Padres and Hawkins Blow Phillies’ Cool

With two outs in the ninth it came, the game-ending pop fly Padre pitcher Andy Hawkins had been looking for.

Except it wasn’t a baseball, it was an orange Gatorade cooler. And it didn’t come off a bat, it came from the Phillies’ dugout.

Through the thick night air it sailed, finally bouncing to earth behind home plate. Hawkins stared; catcher Benito Santiago cringed. By the time the container stopped rolling, bits of ice had been splattered across the artificial turf.

But nobody laughed, nobody even smiled. This was not exactly the work of the Harlem Globetrotters. This was the work of future Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt.

And thus signified the best part about the Padres’ 8-0 victory in front of a paid crowd of 16,733 at Veterans Stadium. For the first time in the last few days, they induced somebody else to act like an idiot.

Tuesday was another giant step in the short reign of Jack McKeon, as Andy Hawkins threw a four-hit shutout, Marvell Wynne went 4 for 4 to raise his average to an unreal .312, and Schmidt positively lost it.

“That’s a first, absolutely a first,” said Hawkins, who caused Schmidt’s outburst by retiring him in each of four times at the plate, finally on a grounder that was batted down by third baseman Randy Ready, picked up by shortstop Garry Templeton and thrown to first for an out.

It dropped the three-time MVP into an 11-for-83 (.133) slump--0 for 9 against the Padres this series--with just three home runs since the second day of the season. Schmidt crossed the base, turned, walked calmly into the dugout and then grabbed the cooler with both hands and threw it approximately 20 feet. The cooler was removed, the ice was not.

“An incredible toss,” Padre first baseman John Kruk said. “Good hang time, good rotation. Only thing is, what would have happened if there was a wild pitch into all that ice? Would they called timeout and give Benito skates? Or would they call it a water hazard and let him drop one?”

Kruk said he saw it coming in Schmidt’s previous at-bat, when Hawkins retired him on a flyout.

“Schmidt came past first base and said, ‘Give me a gun, I’m going to shoot myself in the head.’ I told him he’d probably miss. I think that made him mad.”

Said a glum Schmidt afterward: “I’m not even good at getting mad. I can’t even lose it right.”

For the second time in the four games since McKeon has been manager, the Padres won it right--shutout pitching and forget-about-your-stats offense. For that, the club improved to 3-5 on this trip East and compiled its biggest margin of victory this year.

“See what happens when we play the way we want?” McKeon said. “See how fun it is?”

Probably the best time was had by Hawkins, a noted Larry Bowa critic who became furious with Bowa’s handling of the pitching staff. He was not allowed past the seventh innings in any of his six previous starts despite allowing more than three runs only once in that time. He grew uncertain and unsteady in his game plan, not knowing how much time he would be given to execute it.

So what did McKeon tell him before this game?

“He told me, ‘Hey, just give me five or six good innings, we’ll take it from there,’ ” Hawkins said. “Took the pressure right off me.”

Thus thrilled, Hawkins didn’t allow a hit until Juan Samuel’s infield single in the fourth. In all, he had five 1-2-3 innings and finished his team-high second shutout with a flourish, retiring Schmidt and Chris James (fly ball) with runners on second and third.

“There’s not a happier man in this clubhouse now that Jack is manager,” said Hawkins, 5-4 with a 3.60 earned-run average. “He’s always believed in me. He’s settled everything down; it’s like night and day.”

McKeon fought to keep Hawkins on the team this spring after he had a 6.49 ERA in five starts and was coming off an injury-ridden 3-10 season with a 5.05 ERA. Tuesday night he puffed on a cigar that seemed approximately 7 feet long and celebrated that victory.

“The man had been in the big leagues five years, he had done it, where you going to find somebody to replace him?” McKeon said. “It takes young guys four or five years to put it together. When Andy stays within himself, he can win, and tonight he did.”

So did the offense, led by Wynne, who tied a club record equaled 15 times by scoring four runs. Although Wynne had two doubles and two singles, McKeon was just as pleased with Roberto Alomar’s two sacrifice bunts. And Tony Gwynn’s attempted bunt despite no bunt sign in the third.

There were runners on first and second and no outs at the time. After fouling the bunt off, Gwynn lined a double to right to score the first of two runs that inning to give the Padres a 3-0 lead they never lost.

“That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about, sacrificing yourself,” McKeon said. “To me that was the key play of the game, it brought to everybody’s attention what I have been talking about. If Tony Gwynn can try to bunt, so can everybody.”

“Yeah,” Gwynn said, somewhat surprised, “after I got back to the dugout, Jack told me what a good thing it was that I had tried that bunt. He wants us to move the runners along, that’s all I was trying to do.”

The Phillies did much of the rest, committing four errors, including two by Schmidt that couldn’t have helped his temper much. In one fifth-inning instance, Schmidt threw a ball to second base where there was no second baseman, leading to a run. Schmidt led to another run with a throw over first base in the eighth.

The Padres didn’t mind. They’ve looked that way themselves a time or two. Or three. Or 32.

Padre Notes

As previously reported, today at 9 a.m. the Padres will select University of Evansville junior pitcher Andy Benes as the top pick in the annual June free agent draft. Benes, 6-feet 6-inches and 240 pounds, was 15-3 this season, with a 1.51 earned-run average and 189 strikeouts in 137 innings. The only questions remaining about this pick are, will Benes join the 1988 Olympic team in mid-June and be unavailable to the Padres until next spring? If he does sign with the Padres, where will they send him? Benes, who sources say is leaning toward skipping the already unsteady Olympics, could start as high as triple-A Las Vegas, but is more likely to begin at double-A Wichita. After all, he started school early and won’t even be 21 until August. . . . Chris Brown was removed from Tuesday’s game in the bottom of the eighth, four innings after making a diving catch at third and rejamming his right hand. But here’s a switch--Brown didn’t ask to come out. In fact, he begged Manager Jack McKeon to let him stay in. “He really wanted to get one more at-bat,” McKeon said. He actually stayed for two more, turning his final one into an infield single. Since being inserted back into the lineup after McKeon took over the club, Brown is 2 for 11, but noticeably happier. “It’s more relaxed around here, nobody is going to lecture you in the dugout,” he said. “I’m not like I’ve been in my hot streaks, but it will take time. Look at Tony (Gwynn). He hasn’t stepped right back into his .370 groove either.” Just to be safe, and in keeping with his philosophy of giving everyone playing time, McKeon will rest Brown today and play Tim Flannery. He will also play Garry Templeton for a second consecutive day after the team captain-turned-bench player doubled and scored and showed good hustle Tuesday in only his second start in the past 11 games. “We talked before the game, and he knows I expect him to be a leader,” McKeon said. “I think he will respond.” . . . Showing the players a bit more of his managerial style, McKeon quietly met with free-spirited Mark Grant before Tuesday’s game to discuss an incident that occurred Monday night. Grant was shown on local television attempting to set Marvell Wynne’s shoelaces on fire in the dugout in the third inning of an eventual 7-3 defeat. “I told Grant that I like for us to have fun, but that fun is not clowning,” McKeon said. “Grant said he understood.” The whole thing was no big deal; he simply cornered Grant by his locker. But in doing he so showed that this--not public ripping--is the manner he will use in handling problems. Late Monday, also quietly, McKeon talked second baseman Roberto Alomar, whose ill-advised throw in the sixth inning was judged late and allowed runners on first and second with no out. It eventually opened the doors to four runs. “I told Robbie to forget about it,” McKeon said. “I told him to learn from it and get one with it.” . . . Former Padre outfielder Bobby Brown, one of the more vocal members of the 1984 pennant-winning Padres, made his yearly visit with the team before Tuesday night’s game. Retired since the spring of 1986, Brown and Chicago Cub outfielder Jerry Mumphrey own Major League Dairy, a milk and ice cream factory out of Atlantic City, N.J. “Milk is white gold,” he preached to teammates in the dugout. When asked if he would consider coming out of retirement to play for the Padres, he shouted to anyone who would listen, “Hey, I can hit .220 like some of these other guys. I can go out and pitch and win two games.”