After 4-2 Loss, Padres Drive Bowa Batty

When the New York Mets were a laughingstock in the early ‘60s, there was a book about them titled, “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?”

After the Padres’ latest show of futility Sunday, Manager Larry Bowa might have paraphrased that title with the words, “Can’t anybody here hit a baseball?”

The Padres were so meek Sunday, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates by a 4-2 score in front of 21,694 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, that Bowa wore a look of total frustration as he talked to reporters afterward.

“We’re not swinging our bats at all,” Bowa said. “Eric Show pitched well enough to win, if we knew what to do offensively. We’ve had a lot of games like that.

“When your leading RBI man (John Kruk) has eight, you’re in trouble. We’ve got to be last in the National League in runs scored. If anybody is lower than us, I wouldn’t want to be around ‘em.”

The Padres were only next-to-last in runs scored until Sunday, but moved into the basement when the Atlanta Braves erupted for nine runs. They now have 57 runs, the Braves 59, and no other team in the league has fewer than 79. The Mets lead the league with 118.

Only the Texas Rangers in the American League have fewer runs than the Padres--one less. Even the Baltimore Orioles, who ran their record to 1-23 Sunday, have scored as many as the Padres.

How, then, have the Padres managed to put together a 9-13 record? True, it isn’t much, but it’s remarkable considering their lack of punch.

The answer lies in pitching that has been almost as much above expectations as the hitting has been below.

Show is as good a place to start as any on the staff. In the five games he has started, the Padres have supported him with all of 11 runs. Sunday’s tough defeat ran his record to 1-4.

And as bad as the Padres’ scoring drought has been overall, it has grown even worse on the current home stand. They have scored just 25 runs in nine games, a pace that leads one to wonder how they have won five of the nine.

“It isn’t just a lack of power,” Bowa said. “It’s a lack of putting the ball in play. We’ve had 47 walks and 124 strikeouts. That’s unbelievable.

“They talk about us being singles hitters. Well, the Cardinals are mostly singles hitters, too, but the difference is they’ve got a lot of speed and they put the ball in play. With us, it’s either a strikeout or a double play. Our pitchers have to give up just one run a game, and even the Mets’ pitchers aren’t that good.”

A reporter asked Bowa if there might be any immediate help in the San Diego farm system.

Bowa smiled wanely and said, “Where? We just sent a guy (Stan Jefferson) down when he was hitting .108, and he’s hitting .330 down there (Las Vegas). That tells you what kind of pitching there is in Triple-A. It’s probably Double-A caliber right now.”

The Padres were held to five hits Sunday by a Pirate threesome consisting of left-hander John Smiley, Barry Jones and Jim Gott. Shawn Abner hit his first home run of the season in the third inning; Parent and pinch-hitter Randy Ready put doubles back-to-back in the sixth, and that was the extent of the Padre attack.

Abner, who had hit two homers in a September trial last year, said, “Smiley threw me three change-ups in a row and I hit the third one. It’s just too bad everybody isn’t getting their hits.”

Tony Gwynn and Kruk both went hitless, leaving Moreland as the Padres’ only .300 hitter. And though Moreland is batting .316, he has driven in only five runs and has yet to hit a home run.

Martinez is having the toughest time of all, with an average of .095 after another hitless day, but Bowa said, “You can talk about almost everybody. It’s a team effort.”

Gwynn, down to .284 in defense of his batting championship, said, “We’re not a home-run-hitting ballclub, but we’ve got to get our hits. The way we are now, even if we had a home run hitter in the middle of our lineup, the pitchers would pitch around him.”

Bowa criticized his hitters for not making adjustments when the count reaches 0-2 or 1-2.

“I see the same swings on 0-2 as on 3-1,” Bowa said. “I don’t see anybody choking the bat or protecting the plate.”

Told of this remark, Gwynn said, “Everybody has his own way of swinging the bat. Sometimes, though, you have to sacrifice something. Smiley struck me out with a change-up, which I didn’t know he had. After that, I had to adjust.”

Besides the lack of hitting, Show owed his undoing primarily to a single by Al Pedrique in the second inning that drove in two runs. Pedrique entered the game with a .116 average. He went on to get two more hits to up his average to .170.

“I know Pedrique isn’t that bad a hitter,” said Show, noting that the Pirate shortstop had batted .294 as a rookie last year. “Still, he isn’t the type that should beat you. I jammed him with the pitch, and he flared it over third base.”

Pirate Manager Jim Leyland said Pedrique’s hitting shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“He’s a quality eighth hitter,” Leyland said. “He can hit a ball in the gaps, and he’s a tough out with runners in scoring position.”

The victory lifted the Pirates’ record to 17-6 and kept them in first place in the National League East.

Padre Notes

Padre pitcher Ed Whitson, who suffered a bruised ankle last Thursday when he was hit by a line drive, threw on the side Sunday and said he would be able to start as scheduled against the Chicago Cubs Tuesday night . . . Jimmy Jones will be facing the Cubs for the first time in his career when he starts against left-hander Jamie Moyer here tonight in the opener of a three-game series. He has pitched at least once against every other club.