Flannery, Padres Have Bad Day, 3-2

After every game, in every city, somebody hauls out a metal tub. It is filled with ice. It is carried over to Tim Flannery’s locker.

The Padre infielder unwraps his right ankle. He gently pokes it into the middle of the ice. He leaves it there for 20 minutes.

By the time the ankle comes out, the ice is mostly water, but the ankle is mostly the same. Swollen on both sides. Sore enough to cause a slight limp.

This is what it’s like every game, ever since he returned to the lineup May 31 after he suffered torn ligaments on May 5 and went on the disabled list. Only one thing changes. Sometimes, when he sits and thinks about the game he has just played, the water seems colder.

Lately, such as after the Padres’ 3-2 loss to the Astros Sunday, the water has seemed particularly cold.

“I’ve gone numb,” said Flannery, who is in the worst slump of his seven-year career, all of it spent with the Padres.

He had committed an error that led to a run. He had been thrown out by 10 feet at home plate trying to score a run. Then, with two out in the ninth inning, his grounder to first base stranded the go-ahead run on second base.

The game was lost in the bottom of the ninth, when pinch-hitter Jim Pankovits, batting .190, broke a 2-2 tie with a bases-loaded single to right off Mark Davis.

Certainly, as the Padres fell back into last place in the National League West, any blame should rest with all of them. They stumbled about with a lineup that did not include Tony Gwynn, Benito Santiago--whose 23-game hitting streak waits for Tuesday in Cincinnati--or Garry Templeton, all of whom were resting.

But for those in a slump, it’s difficult to look anywhere but in the mirror.

“Every day, I think I’m going to come out and turn the page, but every day it’s the same thing,” said Flannery. “It’s like the umpires are wearing gloves.”

Actually, Flannery always plays hard, and efforts such as his have helped bring back the Padres, who once were 15 games out of fifth place. But he hasn’t had a hit in 28 at-bats, his longest dry spell ever. This included an 0-for-6 game Saturday night that kept him from sleeping. “Not five minutes,” he said.

Two games ago, Randy Ready irritated a rib-cage muscle and Flannery was moved to third base for the first time since June 6. He had not taken ground balls there in two months. Saturday’s and Sunday’s games were only the seventh and eighth this season in which he played third, and he made errors in both games.

He turns 30 in nine days. And his ankle, which should have sidelined him for much more than 25 days in May, has been bothering him a lot.

“I had to read the Book of Job this morning to inspire me to come to the ballpark,” said Flannery, who is hitting .231. “I realized, ‘I’ll guess I’m OK as long as I don’t start getting boils.’

“I even called my dad (a former minister) the other day, and I never call him unless it’s serious. He answered the phone and said, ‘What floor are you on?’ ”

As slumps are wont to do, this one chased Flannery all over the Astrodome field Sunday, as the Astros beat the Padres for the first time in their last nine meetings.

“When you’re going bad like Tim, it seems like right in the middle of everything,” said Padre Manager Larry Bowa. “We just have to hope he comes out of it.”

There were eight grounders hit to him in the field, and he handled seven. The one he misfired on came with the game scoreless in the second inning. Flannery threw Glenn Davis’ grounder wide to first for an error, and three batters later, Ronn Reynolds doubled to right to score Davis and give the Astros a 1-0 lead.

At the plate, Flannery fairly skipped to first after he drew two straight walks. But after the second walk, leading off the fifth, he tried to score from second on pitcher Eric Nolte’s shallow single to left. The throw from Billy Hatcher was up the third-base line, but by that time so was Flannery, who was tagged by the catcher Reynolds with no chance even to slide.

Flannery drove in a run with a ground out to first in the seventh. But then came the ninth inning of a 2-2 tie, with Marvell Wynne on second after a single and a stolen base. Flannery grounded to first baseman Davis to end the inning and the Padres’ hopes.

“(Broadcaster) Jerry Coleman gave me some good advice the other day,” Flannery said. “He said, ‘Scrap this season.’ ”

Much of his problem is that he has been forced to spend this season scrapping. He hit .280 in 1986 but started this season on the bench behind Joey Cora. Then he tore ligaments on both sides of his ankle after he stepped on a baseball. Cora struggled and was sent to the minor leagues, and Flannery was needed to come back.

He wasn’t healthy. But being there when needed is what Flannery is best at.

“After hurting my ribs in 1983 and hitting .234, I promised myself I’d never play hurt again,” Flannery said. “But I just like to play. I just want to play so much, none of it matters. So don’t blame the ankle.”

It’s difficult not to. No longer can Flannery stride properly into a pitch. Every swing is a bad one. He knows it.

“But there’s nothing I can do about it, not until I rest the ankle for a while,” he said.

Then he smiled. After all, there are 13 games left.

“I promise you this, if I get four hits in the final game, I’m going to winter ball,” he said. “I get that stroke back, I’m not losing it.”