Padre Notebook : Harris Has Rough Outing, but Bowa Sees a Bright Side

Greg Harris had his first rough trip of the spring Thursday, but chalk up another one for the kid pitcher.

True to the law of the phenom--even when he’s bad, he manages to look good--Harris allowed the Oakland A’s ‘B’ team two runs on six hits in just three innings and yet left Manager Larry Bowa smiling.

“He struggled a bit, but he was still something,” Bowa said.

Here’s why. In the third inning, Harris allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases with none out. At the time, he was already down, 2-1, having been racked for both runs on three hits the previous inning.

“I know, it didn’t look good,” said Harris, 23, a Class AA pitcher. “But I figured, no sense panicking. I looked around at all the guys on base and said, ‘OK, now I’ve got a job to do.’ ”

Some job. He struck out major leaguer Mickey Tettleton. He struck out major leaguer Orlando Mercado. And he retired minor leaguer Russ McGinnis on a foul to the catcher.

“The ability to work your way out of trouble is something we’re trying to teach our pitchers,” Bowa said.

The Padres eventually lost the six-inning game, 3-2. But it was nothing compared to the ‘A’ game, when prospective big-league starters Andy Hawkins and Mark Grant combined to allow 12 runs in 5 innings in a 13-10 loss to an A’s team with no Mark McGwire or Jose Canseco or Dave Parker.

“Just a bad, bad game,” Bowa said. “But it’s still too early to get down on people for not doing this or that.”

For the record, it was the first time this spring that a Padre pitcher was yanked in the middle of an inning. In the third inning, pitching coach Pat Dobson trotted out to get Hawkins. The five-year veteran was in the middle of allowing seven runs on seven hits, giving him 11 allowed hits in 5 innings.

On came Grant, who walked his first two batters and then allowed a 450-foot grand slam to minor-league infielder Doug Jennings.

Afterward, Grant was asked if he was working on throwing something new.

“Yeah,” he said. “Strikes.”