Gwynn, Padres Come Up Short, 6-5

Go ahead, said Tony Gwynn. Say it. There is a chink in the armor. The National League’s best hitter has had trouble hitting when hitting is most important--with men in scoring position.

Go ahead, said Gwynn. Write it. But leave him alone. He’ll fix it. OK?

“Lately, hitting with runners on base, for whatever reason, has not been my forte,” Gwynn said Wednesday night after the Padres lost, 6-5, to the Philadelphia Phillies in front of 30,595 at Veterans Stadium. The loss, the Padres’ 23rd in 29 games at Eastern Division parks, evened this three-game series.

With the tying run on second base with two out in the ninth, Gwynn ended the game and a splendid Padre comeback with a grounder back to the pitcher.

Earlier, Gwynn had grounded into two double plays.

“It’s no secret, I’m not getting runners in. Everybody can talk about it. There’s nothing I can do about their talk,” said Gwynn, who, like most great players, will admit to his faults faster than you can figure his batting average. “Everybody’s giving me 25 different things that will help. That’s fine.

“But it’s something I have to deal with. It’s my problem. I will work it out my way.”

To be more specific, here’s what this .367 hitter, ranked in the top four in 7 of 12 National League offensive categories, has done when the subject is runs batted in:

In 446 at-bats, he has driven in 44 runs. That’s fourth on the team. Carmelo Martinez, in 144 fewer at-bats, has driven in 11 more. Since July 28, Gwynn has only five RBIs.

You say that being a No. 2 hitter, he won’t get many RBI chances? That has been the case in his three previous full big league seasons, when he has averaged 59 RBIs. But this season, until Chris Brown was acquired on July 5, Gwynn hit third.

During those three months, he drove in 29 runs.

“I counted,” said Gwynn. “I keep track of those things.”

That’s one of the problems.

“I used to never worry about it, but now that I’m having failure, I’m starting to think about it,” he said. “I’ll get up there with men on base and, while getting a hit is in the front of my mind, in the back of my mind I’m going, ‘I’m not driving in runs.’ ”

The Phillies took a 6-0 lead, helped by Mike Schmidt’s three-run home run, his 26th of the season and the 521st of his career, tying him with Ted Williams and Willie McCovey for ninth on the all-time list.

After the Padres cut the Phillies’ lead to 6-4, Garry Templeton led off the ninth with a double to right-center. One out later, pinch-hitter Luis Salazar doubled to approximately the same spot, scoring Templeton. One out later, up stepped the left-handed hitting Gwynn, right where the Padres want him.

This was even with left-hander Jeff Calhoun on the mound, because after all, probably Gwynn’s most amazing statistic is that his average against left-handers is only one point less (.367) than his average against right-handers (.368).

The rest was not so amazing. After holding off on three straight balls, Gwynn watched a 3-and-0 pitch for an outside strike.

“Then he gave me a slider, away, and I tried to pull it,” said Gwynn with a frown. “Just a little comebacker to the mound. No matter what happens the rest of the game, it hurts to make the last out. That’s all anyone remembers is the last out.

“But I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.”