Pride Goeth for Homer; Padres Fall : Hamilton, Batting .202, Has Key Two-Run Shot as the Dodgers Win, 3-0

It has been a school fight song kind of baseball philosophy, but it has worked.

Padres first, pride second. Jack McKeon has preached it, and his team has recently lived it, having won 11 times in a 15-game stretch and pulled within 6 1/2 games of the first-place Dodgers.

Then came Saturday, about 12 hours after a doubleheader sweep of those Dodgers, and a single game that could have been a coronation. National television. Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola. McKeon would use this afternoon to shout that philosophy to more than three-fourths of the country.

Padres first, pride second. One problem. His pitcher, Eric Show, couldn’t hear. Or didn’t listen. Or whatever. But two innings into the game, Show’s arrogant slider was taken deep by the worst hitter in the Dodger lineup, and because of it, this morning the Padres aren’t so rah-rah after a 3-0 defeat at Dodger Stadium.

In front of 39,061, a game of nearly 3 hours came down to one pitch.

Second inning, scoreless tie, two out, Dodger John Shelby on second base. At the plate arrived one Jeff Hamilton, hitting .202 with one homer and more strikeouts (15) than RBIs (14), and five times as many errors (5) as walks (1).

Not exactly a hitter you want to allow to beat you. So when Show immediately fell behind 3 and 1, then received a favorable strike call to make the count full, the Padre bosses thought he would throw the 24-year-old kid a sucker pitch.

“Give him something down and away, and if he can hit that , fine, and if not, first base is open, and you walk him,” McKeon said later. “That’s what we wanted.”

That’s not what Show wanted.

Figuring that the guy couldn’t hit any pitch, Show threw him a slider high and away, directly in what baseball fans who chew tobacco refer to as a “wheelhouse.”

Hamilton crushed it. The ball landed in that section of the bleachers located 380 feet away for his second homer. Not only did it surprise the guy who caught it, it surprised the guy who hit it.

“I still don’t feel right at the plate,” Hamilton admitted afterward.

In all, not a proper way for the Padres’ best veteran pitcher to act in a game that resembled one belonging in a pennant race. The homer gave the Dodgers a lead, 2-0, that they held for only their third victory in 12 games against the Padres this year. Show, incidentally, has lost all three.

“The Dodgers seem to be, I don’t know, a thorn in my side,” Show said after he allowed two runs in six innings to lower his ERA to 3.82 but also to lower his record to 5-7.

McKeon and pitching coach Pat Dobson seem to think Show can be his own worst brier.

“I guess it’s the competitiveness that all pitchers feel. I guess some of them think they can get everybody out,” McKeon said, shaking his head. “It’s something we’ll talk about in the days and weeks ahead--you cannot give in (to that feeling) and get beat foolishly.”

Dobson preferred not to describe it as a pride factor:

“It’s not a pride factor, it’s a dumbness factor,” Dobson said. “To think that anybody can’t hit that pitch . . . shoot, if the ball is in the right place, a pitcher can hit that pitch.”

Show, who had allowed a single to Shelby to start the inning and the trouble, explained his two-out thinking.

“Of all the guys in the Dodger lineup, Hamilton is not much of a concern to me,” he said. “It wasn’t like I was going to be careful to him or anything. I can’t let a seventh-place hitter beat me like that. I couldn’t do that.”

Show’s catcher, Mark Parent, agreed, noting that if Hamilton is walked, here comes .286-hitting Dave Anderson.

“I don’t know if Hamilton is that good of a hitter,” Parent said. “Anderson has been swinging good, Hamilton hasn’t. We were confident we could get him.”

Confidence wasn’t something the Padres were lacking, during or after the game. Besides all that talk about that lucky Hamilton, the Padre hitters moaned about lost chances against the Dodger starter and winner, Tim Belcher, who nonetheless allowed just three hits in 6 innings.

Funny, but isn’t it the Dodgers who normally say these things about the Padres?

“Belcher didn’t beat us with anything,” said Parent, who stranded Keith Moreland on second base with a second-inning groundout in one of several snuffed rallies. “I wish I was more ready for what he had, because I saw some pitches I could have whaled on.”

Added Carmelo Martinez: “He wasn’t overpowering, I can tell you that.”

Last weekend’s Dodger killer, Martinez, was 0 for 3 with runners on base Saturday, but among the Padres’ offensive goats, he has to stand at the back of the line.

With runners on first and second and two out in the sixth, Moreland flied out. In the same baserunner situation with one out in the seventh, pinch-hitter John Kruk flied out, and pinch-hitter Randy Ready struck out on three pitches.

Finally, with runners on first and second one more time in the ninth, with one out, pinch-hitter Benito Santiago struck out on three pitches, and Dickie Thon struck out on four pitches to end the game.

The Dodger on the mound was right-handed stopper Jay Howell, who took over for left-handed reliever Jesse Orosco in the eighth, even though the Padres were sending up three consecutive left-handed hitters.

“You knew they were serious about this game when they did that,” Martinez said. “Getting Howell in that early, they really wanted to win.”

The Dodgers were serious afterward as well. Even Kirk Gibson, for a record second consecutive day, would not speak even remotely ill of the Padres or their personnel.

Enough is enough. Let’s get a team ID check here.

“It’s just a win, like any other day. I don’t care who it is,” Gibson said after he hit his 13th homer of the season in the eighth, a shot off reliever Dave Leiper that completed the scoring. “I can’t say . . . about (the Padres). I might be stupid, but I’m not ignorant.”

Padre Notes

Look for the Padres to close the deal with first-round pick Andy Benes early next week. Farm director Tom Romenesko has been having daily talks with Benes’ representative, Phil Byers, and may even pay him a visit in Evansville, Ind., to hasten a settlement. The bonus will be around $225,000, making the University of Evansville pitcher the highest-paid amateur pick in history. The highest paid previously was Darryl Strawberry, who received $210,000 as a national No. 1 pick of the New York Mets in 1980. . . . John Kruk missed Saturday’s start with a slight groin pull suffered in Friday’s second game but afterward said, “I’m fine. I probably should have been benched anyway because of my bat.” Kruk will be back in the lineup for at least one of the two games today. . . . Marvell Wynne’s 1988 team-high 10-game hitting streak was snapped with an 0-for-4 performance. After he grounded out in the eighth, he spiked his helmet for one of the first times this year. . . . As of late Saturday afternoon, Manager Jack McKeon still would not say which reliever would be his starting pitcher in the second game of today’s doubleheader. He is waiting to see which of two members of his bullpen is more rested after game one. “Right now, the choice of who will start is between (Mark) Grant and (Greg) Booker,” he said, confirming earlier speculation. “But it depends on what happens in the first game. We could wind up using four guys at two innings each, like spring training. Or maybe we could take a poll after the first game and let the writers choose.” There is no league rule that forces a manager to name a starter anytime before his team turns in the lineup card at home plate. Grant has started 10 times this year, and Booker only has two big-league starts, one each in 1983 and 1984.