Padres Lose on Little Fly That Could

Mark Davis didn’t think it was gone. Tony Gwynn didn’t think it was gone.

No way it could be gone. Hadn’t the Padres just fought through 12 of their best-pitched innings of the season? Hadn’t they ignored the cheers and waves of 26,597 in Three Rivers Stadium to match one of baseball’s hottest teams ohh for ahh?

Sid Bream’s 12th-inning fly ball Friday answered those questions in two words:

So what?

The Padres’ hopes continued to crash like fine china on a kitchen floor as Bream’s three-run homer provided the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 4-1 victory.

It was a season-high sixth consecutive loss for the Padres, their eighth in nine games, but even they never get used to games like this.

Mark Grant, their struggling starting pitcher, found redemption in seven five-hit innings. Reliever Lance McCullers threw 2 scoreless innings. Davis also had thrown 2 scoreless innings, breaking Goose Gossage’s club record of 20 consecutive scoreless innings by one out.

But with two out in the bottom of the 12th, Davis allowed a single to right by Andy Van Slyke, a walk to Bobby Bonilla, and, on an 0-and-1 fastball, a long fly ball to right by Bream.

Said Davis: “I thought, ‘Oh, there’s a little fly ball to right.’ ”

Said right fielder Gwynn: “It was just another fly ball.”

Said Davis: “Then I look back and saw Tony’s name and number on the back of his shirt. Usually on a fly ball, you don’t see a guy’s name and number.”

Said Gwynn: “I looked up, and it was still going. And going.”

And gone, along with any optimism created recently by four consecutive victories at home--wins that, as recently as 10 days ago, had the Padres within a game of .500 (8-9). This morning they are eight games under .500, 8 1/2 games behind the first-place Dodgers and containing holes that sometimes seem bottomless.

Voids such as hitting and fundamentals. Those are what really cost the Padres Friday.

Don’t blame Davis that, after the Padres scored their only run in the first on Carmelo Martinez’s RBI grounder between pitcher Bob Walk’s legs, only four of their final 38 batters reached base. The Pirates also scored in the first inning, on an RBI ground single by Bream, but 13 of their final 45 batters reached base.

Don’t blame Davis for just six Padre hits and only five other balls hit out the infield. Don’t blame him because the offense, which scored just one run, is last in the league with 68 total runs (2.6 per game).

“It’s frustrating when we have guys who are paid a lot of money to hit not hitting,” Manager Larry Bowa said.

And most certainly don’t blame Davis for Friday night’s top of the 12th, when the Padres should have scored but couldn’t. Almost as much as this game was lost on a homer, it was lost on a failed bunt by Chris Brown.

Gwynn began the 12th by ripping a fly to deep left that John Cangelosi chased down, caught with his glove turned up like a basket . . . then dropped. It was a double.

Brown came up, took an outside strike, then futilely attempted to bunt Gwynn to third. He was never near the pitch for strike two, and on the very next pitch struck out with a checked swing. Martinez then lined a single to shallow right that couldn’t score Gwynn from second but surely would have scored him from third.

“We gave Chris one pitch to hit away and then told him to bunt, and he didn’t,” Bowa said, shaking his head. “You don’t execute, you can’t win.”

Explained Brown, who entered the night in good graces with a .478 average over seven games: “I was trying to bunt it down the middle, but I got my bat out too soon.”

Keith Moreland then stranded both runners with a two-strike, broken-bat double-play bouncer to shortstop Rafael Belliard.

“Once I got behind, I had to swing at anything,” Moreland said.

The Padres are indeed swinging at anything. They struck out eight times and didn’t draw a walk all night, giving them 148 strikeouts and 61 walks (last in the league), a horrible ratio of 2.4 strikeouts to every walk.

Take the Padre ninth, against new pitcher Jeff Robinson. Gwynn swung at the first pitch and grounded out. Two pitches later, Brown swung and grounded out. Three pitches later, Martinez swung and grounded out. A nice easy welcome for Robinson, who proceeded to throw two more hitless innings.

“I don’t know what to do,” Bowa said about his team’s unwillingness to take a pitch. “We’ve drilled that into them until we are blue in the face.”

Said Gwynn: “We need some people to start getting hot. In a hurry.”

Such as he. He went 1 for 5 to drop to .278. He has only four extra-base hits and four RBIs, and guess what, he’s hurting again. This time it’s his left knee, which he said locked up when he was running to the outfield Monday in San Diego. Not only does he labor around the bases after hits, he has stolen only four of those bases. He stole 56 last year.

“All I can do is ice it and hope it gets better,” he said.