Padres Don’t Use Heads or Hits, Lose Again to Cardinals

After 13 different batters and six pitchers and all of their sweat spread across three hours, the Padre fortunes Thursday afternoon came down to this: a bad bunt, and a guy who didn’t tag up at third base quick enough.

As the Padres will do on occasion, they turned what could have been an intricate portrait of success into a fail-by-numbers job, losing, 6-4, to the St. Louis Cardinals in front of 22,219 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“Fundamental mistakes,” Manager Larry Bowa said afterward, emphasizing “fundamental” the way a choking man emphasizes “air.”

“We make two plays, and it’s 6-6,” Bowa explained. “It’s that simple.”

On a day when Bowa used the most players this season, and they broke out of a batting slide by combining for the most hits (13), only to leave a season-high 12 men on base, simple was suffocating.

A rehash:

- Fourth inning, Padres trail, 5-4, none out, Roberto Alomar and Tony Gwynn on first and second base.

It is John Kruk’s job to bunt them around. The first pitch from left-handed reliever Larry McWilliams is high, but Kruk pokes at it anyway. The ball stays high, popping into the air in front of home plate like a feather, landing almost directly into the charging McWilliams’ glove. One out, and guess what the next hitter does. Keith Moreland hits a deep fly to left, which would have scored Gwynn had he been properly advanced to third.

“I couldn’t bunt, I couldn’t get the run in, I killed the rally,” said an angry Kruk afterward, as always criticizing himself worse than anyone would dare.

He could have excused himself by saying that this was his first look at live pitching in 10 days after being sidelined with a sprained left shoulder. He did not. He angrily threw parts of his uniform into the clubhouse hamper and continued:

“All these pitchers are the same, and I ain’t been gone that long. I bunted on the first pitch, so I shouldn’t have even tried it then. The last thing they tell you before you go to bunt is always make sure you get a good strike to bunt. So what do I do?”

- Fifth inning, Padres trail, 6-4, one out, Chris Brown and Marvell Wynne on second and third.

Pinch-hitter Carmelo Martinez does his job, sending a fly ball to medium left field, which should score the fast Wynne.

But Wynne doesn’t run back to tag up right away. Several feet from the base, he freezes to watch the hit, and he is just getting back as the ball is caught. He has lost so much time that he is easily thrown out at home, even though Vince Coleman’s throw is cut off near the pitcher’s mound by third baseman Terry Pendleton, who then completes the relay to catcher Steve Lake.

“On a play like that, you always go right back to the base,” Bowa said. “If it’s caught, you can score, and if it falls in, you still can score. You can’t lose.”

Wynne said he froze because of his uncertainty: “I didn’t know what was going to happen, so I didn’t move. I got back to the base in enough time, I thought.”

A team that earlier this week was within one game of reaching .500 for the first time in nearly two years is suddenly 8-11 with a two-game losing streak. And who will be the Padres’ next guests but the National League’s hottest team, Pittsburgh, here tonight for the start of a three-game series.

“I was talking to Whitey (Herzog, Cardinal manager) about the Pirates, and he said they are in one of those grooves where everything they do is right,” Bowa said. “It’s like, when they need a big pitch or big hit, they get it.”

Gone was the lingering warmth of those four consecutive victories, three straight shutouts and 37 consecutive shutout innings. After Thursday, the Padres are in the opposite mode.

Besides hits and bunts and guys using their heads, take injuries. They have one serious one, maybe two.

Utility infielder Tim Flannery was removed from the game after he reached first base on a fielding error by Lake in the second inning. You knew something was wrong when he was removed for pinch-runner Jimmy Jones.

“His ankle was hurting bad, real bad,” Bowa said, speaking for Flannery, who afterward dressed quickly and left.

The problem is in the same right ankle on which he underwent off-season arthroscopic surgery. The strain of the comeback apparently has caught up with it.

“It’s been building up,” Bowa said.

Padre officials will meet today to discuss Flannery’s condition. If they place him on the disabled list, the likely option, they probably will bring up one of the hottest players in all of minor league baseball, outfielder Shane Mack. He has hit in every game he has played for triple-A Las Vegas this season--18 straight, with a .400 average. Flannery is hitting .235.

Just before Flannery went down Thursday, pitcher Ed Whitson did, only not so seriously. First he was battered for seven hits in 1 innings, although he will recover from that. But three batters before the end of his work, he was hit in the left ankle by a Coleman line drive that was called a single.

Although Whitson stayed for two more batters--which cost him two more runs, on Ozzie Smith’s sacrifice fly and Willie McGee’s bloop double--he finally exited for the Scripps Clinic. Later, X-rays showed nothing serious, although the ankle reportedly was bruised and swollen. The Padres say his playing status will be evaluated later.

It was the worst outing of Whitson’s season, and he was the first Padre pitcher to be shelled in more than a week. It was all very much of a shame for the Padres, considering that some other guys were pulling out other firsts.

Tony Gwynn had his first four-hit game of the season, raising his average above .300 for the first time this season with a fourth-inning infield hit at 2:25 p.m. Remember those figures, because he may never go below .300 again.

Third baseman Chris Brown, making his first start in six games, had his first truly good day, going 2 for 3 with two walks and a run scored, and he even was seen taking the extra base.

“Brownie played well, he hustled and worked hard,” Bowa said. “He will be in the lineup tomorrow.”

Said Brown, who raised his average from .161 to .206 and turned about two week’s worth of boos into cheers: “One game doesn’t mean anything. And other than that, I have nothing to say.”

Neither did the Padre hitters, who could have blamed this one on Whitson, who allowed six hits to the eight Cardinals he faced in the second. This included the first of two Tom Brunansky homers (one with one on, the other with the bases empty), giving Brunansky, a former Minnesota Twin, three homers in his last two games here.

But by the time Whitson left for the hospital, the score was tied at 4-4, and the Padres were just starting to get scoring chances.

“One thing we haven’t done all year is get the big knock,” Keith Moreland said. “We couldn’t even get one bloop in; we would have taken one bloop.”

The Padres put their first two batters on base in four of the first five innings, and the lead-off man on base in six of nine. But in only two of those innings, the first two, could they get runs--two on a Gwynn single, one on a Moreland single and one on a double-play grounder by Benito Santiago.

Padre Notes

Kevin Garner, the Padres’ top pick in last June’s free agent draft, was in San Diego Thursday to have his right elbow examined by one of the team doctors, Jan Fronek of the Scripps Clinic. Garner, both a pitcher and outfielder at the University of Texas, was supposed to be strictly a pitcher this year, except he came down with a tender arm in the spring and has yet to pitch an inning for his class-A Riverside team. He is hitting .222 as a designated hitter there. This year, with the top pick overall, the Padres are looking seriously at two other college tupes, Auburn pitcher Greg Olson and University of Evansville pitcher Andy Benes. Padre General Manager Jack McKeon will see both once more before the June 1 draft.

PADRES AT A GLANCE FIRST INNING

Padres--Gwynn singled to left. Alomar bunted safely to first, Gwynn stopping at second. Kruk beat out a chopper to catcher, loading the bases. Moreland singled to left, Gwynn scoring, Alomar stopping at third and Kruk stopping at second. Santiago grounded into double play to second baseman Alicea, Alomar scoring, Kruk stopping at third. Wynne flied to left. Two runs, four hits, one left.

SECOND INNING

Cardinals--Pendleton singled to left. Brunansky homered to left, his second. Alicea singled to center. Lake singled to left, Alicea stopping at second. DeLeon struck out. Coleman singled to the pitcher, loading the bases. Smith flied to center, Alicea scoring. McGee doubled to left, Lake scoring, Coleman taking third. Sierra replaced Whitson. Horner grounded to first. Four runs, six hits, two left.

Padres--Brown singled to left. Templeton walked. Flannery, batting for Sierra, reached first on catcher Lake’s fielding error, loading the bases. McWilliams replaced DeLeon. Jones ran for Flannery. Gwynn singled to right, Brown and Templeton scoring, Jones stopping at second. Alomar sacrificed, Jones stopping at third and Gwynn stopping at second. Kruk safe on a fielder’s choice to shortstop, Jones thrown out at home. Moreland flied to center. Two runs, two hits, two left.

THIRD INNING

Cardinals--Booker pitching. Pendleton doubled to right, taking third on Gwynn’s fielding error. Brunansky struck out. Alicea grounded to first, Pendleton scoring. Lake struck out. One run (unearned), one hit, one error.

FIFTH INNING Cardinals--With one out and Grant pitching, Brunansky homered to left, his third. Alicea grounded to second. Lake struck out. One run, one hit.