Padres Can’t Escape Circus but They Still Master Ceremonies

It’s official. The Padres can’t lose for winning.

They defeated the New York Mets for a second straight time Saturday, 8-3, on a night when it would have been dandy just to get out of Shea Stadium with their skivvies.

On the way to the park before the game, the team bus driver made the ultimate wrong turn--into the raised palm of a traffic policeman. The driver went right past the policeman’s manual signal to stop, but he couldn’t ignore the eight traffic cops at the end of the block. The driver got a ticket, the Padres got a new driver and a new bus, and the 15 passengers aboard reached the field midway through batting practice.

About 1 1/2 hours later, with the Padres holding a 3-0 lead in the third inning, Met third baseman Dave Magadan hit a line drive directly at pitcher Ed Whitson’s face. Whitson got his hands up in time but, unfortunately, the ball hit the bare one. It turned three fingers black and sent Whitson cringing to the clubhouse to watch the rest of the game on television.

About an hour after that, after John Kruk’s 17th home run had put the Padres ahead, 6-0, in the sixth, Kruk hit a long foul ball to left that made him cringe. On the next pitch he singled, then hobbled back to the dugout with a strained lower back.

And none of that was enough. With the Mets trailing, 6-3, after Gary Carter’s three-run home run in the seventh, the ballpark took on the appearance of Fort Apache in the eighth, simply because of Darryl Strawberry’s foul tip with two runners on base.

When the umpires and manager and protests stopped swirling, the Padres had won their second straight over the World Series champions, and ensured a .500 record on their Eastern trip, on which they are currently 3-2.

Of course, there is still today’s game. All the Padres could think about was, how can things so good get any worse?

“Combat time tomorrow,” yelled Manager Larry Bowa to second baseman Tim Flannery in the clubhouse afterward. “Time to go to war.”

Said Flannery: “Far as I’m concerned, this has been just another day in New York.”

Just as Goose Gossage’s fastball on a 1-1 count to Strawberry was just another pitch in the eighth.

With most of the 39,774 fans chanting their trademark “Let’s Go, Mets,” what happened after that pitch was something that induced even the 15-year veteran Gossage to say, “It was a circus like I’ve never seen before. Ever.”

Goose threw a high fastball. Strawberry swung down, and the ball tipped his bat and catcher Benito Santiago’s glove and hit the ground and rolled to the backstop. It was a foul. It was strike two.

But home plate umpire and crew chief Dick Stello failed to give the signal for both. He made the closed-fist strike call but forgot to extend his arms for a foul, dead-ball call.

So while Santiago called for a trainer to look at his sore thumb, and while Stello threw a new ball to Gossage because the old one resting against the backstop was considered “dead” and out of play, the Mets acted as if it were a wild pitch.

Tim Teufel, who had been on second, ran to third and then ran home. Keith Hernandez, who had been on first, ran to third and headed for home. Santiago and Gossage looked at each other and did what any big-time major leaguers, under the circumstances, would do. They panicked.

Santiago rushed back, grabbed the foul ball and threw it to Gossage, who got to home plate about the same time as Teufel, with Hernandez not far behind.

This is where it got ugly.

“I’m standing there, holding two balls, and I’ve never held two balls in the same game in my life,” Gossage said. “Then everybody is yelling for me to ‘Tag him, tag him.’

“I’m thinking, ‘Who do I tag? And what ball do I tag him with?’ ”

Gossage finally turned and, still holding both balls, stalked back to the mound.

“I said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I ain’t tagging anybody . That’s just going to confuse everybody even more.’ ”

By this time Bowa was out screaming at Stello.

“I say, ‘You just better get it right, you better ask for help,’ ” Bowa recalled. “He said, ‘I ain’t asking for no help, I was right on top of the play.’ And I say, ‘You better ask for help.’ ”

Finally second-base umpire Gerry Davis ran in and settled it.

“He said, ‘Larry, we’re going to make it right, just get out of here,’ ” said Bowa, who stormed to the pitching mound while the four umpires huddled just up the first-base line from home plate. They would have held their meeting directly on home plate, except there wasn’t room.

A minute later, they announced that it was indeed a foul ball and that the runners had to return. Manager Davey Johnson ran out and filed a protest, but that was that.

“I called it a foul right away, but I was confused for some reason,” Stello explained. “Maybe I had a lot on my mind.”

Said the Mets’ Johnson: “I have 100 witnesses out there who will say that he said, ‘No foul.’ And you can’t put a ball in play if you already have a ball in play.”

Things settled down, and now Bowa had something else to worry about.

“I could see Strawberry after all that stuff, with Goose cooling off, hitting the ball nine miles,” Bowa said.

Ah, but we speak of a Goose whose baseball career blossomed in New York. Two pitches later, he struck out Strawberry, and then retired Kevin McReynolds on a foul to Santiago and the inning, and virtually the game, were over.

“I love it, this is what it’s all about,” said Gossage, who picked up the save with two scoreless innings. “The excitement of this place . . . it brings out the best in you, if you can handle it.”

Coming here after two losses in three games at Philadelphia, the Padres weren’t sure if they could handle it. Now, even though rookie Eric Nolte faces 1985 Cy Young Award winner Dwight Gooden in today’s finale, they’re certain.

“We aren’t going to roll over for anybody, and I think teams are finding that out,” said Randy Ready, who hit a two-run home run in the second and doubled and scored in the sixth.

Another of last night’s hero was reliever Mark Davis, who took over for Whitson in the third and allowed just two hits over the next four innings. He was charged with two runs when, after he left in the seventh with two runners on, McCullers gave up Carter’s three-run homer.

But this wasn’t a game just for the players. Trainer Dick Dent and the Padres’ traveling secretary, John (Doc) Mattei, had their share of action, too.

Although Whitson’s fingers were only bruised, not even requiring X-rays and not expected to keep him from his next start, Kruk is another story. His injury is being termed lumbar back strain on the right side, and its status will be checked day to day.

“In that sense, a good win and a bad win,” said Bowa, who said Carmelo Martinez will replace Kruk at first base until more is known.