When Padres Need Relief, Mark Davis Scores a Perfect ‘10’

When the heat of the summer begins to bake brains, groups of young men or women occasionally will amuse themselves by sitting along the Mission Beach boardwalk and rating members of the opposite sex as they happen past.

This is chauvinistic, of course, as well as thoroughly subjective.

Indeed, all such ratings on a scale of 1 to 10 are subjective. Never, for example, in the history of Olympic gymnastics has a competitor received an objective score of 10.

This is to preface the revelation that a genuine, no-subjectivity-involved, performance-tells-it-all “10” is currently employed in Mission Valley.

He is Mark Davis, a left-handed relief pitcher for the Padres.

In fact, on the night Davis became a 10, he almost had to be given an 11. That would have been Monday night. Not only did he earn his perfect 10th save in 10 opportunities, but he also hit a 410-foot home run.

This was an evening when the recent epidemic of fun continued to spread through the Padre clubhouse, and a fifth consecutive victory was fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.

And who could have enjoyed it more than a 27-year-old pitcher who had not hit a home run since he was in high school?

Of course, all pitchers fancy themselves as hitters.

When the Padres were playing an exhibition game in Las Vegas the weekend before the season started, Davis begged Larry Bowa to let him pinch-hit for Chris Brown. In what might have been the last frivolous and light-hearted act of his reign as Padre manager--and possibly the first--Bowa sent him to the plate.

Davis responded with a double off the wall.

Since the season started, there has been no temptation to ask Davis to win a game with a bat . . . but his arm has certainly been adept at saving them.

Davis has done so well that it appears quite likely that he will not get an All-Star break. He figures to be in the National League bullpen come July 12.

“It’s a little early to be thinking about it,” he said, “but I’d love to go. Playing in an All-Star game is a goal . . . and playing in the playoffs is a goal.”

Jack McKeon, the general manager who acquired him and the manager who appreciates him, doesn’t think such a suggestion is premature.

“He definitely deserves All-Star consideration,” McKeon said. “He might be the best reliever in the National League, and he’s getting better and better.”

Davis has been at his best since McKeon took over as manager May 28. Under Bowa, he had been a short reliever. McKeon defined his role more specifically. He made him a stopper, a man to be used only to protect leads or keep a one-run deficit from growing.

In McKeon’s first 16 games, Davis appeared in seven. He had five save opportunities and came through with five saves. He entered the other two games with the Padres behind by a run.

“I have to think of the long haul,” McKeon said. “I’m not going to bring him into games when we’re way out of it, or even down three or four runs. And I’m not going to bring him in in the fourth inning to keep a game close.”

In other words, Davis is a man to be saved for critical situations, not mop-up work. He is a gamer, a role he will share with right-hander Lance McCullers.

This is a bit of an unusual role, because managers have a proclivity for getting antsy when a left-hander is pitching and a particularly dangerous right-handed hitter is up. Some managers will yank a lefty for any right-handed batters.

“I don’t worry about righty-lefty with either (Davis or McCullers),” McKeon said. “Davis has faced mostly right-handed hitters. If he’s got his stuff, I’ll use him against anybody.”

For his part, Mark Davis seems quite comfortable with his role.

During the four years he spent with the Giants, he filled about every role imaginable. He did have two years, 1985 and 1986, when he pitched mainly in relief, but usually as a set-up man. He also had periods in which he was in the starting rotation.

“After having done both,” Davis said, “I think it’s a matter of trying to find the best position for both me and the team. But now, instead of looking for a role, I can just go out and pitch the best I can. If I pitch well, I’ll pitch a lot. I can just go out there and enjoy it.”

He has been pitching well, and so he will be pitching a lot. The Padres have been criticized for the trades they have made over the past 18 months, first the one with the New York Mets and then last July’s with the Giants, but Davis certainly is paying dividends.

In a sense, Davis is a product of both trades. Kevin Mitchell, one of the players acquired from the Mets, was part of the package that brought Davis from San Francisco.

Of all the players who traded uniforms in those deals, Mark Davis now has two distinctions:

1. He will be the only one in the All-Star game, barring a travesty in the selection process.

2. He’s the only honest-to-goodness 10.