Padres’ Also-Rans Trip Begins With 2-1 Victory

Welcome to the Padres’ Tour of Lost Pennant Hopes, their season’s last trip, taking them through the broken-hearted cities of Houston and Cincinnati before a last stop in the parched wasteland that is Dodger Stadium.

Friday night it began in the Astrodome, where the locals had just lost eight of nine to fall out of the National League West race.

Cut to the eighth inning, with the Astros leading, 1-0, and Padre Tony Gwynn on second with one out. He was approached by Astro baseman Bill Doran.

Said Doran: “It must be tough, playing so hard when you’ve been out of it so long.”

Said Gwynn: “Yeah it’s hard. But you still want to win, you always want to win.”

Gwynn then waved goodby, tying the game on a pinch-hit single by John Kruk. Two batters and a surprise stolen base later, Kruk scored the winning run on a fielder’s choice grounder by Benito Santiago, who had earlier extended his National League season-high hitting streak to 22 games.

It was 2-1, Padres, their seventh straight win against the Astros and their sixth win in their last eight games, and here’s the clincher:

The Padres cannot lose 100 games this season. With 14 games left, they can lose only 99, which is about 20 fewer than what most folks figured.

“I tell you, this is a whole new clubhouse,” said second baseman Joey Cora, who suffered through the 12-42 start, then was sent to Triple-A Las Vegas before being recalled earlier this month. “There is no tension, everyone is happy, not like before. In the first two months, I don’t think we come back and won like we did tonight.”

They overcame having a run called back because a ball hit second base umpire John McSherry.

They also overcame a quick glimpse of April--second baseman Cora failing to get a ball out of his glove on a two-out, man-on-second grounder in the eighth.

Starter Jimmy Jones was able to make a bad pitch and still keep his team in the game. Reliever Lance McCullers was able to allow stolen bases to a pair of eighth-inning runners and still hold the Astros scoreless.

And, oh yes, there was Santiago again, hitting a 1-and-2 pitch from Astro starter Jim Deshaies beyond a diving shortstop Craig Reynolds for a fifth-inning single.

Manager Larry Bowa had promised to rest Santiago tonight against Nolan Ryan. It would have been just his second missed game since June 16 (he has played in 77 of the last 78).

But even Bowa is caught up in the streak.

“Hey Benny, you’re going all the way to the end, push it right through, OK?” he yelled to Santiago in the clubhouse.

“Good,” said Santiago.

Santiago was one of five rookies in Bowa’s lineup Friday night, and it was a game appropriately marked by two important visions of next year.

Tony Gwynn hitting lead-off?

He went 2 for 3 in that position Friday, making him 19 for 49 (.388) there since taking over at the top 14 games ago. Problem is, he has also been walked 10 times, six intentionally, and with no powerful No. 2 hitter, it would happen a lot more.

“I’m watching him there,” Bowa said. “But because my pitcher bunts in the ninth spot, he might get walked every time. We have to consider that.”

Gwynn, who normally bats second but has just 52 RBIs, said it would hurt to know the Padres are discounting him as a possible RBI man. But he said he would go along with anything.

“I know I can drive in runs, and I know that putting me first would mean they think I can’t, but I’ll do whatever they want,” he said. “As long as we win, I don’t care.”

Lance McCullers as stopper?

The second-year right-hander stopped the Astros on two hits over the final 2 innings after Jones had allowed a two-out RBI single to Glenn Davis in the sixth. McCullers struck out four and worked out of an eighth-inning jam in which runners were on second and third with two out after Cora couldn’t get Jose Cruz’s inning-ending grounder out of his glove.

“You’ve got to think about that, but I still think Goose (Gossage) can do the job, and he was there tonight if Lance needed him,” Bowa said. “Lance still needs to get more consistent. We forget that he’s still just a kid (23), and still needs experience.”

“I’d like that, yeah,” said McCullers of a stopper roll.