Padre Notebook : Team Looks the Same; Bowa’s Happy Anyway

Don’t look too close, and it’s just another Padre game.

Four pitchers. Three hours.

The offense strikes out nine times and grounds into three double plays. The defense misses one line drive and two cut-off men.

The team loses.

Just another game, but with one difference.

When it ends, Larry Bowa smiles.

“Not bad,” he says. “Not too bad.”

Welcome to spring training. The Padres opened their 27-game exhibition schedule Friday with a 6-5 loss to the Angels in front of 4,751 at Desert Sun Stadium.

So the National League’s defending worst team is back under .500 again. These games don’t count and, according to its top two baseball officials, don’t necessarily matter.

“Not that we aren’t trying to win,” Bowa said. “But if we can’t play our best baseball all spring, I would rather us play it at the end of the spring than in the beginning.”

“I give them 15 or 16 games,” General Manager Jack McKeon said. “I don’t even consider performance for the first 15 or 16 games.”

The high point was the pitching of Jimmy Jones, who put in the first official bid to be the Opening Day starter by throwing three shutout innings. A leading disciple of new pitching coach Pat Dobson’s change-up, Jones struck out one and allowed just one ball hit in the air.

“He was almost picture perfect,” Bowa said. “He was throwing some great change-ups. After hitters see that, it almost adds a foot to your fastball.”

The low point was the struggle of starter Eric Show, who allowed three runs and five hits in three innings.

“He was saying he didn’t have his good stuff,” said Bowa. “But we are trying to impress upon them, there are going to be games when you go out there and don’t have your good stuff. Those games, you have to make up for it with quality pitches. You’ve got to find a way to get people out.”

Other than that, it was most notably a day of firsts:

- First Grass Stain: Left fielder Keith Moreland belly-flopped after a Chili Davis line drive in the first inning. It bounced past his outstretched glove and into the left-field corner for a triple, scoring the Angels’ first run. Adding to an inauspicious debut, Moreland struck out twice.

“People have to understand what spring training is for,” said Bowa in reference to his entire team. “It’s so early, I let the veterans get prepared at their own pace.”

- First Time Tony Gwynn Did Something Unbelievable: In the first inning, on a full-count fastball from Angel pitcher Mike Witt, Gwynn lofted a high fly to right that kept flying until until it was over the fence and into the parking lot.

It was Gwynn’s first homer in Yuma, ever. In fact, it was his first homer on any spring training field, anywhere, period.

“My swing just ain’t right yet,” apologized Gwynn, who hit just seven home runs last season. “I guess it is so messed up, I caught a ball wrong and couldn’t help but put it out.”

- First Standing Ovation: In the seventh inning, crowd favorite Mark Parent brought the fans to their feet when he hit a homer to left.

The backup catcher, in his ninth spring here but first with an assured major league job, later singled, again to loud cheers.

- First Jeers: When the Padres initially congregated at Desert Sun Stadium before the 1:05 p.m. game, the field was occupied by the pregame entertainment, a local Marine Corps band and flag unit.

Several players began running along the perimeter of the outfield wall to get loose when they heard these cries:

“Get the hell off the field!”

“Get out of there. Who do you think you are?”

The shouting was coming from friends of the Marines, upset that the Padres were upstaging their buddies.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Gwynn. “I may be wrong, but weren’t we supposed to be the show?”

A winter of contract squabbles comes to a head today with the possible contract renewals of three players: relievers Lance McCullers and Dave Leiper and starter Mark Grant.

The Padres signed three more players Friday--Randy Ready, Shawn Abner and Greg Booker--but they were forced to extend the renewal deadline for the other three from Friday afternoon to today at 12:30 p.m.

“We just didn’t have time to get to them,” said McKeon. “So we’re giving them extra time.”

Renewal occurs with players of less than three years’ experience when the two parties can’t come to agreement. The club picks a figure, and the player has no choice but to accept it.

Jerry Kapstein, an agent who has worked with the Padres for 10 years and represented everyone from Gene Tenace and Rollie Fingers to Steve Garvey and Rich Gossage, has never had a player renewal. Ironically, today’s focal point is his client, McCullers.

McCullers is asking for a two-year contract at around $680,000 per year, the Padres are offering $630,000, and an agreement probably could be reached at $650,000. That is, if they agree to agree.

“I’m not optimistic,’ Kapstein said. “We’re far apart.”

McCullers pitched well in a 1-0 shutout of the Angels in Friday’s “B” game, throwing three one-hit innings. Booker added three four-hit innings. Neither pitcher walked a batter.

Whatever happens with the contracts, don’t blame McKeon for not trying. He agreed with Abner in the lobby of a restaurant Thursday night, and agreed with Ready on a two-year deal worth around $570,000 per year outside a batting cage Saturday morning.

“I’ll take them where I can get them,” McKeon said.