Give Him Ball When It Counts

For the first seven innings of this embryonic season, Padre pitching looked quite solid.

That was Tuesday night, of course, and starter Ed Whitson went out of that game when the first batter in the eighth inning, Terry Puhl, hit a ball that injured his throwing hand.

Following Whitson to the mound Tuesday night were . . .

Lance McCullers, whose earned-run average for one-third inning of endeavor was an obese 81.00.

And Mark Davis, whose ERA for two-thirds of an inning was a trimmer, though still bloated, 13.43.

And Wednesday afternoon brought (or wrought) more such messiness.

Andy Hawkins, he of the 6.49 spring ERA, started and lasted all of 3 innings of a 5-1 loss to Houston. He came away with a 12.27 ERA for his first effort of the regular season.

Enter Candy Sierra, a spring sensation trying to make the jump from double-A Wichita. Sierra was charged with no runs but retired only two of the six hitters he faced.

This brought them to Greg Booker, Mr. Cleaning Service. He comes into the game when some mopping up is in order. Consider that the Padres were 3-41 in his 44 games last year. Booker came into games when the lines were long at the concession stands and longer in the parking lot. His arrival on the mound was Manager Larry Bowa’s white flag and indicated it was time for the opposing manager to light up a stogie.

That was a little bit the case Wednesday. The Astros were comfortably ahead in a game that the Padres were showing no signs of retrieving with their bats.

And Booker shut things down for two innings, veritably putting the 14,865 fans to sleep before they had a chance to head for the exits.

The point here is that Booker’s neat little outing was an extension of a solid spring, and his solid spring was an extension of a more-than-respectable 1987. He spent parts of the 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986 seasons with the Padres before he stuck for all of 1987.

And yet he never has been the guy, or a guy, who gets the ball when anything significant is at stake, such as the outcome of a game.

Booker, in fact, was at a loss to think of the third of those three winning games in which he was involved last year. He had a win and a save, but he could not remember the other.

“It’s pretty weird,” he said, “but I don’t have any idea what the other one might have been.”

And he was not particularly impressed with the win, when he pitched part of the fifth and all of the sixth after starter Jimmy Jones threatened to squander a lead. He got the win because he was the pitcher of record after five innings.

Nor did he consider the save to be a dramatic gem, since he got it for pitching three innings of a 14-2 rout. A pitcher gets a save for working the last three innings of a win, regardless of the score.

So what of this potentially frustrating situation? After all, he had a 3.16 ERA in 1987 and followed that with a 2.13 ERA this spring.

Wouldn’t he like to be in a showcase circumstance with a game on the line?

“I’d love to,” he said, “but I’ve got two quality guys (McCullers and Davis) ahead of me. They’re throwing well. They’re just putting bad numbers up there. That doesn’t mean I’m going to jump in front of them.”

But maybe he should. Maybe he should at least get the chance.

“I’ve told them I’m ready to be used any time,” he said. “They don’t have to give me a role. I’ll be ready from the first through the ninth . . . and on into extra innings.”

Greg Booker is too nice a guy, and maybe too much of a diplomat, to make any bold and brash demands. He is not the type to suggest that he might succeed where others are failing.

But he should know that Bowa is watching, and noticing.

“His role has already changed,” Bowa said in Wednesday’s aftermath. “You didn’t see him in the game in the sixth inning too many times last year.”

But what of giving Greg Booker the ball with a game on the line?

“Listen,” Bowa said, “with the bullpen situation being what it is right now, he could be used in any role. No one’s gone out there and said, ‘I’m gonna be the stopper.’ All I’m looking for is someone who wants the ball.”

With the guys who have been getting the ball weighing their earned-run averages on truck-stop scales, Greg Booker might be a pitcher whose time has come.