A Glimmer Dies Quickly as Padres Lose, 5-1, to Giants and Sink to 0-4

The Padres had a rally Friday night. It happened in the fourth inning of a game with the San Francisco Giants. Honest.

With one out, Randy Ready walked. John Kruk followed with a single to left. Keith Moreland lofted an RBI single to right.

One run. Two men on. One out. A rally. You remember rallies.

But then you probably also remember that this is April, and these are the Padres. Benito Santiago stepped up and struck out on three pitches. Struck out looking.

Tim Flannery stepped up and struck out after being ahead 3 and 0. Struck out looking.

No more runs. No more rally. The Padres eventually lost, 5-1, and now the question is, is there no more hope?

The fourth inning was indicative of the Padres’ fourth game Friday as they fell to 0 for 4 in a season that has indeed felt like a bad day at the the plate so far.

“It’s getting so you don’t want to go to sleep, you want to come right back to the park and try again,” said NL batting champion Tony Gwynn. He is 2 for 14 and has hit just three balls out of the infield.

“When you lose the way we lose, I’m ready to play another game right now.”

The club record for losses at the start of a season--unbelievably not equaled last year--is six. If the Padres tie it in the two games left on this road trip, they must bring it to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium next Tuesday against the Dodgers. That should be incentive enough for a victory today or Sunday. Then again, in those games, the Giants are throwing their two ace pitchers, Rick Reuschel and Dave Dravecky.

Hmmm. Has anybody ever been booed at a home opener?

Friday, the Padres had just five hits against somebody with a 1-6 spring record named Mike LaCoss.

A team that hit .299 in 27 spring games is hitting .185 (23 for 124) with 31 strikeouts, nearly eight per game. They have scored just six runs (1.5 per game).

Manager Larry Bowa isn’t counting fractions: “One run a game, we have a lot of problems,” he said. “You could put a double-A pitcher out there, and he would give us trouble. The only positive thing is that we haven’t missed any signs, because we haven’t been on base to get any signs.”

In two games at Candlestick Park, the Padres have hit 25 balls that haven’t left the infield, including 13 of 27 outs last night.

About that fourth-inning rally, with the club trailing 2-0 . . . it featured the Padres’ first back-to-back hits in 15 innings. It was the first time this season three consecutive batters had reached base.

Said shortstop Garry Templeton: “Maybe we are pressing a little, not much, but just enough to throw us off. Even I caught myself overswinging. It kind of builds. We just need to put a few hits together.”

Bowa, when asked if the team was tight, said: “How could they be tight? They are a last-place team. Nobody picked us to win anything. If they are tight on a last-place team, they shouldn’t be in the big leagues.”

About Friday’s pitching--how about a first-inning situation with two Giants on base, two out and and 0-and-2 count on Kevin Mitchell? Turns out Mitchell had Padre starter Jimmy Jones right where he wanted him, hitting the very next Jones pitch--a fat-ball down the middle--into center field for a run.

Jones settled for an inning before giving up a leadoff triple in the third to Brett Butler, who scored on a groundout later. It still wasn’t too terrible until the sixth, when Jones gave up three consecutive hits, which wasn’t a big deal except they were a double (Will Clark), another double (Candy Maldonado) and two-run a homer (Mitchell).

So much for Jones, and so much for the Padres, who can’t spot anybody more than a one-run lead these days.

“It’s difficult when every pitcher knows every pitch has to be perfect,” Bowa said. “It would be so nice to get five or six runs on the board. Of course, with runners in scoring position, we haven’t made a quality pitch yet this season.”

It’s not that Bowa isn’t trying.

The day started as most Padre days have been starting--unusually--when Bowa scribbled down his lineup. It showed Gwynn batting leadoff, Templeton batting second for one of the few times in his seven-year Padre career, and Stanley Jefferson batting eighth for the first time since joining the Padres last season.

“I figured I would shake some things up, get Stanley down in the order where he wouldn’t feel so much pressure, see what happens with Templeton a little higher,” said Bowa.

“It’s different, but it’s fine,” said Templeton beforehand. “We’ll do anything to get us a win.”

The day after Chris Brown was reduced to three weak strikeouts after he dodged a pitch at his head--the second such pitch in three games--the Padre third baseman has been temporarily benched with a warning from his manager.

“Chris better start doing something about guys throwing at him,” Bowa said. “He should either go out to the mound after the guy or screw his helmet back on and get back in there and hit. I don’t care what he does, as long as he does something.

“I’m not going to tell him what to do. But he just can’t let pitchers throw at him like that.”

Promised Brown, who has struck out 7 times in 10 at-bats: “Yeah, I’m going to start retaliating. If I think they are throwing at me, I’m going out there. I can’t accept that anymore.”

Replied Bowa: “Fine, but quit talking about it. Do it.”

More than anything, stressed Bowa, Brown can’t give a repeat performance of Thursday. In the second inning of the Padres’ 6-1 loss, Brown was knocked to the ground by a Mike Krukow pitch that just missed his batting helmet. Krukow was the same pitcher who broke Brown’s hand with a fastball late last season and was one of the Giants who accused Brown, when he played in San Francisco from 1984-87, of not being tough enough.

Brown had already been knocked down opening night, by Houston’s Mike Scott, and since he came to the Padres in midseason last year had been constantly pitched to inside.

After Thursday’s knockdown, Brown slowly stood up and, instead of going to the mound or back to the plate, just stood outside the batter’s box, hands on hips, staring into the stands, almost pouting.

“It was the worst possible scenario,” Bowa said. “He’s got to take some kind of action right away.”

When Brown finally returned to the plate, it was only to strike out on the next pitch. His next two times up, he also struck out, both times swinging at every pitch.

“The word is out on Brown: Pitch him inside,” outfielder Tony Gwynn said. “He has to learn to decisively deal with it some way. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.”

Padre Notes

In the You-Know-It-Had-To-Happen Dept.: In triple-A Las Vegas’ opener, second baseman Roberto Alomar had a grand slam en route to a 10-9 win over Tacoma. Alomar, the star of the Padres’ spring, must remain in Las Vegas at least 10 days because of league rules . . . Injured pitcher Dave Leiper will throw batting practice today, and likely a simulated game in San Diego early next week, before probably coming off the disabled list sometime during the Padres first series, with Los Angeles.