Strong Hawkins Beats Expos, but Not His Way

Even in the flush of a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Expos in front of 21,478 Sunday in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, pitcher Andy Hawkins wasn’t exactly a bundle of joy in the Padres’ clubhouse.

Hawkins was upset because he was taken out of the game after seven innings by Manager Larry Bowa. He had given up just four hits in perhaps his best outing of the season, and had been scored on only in the sixth inning.

Asked if he was tiring, Hawkins said, “Not at all. He (Bowa) talked to me on the bench when we were batting in the seventh, but he didn’t ask me anything about how I was. He made the decision as soon as Shane Mack got the hit that put us ahead.”

With the victory, the Padres swept the three-game series from the Expos.

Hawkins and the Expos’ Bryn Smith waged a 1-1 duel through six innings. After Smith had been removed for a pinch-hitter in the seventh, the Padres broke the tie against Jeff Parrett when Benito Santiago singled, moved up on Randy Ready’s sacrifice and scored on Mack’s single.

“Larry could see how I felt when he made the change (to Lance McCullers),” Hawkins said. “He came over to me and said, ‘I know you’re not happy about this, but these guys (McCullers and Mark Davis, who finished) have been doing a hell of a job.’

“Sure, Lance and Mark have pitched great in relief, but I didn’t think I needed any help. You hear so much about complete games, and this is a perfect example of why we don’t have many. I definitely could have gone nine innings.

“The fact that our complete-game total is so low (four, including one by Hawkins) isn’t the pitchers’ fault. I had a four-hitter going, and there were three right-handed hitters coming up. One of those four hits was a broken-bat flare to right-center.

“I had the best fastball I’ve had all year. It was one of those days when I felt like, ‘Gimme the ball and let’s go.’ I don’t know how many pitches I threw, but I wasn’t tired.”

As it turned out, McCullers got into trouble in the eighth, yielding a single with one out and a walk with two out. But Davis squashed the threat by striking out pinch-hitter Dave Engel. He then struck out two more Expos in a one-two-three ninth, ending the game by throwing a third strike past the formidable Tim Raines. His save was his fourth in as many opportunities.

Bowa said of Hawkins, “He made the pitches he had to make. He said he was still strong, but it was a decision I chose to make. McCullers and Davis made me look good. If they hadn’t, it would have been the wrong decision.”

The three-man five-hitter continued a remarkable streak of pitching in which the Padres have held the opposition to seven runs in their last five games. The Chicago Cubs scored only three runs in two games in Chicago, yet won both in extra innings. The Expos managed just four runs in their three games here.

In those last five games, the earned-run average of the Padre staff was 1.37. The staff’s season ERA is 3.61, compared to 5.27 at the same stage in 1987.

Speaking of 1987, the Padres (13-22) already have one more victory in 35 games than they had in their first 54 games a year ago. They didn’t win No. 13 last season until June 5.

Reminded of this, Bowa said, “I’m trying to forget about last year. The big thing is whether we’re making progress. Take a look at the Pirates. It took them three years to get where they are now, and if our fans expect anything before that, they’re kidding themselves.

“I look at our team now, and I’ll look at it month by month through the season. If we’re noticeably better in September than we are now, I’ve done a good job. If we’re not, I’ve done a bad job.

“Of course, the best sign of progress has been our pitching. It has kept us in almost every ballgame. But we’re really going to get a test the next four days with the Mets in town. Those guys are murderers’ row.”

The Mets were swept in a three-game series in San Francisco, and Bowa said, “I don’t know if that’s good for us or not. I do know they’re for real. They are probably the best team in the National League.”

Besides getting first-class pitching, the Padres drew encouragement from the fact that their runs were driven in by two of their big hitting hopes for the future.

Shawn Abner preceded Mack’s RBI single with a second-inning single that scored Ready, who had opened with a single.

Ready, doing his usual fine handy-man job, while filling in at third base for Chris Brown, didn’t limit his contribution to a key single and sacrifice.

He bailed Hawkins out of a seventh-inning jam with a diving stop of a hard-hit ball by Johnny Paredes.

The Expos have been in a hitting drought as severe as that of the Padres.

“Every pitcher we face looks like Walter Johnson to us,” said Manager Buck Rodgers. “I know the Padre pitchers did a number on us, but we’re so bad that I can’t really tell how good they are.”

Padre Notes

Both Manager Larry Bowa and General Manager Jack McKeon said Sunday that they would prefer to make a college player the No. 1 choice rather than a draft a good high school prospect in the upcoming baseball draft, which is set for June 1-3. This would seem to point to one of two right-handed pitchers, Greg Olson of Auburn or Andy Benes of Evansville, as the Padres’ pick.

Bowa said, “I’d like a college guy from a manager’s standpoint, but you have to look at what’s best for the organization. A high school kid would take at least four or five years to make it to the big leagues. A college guy might make it in two or three months if he’s mature enough.” McKeon agreed with Bowa in principle, although not with Bowa’s timetable. He said, “In our situation, I’d rather have a college player. He might be ready in a year or two. That’s the way I’d go.” McKeon has already scouted the leading prospects, and will look at some of them again in the NCAA regional tournaments next week.