Escape by McCullers Helps Padres Double Up Dodgers

After six hours of baseball Friday night, the Dodgers had one last chance to save face against the Padres.

With the Padres leading 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning of the second game of a doubleheader, the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out against Padre reliever Lance McCullers.

Up stepped Jeff Hamilton. Five pitches later he struck out swinging.

Up stepped pinch-hitter Mike Scioscia. Six pitches later, he weakly popped the ball to shallow center, where it was chased down by shortstop Dickie Thon.

Face lost. Evening lost. One inning later the fifth-place Padres pull off the unthinkable, winning 4-3 to sweep a doubleheader from the guys on top.

In the first game, the Padres shook the Dodgers by the lapels with a prototype showing of new manager Jack McKeon’s McBaseball--teeny bunts, grounders and flies make big victories--into a 7-4 win.

Following that first game, the Dodgers locked their clubhouse door for 10 minutes. Presumably it was to pull out a few mirrors. Whatever they saw, they saw more in game two. They committed three errors which led to three runs which had now led to all sorts of Padre craziness.

The Padres are now 6 1/2 games behind after being 11 1/2 games back when this month started. They haven’t been this close to first place since May 4.

They have defeated the Dodgers 9 out of 11 times this season, including five straight.

“I’m not going to say we have a better team . . . but right now we’re a better team,” said Padre Tony Gwynn. “We are out-executing them. We are getting the bigger hits.

“I think they feel that man for man they might have a better club, and should be beating us. So they are putting too much pressure on themselves. They are trying to do too much.”

Gwynn laughed, only as one who is throwing a surprise party can laugh.

“Look at us, we’re relaxed,” he said. “On that last homestand, we hit .226 and won nine games. What does that say for the way we are playing?”

And what does this say for the way the Dodgers are playing--some of most enthusiastic cheering Friday came in the top of the fourth in the second game, with the announcement of the Atlanta Braves two-game sweep of the Houston Astros in their own doubleheader, thus ensuring that the Dodgers would stay in first place.

There was very little else Dodger fans could cheer about, unless you count the first Dodger Stadium homers of the season for both John Shelby and Rick Dempsey. Don Sutton pitched well enough, allowing two runs in five innings, but both of them came on walks.

And then there were the blunders, which cost the Dodgers everything.

In the third, left fielder Kirk Gibson fielded a bouncing RBI single by Gwynn. Whoops. The ball popped out of his glove and a second run scored.

In the sixth, Gibson fielded a single by Dickie Thon and threw home in pursuit of Benito Santiago. Look out. The ball soared over catcher Rick Dempsey’s head and the Padres scored another run.

In the seventh, with two runners on base, John Kruk hit into a double-play grounder. Oops. Shortstop Dave Anderson dropped the ball at second and Kruk was safe at first while Randy Ready was safe at third. Carmelo Martinez then grounded into another possible double play. Heads up. Second baseman Steve Sax threw the ball high and wild and Ready scored the Padres fourth run.

It didn’t help that the Dodgers again couldn’t mess with Dennis Rasmussen, who threw a five-hitter against them June 11. He allowed three runs in 6 innings and gave way to a hard-throwing Lance McCullers, who survived equally as well. He retired pinch-hitter Danny Heep on a lineout with two out and the tying run on second in the seventh.

It was the Padres who were sloppy in game one, but McKeon’s brand of baseball means you can hit into three double plays, drop five balls in the field for three errors . . . and still win if you do the things that nobody notices.

Meanwhile, thethe Dodgers got good pitching for a while from Tim Leary, who allowed only two hits and no runs for five innings. But the Padres got five runs on five hits in the sixth.

Leary, who threw a three-hitter against the Padres two months ago and then held them to two runs in 6 innings last weekend, but ended up allowing five runs and without getting anyone out in the sixth.

Tim Crews came on in relief.

“He was different then,” Gwynn said of Leary, who falls to 5-5 with an ERA above 3.00 (3.13) for the first time this year. “He was making those tough pitches back then.

“Today, he was bearing down too much. He lost his composure. The wheels came off.”

At the same time, not coincidentally, the Padres found everything aligned. After falling behind 1-0 on Shelby’s two-out RBI single off Ed Whitson in the first, Whitson grew strong and the offense came up with a five-run sixth inning that was perhaps its best of the year.

It included two sacrifice flies, but Keith Moreland and Chris Brown, and a sacrifice bunt that turned into a base hit that turned the game around.

“Our players have realized,” McKeon said, “that unselfish ballplayers win. When you see them congratulating guys after making outs, you know they know.”

Padre Notes

How Time Flies Dept: Guess who is playing in his first old-timers game here Saturday? That old man, Steve Garvey. . . . The Padres’ national television appearance today at 1:05 p.m. (Channels 7, 39) will be shown to three-fourths of the country and will be announced by NBC’s top team of Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola. It is the Padres’ first national appearance this season. Even then, 99% of the reason for the telecast is the participation of the Dodgers, who are considered a national team even when they aren’t in first place. “We feel there is still some holdover interest in (the Padres) since 1984,” said an NBC official Friday. “But it’s not too much anymore. Interest has gone down quite a way since then.” . . . The Dodgers announced Friday that Fernando Valenzuela will return today from his father’s funeral in Mexico and will make his regularly scheduled start in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader Until the announcement, Valenzuela’s status was unknown, as the club had not heard from him since he joined his family Wednesday after learning of his father’s death from cancer. . . . To Live and Hide in L.A.: Chris Brown, who grew up 20 minutes from Dodger Stadium, left “just 20” free tickets for friends for the game tonight. He used to leave at least 50 until he got smart and stopped staying at the team hotel. “I stay at home now, and nobody can find me,” Brown said with a smile. . . . How accommodating can Manager Jack McKeon be with the media? He took several hours out of his off day Thursday to fly here and be interviewed on ESPN’s “Sports Look” show, then flew back to San Diego to take his wife to dinner. The show aired Thursday night. . . . The Padres and KUSI-TV have extended their contract, which is up this year, for three years. This will leave the Padres on Channel 51 at least until 1991.