Bowa Gives Up on Show; Expos Rally to Win in 12th

Manager Larry Bowa’s lack of confidence in starter Eric Show led to a long night for the Padres Wednesday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Bowa pulled Show in the ninth inning with the Padres leading, 5-2, and the Montreal Expos rallied to tie the score against Padre reliever Goose Gossage. They won it, 6-5, in the 12th when Padre shortstop Garry Templeton bobbled Tim Wallach’s bases-loaded infield hit with two outs. Herm Winningham scored on Wallach’s grounder, which was ruled a hit against reliever Lance McCullers.

But, Templeton admitted that the hit, which was just to the left of second base and a potential force out, could have been ruled an error.

“I was playing him to pull and had to go a few steps to my left,” Templeton said. “I had the ball in my glove, but it rolled out.”

The Expos had loaded the bases when Winningham doubled with one out off McCullers, who replaced reliever Mark Davis to open the 12th. Tim Raines was then intentionally walked, and Mitch Webster singled to right to fill the bases. Tom Foley struck out, but Wallach followed with his infield hit before Andres Galarraga struck out.

The Padres did not score in the bottom half of the inning against Montreal reliever Bob McClure. Tim Burke, who held the Padres scoreless in the ninth, 10th and 11th innings, got the victory to lift his record to 6-0.

In front of a crowd of 11,108, Show pitched eight innings and gave up five hits and three runs, his longest performance since July 23 against Pittsburgh.

Bowa, who has been vocal about his lack of confidence in Show, pulled the right-hander after he gave up a leadoff single to Foley in the ninth.

Bowa hoped to get three quick outs from Gossage. Instead, Gossage gave up a single to Wallach, the first batter he faced. The next two batters flied out and grounded out.

Then Hubie Brooks pinch-hit for middle relief pitcher Joe Hesketh and singled to right, scoring Foley. Expo pitcher Pascual Perez came into run for Brooks, and Wallace Johnson pinch-hit for catcher Jeff Reed.

Johnson lashed a Gossage fastball to the right-field corner, scoring Wallach and Perez. Flannery’s relay throw from Gwynn reached the plate ahead of Perez but skipped past catcher Benito Santiago and Perez slid safely across the plate, tying the score.

“When you have a guy with 286 career saves, you have to go with him,” Bowa said of his decision to replace Show with Gossage.

The Padres were unable to score in the bottom of the inning off Burke, and the game went into extra innings. Davis and Burke each held the opposition in check in the 10th.

In the 11th, the Padres blew an opportunity with runners on second and third and none out.

Santiago doubled to lead off the 11th and advanced to third on a bunt by Chris Brown, who ended up on first with a fielder’s choice when Burke tried but failed to get the lead runner at third. With Templeton batting, Brown stole second.

Templeton grounded to first as the runners held. Flannery was intentionally walked. Randy Ready, pinch-hitting for Davis, was out on a called strike three. Then, Stanley Jefferson forced Flannery out at second to end the inning.

The Expos had pitching problems of their own earlier in the game. After giving up just one run on five hits in his first five innings, Expo right-hander Dennis Martinez ran into trouble in the sixth inning.

With the Padres trailing 2-1, Tony Gwynn led off in the bottom of the sixth inning with a single to left field, and Carmelo Martinez followed with a single to left. John Kruk hit into a fielder’s choice at first base. Instead of opting for the assured out at first, Galarraga opted to try to throw Gwynn out at the plate. Galarraga’s throw was late at the score was tied at 2-2, with no outs.

That missed opportunity allowed the Padres an extra chance, which Flannery capitalized on. Martinez got Santiago to fly out to right field, walked Chris Brown to load the bases, and struck out Templeton. Then Flannery knocked a single to center, scoring Martinez and Kruk and giving San Diego a 4-2 lead.

Kruk had his 18th home run, a solo shot to left, in the eighth inning.

Padre Notes

Manager Larry Bowa met Wednesday with General Manager Jack McKeon and Padre President Chub Feeney to discuss roster moves for Sept. 1, when the team can expand its roster from 24 to 40 players. Bowa knows which minor league players may be brought up, but he isn’t telling. “I have strict orders not to say anything,” he said, adding that some of the players who could potentially be called up are on teams currently making a run for the minor league playoffs. Las Vegas is two games from the lead in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. Reno is in first place with a one-game lead in the Class-A California League, and Spokane has a 20-game lead in the Northwest Rookie League.

The Padres have the league’s top two batters in Tony Gwynn (.368) and John Kruk (.339). It is the first time ever that the Padres have had the top two hitters this late in the season. . . . Milwaukee Brewer Paul Molitor, whose 39-game hitting streak came to an end Wednesday night, spends his off-season in San Diego and works out with Tim Flannery. Flannery said he admired Molitor’s relaxed attitude about his streak. “My problem is I was superstitious,” Flannery said about his personal-high 14-game streak. “I was eating Chinese food and drinking tequila every night. The streak had to end or I was going to die.”