Padre Notebook : Knock Over Wood: Padres Seem Ready for Season Opener

If you Padre fans doubted this before--it’s OK, Larry Bowa understands--you can doubt no more.

Wednesday afternoon, in their final major league exhibition game, the Padres proved unequivocally that they will run through a wall for you.

Fifth inning, two out, deep fly ball to right field by the Angels’ Johnny Ray.

The Padres’ Shawn Abner goes back, back, back to the wall . . . and makes the catch.

Uh-oh. He’s still going. Into the wall . . . halfway through the wall . . . now he’s stuck in the wall.

We are not making this up.

Just as Abner hit it, the portion of the wood wall adorned with an advertisement for La Cabana Mexican Cuisine, the wood cracked like a corn chip. Half of Abner left the ballpark. The other half, including the part with the ball, stayed.

Everyone but Abner laughed. Abner panicked.

“I ran over, and Shawn is saying, ‘Get me out, get me out,’ ” recalled center fielder Stanley Jefferson. “I told him, ‘Calm down, we’ll get you out.’ ”

About a minute later, by pulling the pieces of wood apart, Abner was set free. Thus flustered, over the remaining six innings he struck out twice and popped out in the Padres’ 6-5 loss in 11 innings.

“Yeah, I was scared,” said Abner, a rookie. “I go against the wall like it was any fly ball, and suddenly I’m stuck in the middle of it. There was wood pressing on my rear end and my chest. I’m afraid if I move, I puncture a lung. I didn’t know how I was going to get out.

“It was weird. I guess they don’t make walls like they used to.”

Actually, the one most hurt by it was Jefferson. To Abner, he may have been a hero, but to others, he was a bum.

“You should have just left him out there,” joked third baseman Chris Brown. “We needed a good laugh.”

“I couldn’t,” said Jefferson, who, ironically, might soon be pushed for the center field job by Abner. “Sooner or later, he’s getting out himself anyway.”

So much for 41 days and nights in the desert. The Padres drove back to San Diego last night after the unofficial end of spring training, boasting of that and other acts of carpentry.

Despite the loss, which broke a two-game winning streak and ended their Cactus League season at 11-16, they had 15 hits and played so well that one could draw the conclusion they are ready for the season to begin.

“Right now,” said pitcher Ed Whitson. “Anytime now,” said pitcher Mark Davis.

“Now,” said shortstop Garry Templeton.

“In some ways,” said Tim Flannery, “I wish the season could have started today. “

Flannery is ready. If you’ve already seen a box score this morning that lists him as going 5 for 5, don’t argue. It’s true. Five hits in one game, for the first time in Flannery’s 10-year pro career.

“This year is payback year,” Flannery said after a performance that, if it had happened during the regular season, would have tied a club record. “It’s time for me to prove something to myself and the team. This is where I want it to start.”

Flannery had two singles to left, a single up the middle, a single to right and a double to left.

Five hits in one game. That’s more than Flannery had all last September.

“Last year with my ankle problems, it was mechanically impossible to do the things I wanted to do,” said Flannery, who is coming off a .228 season. “But now it’s all clicking at the right time. For everybody.”

Whitson is also ready. In his last outing before next Tuesday’s opening-day assignment in Houston, he had a no-hitter through 4 innings and scattered four hits over 6 innings. He was saddled with three earned runs, but two were scored after reliever Greg Booker replaced him in the seventh.

“If I throw next Tuesday like I did today, we’ve got a pretty good chance to win that thing,” Whitson said happily. “This was a crucial, crucial outing for me. I wanted to end the spring on a good one to carry over to Houston. I think I’ve done that.”

Davis is another guy who is ready. Comfortable enough to throw from a windup for the first time all spring, he had his best outing yet after he entered with bases loaded and one out in the seventh.

He retired Gus Polidor on a double-play grounder, then allowed one hit over 2 scoreless innings.

“I’m finally feeling comfortable,” said Davis, whose spring ERA was lowered to 3.87. “The things I’ve been working on are starting to work. I want to get this thing going.”

The problem in all this is that the season does not start right now. The Padres won’t play another big-league team until Tuesday night in Houston. Until then, they must endure three more games against lesser competition.

There is the annual game against San Diego State Friday night in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, and then two weekend games at triple-A Las Vegas.

“It’s a pain to have those games four days before the season starts, but we still have to play hard,” said Templeton, the team captain. “To be honest with you, nobody wants to play San Diego State, but we have to. Las Vegas is different; there will be major-league caliber players there.

“Either way, we are flowing too good now to let up. We’ve got to continue that flow.”

“I’m not worried,” said Bowa. “They are still games, nine batters, 27 outs. A baseball game is a baseball game.”

So with things going so dandy Wednesday, how did the Padres lose? Booker finally had his first difficult inning this spring.

After relieving Whitson with runners on first and second and no out in the seventh, Booker could get only one of the next six batters out. When he left, four runs had scored to tie the game. The Angels won it in the 11th when reliever Lance McCullers gave up consecutive base hits to Mark McLemore and Ray, sandwiched around a McLemore stolen base. McCullers has a 4.73 spring ERA; in 13 innings, he has allowed 10 hits and 6 walks.

Padre Notes

Tickets for Friday night’s 7:05 p.m. game with SDSU at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium are $1 each for open seating. It might be worth the buck for these two reasons: For at least one inning, Keith Moreland will catch, and Tim Flannery will play first base. . . . Probables for the season’s second series, in San Francisco, beginning Thursday, April 7--Thursday: Eric Show (8-16 last season) vs. Mike Krukow (5-6); Friday: Jimmy Jones (9-7) vs. Rick Reuschel (13-9); Saturday: Mark Grant (6-7) vs. Mike LaCoss (13-10); Sunday: Ed Whitson vs. Dave Dravecky, both of whom will pitch opening day.