brown said. But he wasn’t surprised that the sixth-inning pitch was his lucky one.

“I’ve been good with men on, at least for the last two years. I can be picky,” he said.

After Brown’s game-tying double, the Padres took the lead on Garry Templeton’s double to right, which scored Brown. Templeton scored on pinch-hitter Randy Ready’s double to left.

The rally gave starting pitcher Mark Grant his first win since July 11. The right-hander had dropped three games and had two no-decisions in his last five starts.

Despite a slow start Thursday, Grant lasted six innings.

“Hey, the way I’ve been struggling, any win is a good win,” said Grant, who came to the Padres from the Giants along with Brown. “I’ll take them any way I can get them.”

For a while, it didn’t look as if Grant would get this one. He struggled in the second and third innings, giving up five hits and three walks. In the second inning, Bowa had Grant intentionally walk Glenn Hubbard to load the bases and get to Palmer. But Grant walked Palmer, allowing the Braves’ first run.

“I’d rather go bankrupt than walk the pitcher with the bases loaded,” Grant said. “There’s no excuse. I just tried to be too fine.”

Bowa said he is pleased with the way Grant has pitched in his last two outings.

“He lost his concentration and had one bad inning,” Bowa said. “You don’t like to walk people with a kid in there, but that’s the way the game is. Might as well do it now.”

Grant gave up two more runs in the third but breezed through the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Keith Comstock pitched the seventh, giving up one hit, and Lance McCullers pitched hitless ball in the eighth and ninth, earning his third save.

The Padres are 6-1 on this home stand--which will end with a three-game series against the Reds--and they are 20-10 in the last 30 home games.

“I don’t care what place we’re in,” Bowa said. “I’m just pleased with the way we’re turning things around.”

However, Brown, who will be relieved to survive the 1987 season, is already looking ahead to 1988.

“I hope we’re in a pennant race next year,” he said. “And I want us to win the World Series in the next two or three years.”

Padre Notes Tony Gwynn’s younger brother, Chris, was called up by the Dodgers Thursday from Albuquerque of the Pacific Coast League. The 22-year-old outfielder played at San Diego State and was a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic team. Gwynn said he was happy for his brother, and added: “I hope when they play us he goes 4 for 4 but they lose.”. . . If the sun is shining this afternoon, the twilight doubleheader at Jack Murphy Stadium could prove difficult for the players. “I’ll have the sun right in my eyes until about 6:30 or so,” Gwynn said. The doubleheader was scheduled to accommodate the Chargers, who will open their exhibition season against the Dallas Cowboys Saturday night. Gwynn isn’t thrilled about playing Sunday, the day after the Charger game. “It’s not going to be so bad out in right field, but the infield is going to be a mess,” he said. Football has already had an impact on the Padres, according to Gwynn. “They put in special football grass in here for the Super Bowl,” he said. “It’s a lot thicker--it’s like a carpet. That’s why you never know how the ball is going to bounce.” . . . The Padres will play the Braves again in Atlanta in September. San Diego holds a 9-4 edge against Atlanta.