Sweep by Dodgers Slaps the Padres Back Into Reality

That overdue guest, reality, hit the Padres Sunday like a Kirk Gibson high-five.

A weekend in Los Angeles that covered 47 innings in 52 hours ended Sunday night with Gibson swaggering off first base, arms raised, slapping the callouses off this Dodger and that Dodger and anybody with thick enough skin to join the celebration.

He had just busted a bat and the Padres chops with an 11th-inning, two-out, looping single to right field to give the Dodgers a 5-4 victory in the second game of the afternoon doubleheader.

He reached first base, turned to watch Dave Anderson score the winning run, hopped, turned again, and smacked his hands down on first base coach on Manny Mota’s hands.

Slap. Slap. In case you haven’t guessed, this is also the sound of a doubleheader sweep. The Padres were blown out of the first game, 12-2, these same Padres who swept the Dodgers in two games Friday night.

All of which means this: Whereas Saturday morning they woke up 6 1/2 games out of first place, today their cheeks are red and their contender-dreams sting and they are 9 1/2 games back, which suddenly hardly sounds like a pennant race.

A long day. Even though the Padres finished a respectable 2-3 in Los Angeles, a long weekend. And a long way to travel to learn that you should never have left from the place you started.

“Our goal when we came in here was to play .500 baseball, that’s all,” said Tim Flannery amid obviously exhausted Padre teammates afterward.

“But then we win a few big games and all of a sudden, it’s like, forget .500, let’s go for it. We have to realize, just go back to playing one game at a time. Don’t get too high or too low.”

After Sunday’s first game--a basic blowout that Manager Jack McKeon admitted “will happen to us every couple of weeks”--the Padres learned that lesson of patience throughout the second game. Against a struggling Fernando Valenzuela, it was a game they should have won. Early.

It was nice, but they shouldn’t have needed a two-out, ninth-inning RBI single by Randy Ready to tie it up, 4-4. It was nice, but they shouldn’t have needed an extraordinary diving stop by shortstop Garry Templeton to save a run and keep the game going in the 10th.

As they racked up 14 hits against the Dodgers in regulation, it should have ended right there. That’s what had McKeon exasperated as he took the club to San Francisco to continue a 15-game trip.

He could have looked at it this way: The Padres don’t have to look at the Dodgers again until the third week of football season (Sept. 21). And they have still won seven of 12 games against them so far. But he didn’t.

“It seemed like every time I looked up in this game, the bases were loaded,” McKeon said after the second game, rubbing his eyes. “But we could not get a hit to break it open. Fernando was throwing that 65 m.p.h. stuff and we all had to try to hit it out of the park. We were not patient.”

Before we get to the second game climax--a hint: Mark Davis allowed Gibson’s winning hit after starting the inning by walking Anderson--a little buildup is in order.

In that second inning, after the Padres took a 3-0 lead, Tony Gwynn left runners on first and third with a grounder.

In the fourth, Roberto Alomar came up with bases loaded and one out and could only chop one in front of home plate for what turned into a double play.

In the fifth, runners reached first and third with two out when Dickie Thon struck out on a full-count screwball.

In the seventh Thon was the goat again when, with bases loaded and two out, he ended the threat with a grounder to shortstop.

In the eighth, Alomar hurt the Padres again, leaving a runner on third by striking out.

“A whole bunch of opportunities,” said Gwynn. “To win one of these last three games would have meant a lot to us.”

The Padres nearly took it in extra innings, after Ready had followed Kruk’s ninth-inning double with an RBI single off Jesse Orosco to tie the score, 4-4.

Starter Mark Grant had survived well after allowing four runs in the first three innings, and Davis took his place and everything was set for an 11th-inning rally.

With one out Gwynn singled and moved to second on Keith Moreland’s grounder. But after an intentional walk to Kruk, up stepped Davis to hit. Davis?

Yes, because the other stopper, Lance McCullers, came down with back spasms Saturday afternoon and was sent home to San Diego for treatment Sunday. McKeon expects him to rejoin the club in San Francisco, but for now, McKeon had no choice but to stick with Davis. The only two other members of the bullpen, Greg Booker and Dave Leiper, had thrown in the first game. Davis flied out to right and the rally was over.

“Nothing I could do,” McKeon said. “Not having Lance tied my hands.”

The Padres were blown out of the first game after Jimmy Jones was racked up early. He endured nine runs in four innings. His ERA jumped from 3.35 to 4.14.

Padre Notes

Third baseman Chris Brown is hurt again. He missed both games Sunday with a jammed right shoulder he hurt Saturday. In his place, Tim Flannery and Randy Ready combined to go 2 for 5 with a homer (Ready), 3 RBIs and 2 walks, which is better than Brown has been doing lately (.240 with 2 homers and 9 RBIs). Manager Jack McKeon, however, said Brown should be ready to play today at San Francisco, and Ready probably will end up back on the bench, where he can be more helpful as a pinch-hitter. “To tell you the truth, I like to look over there in the late innings and see a good hitter like Ready sitting next to me,” McKeon said. . . . The cheering in Sunday’s first game occured louder and more often for the Lakers’ NBA championship series game against Detroit than anything else, as many were following it with small TVs or radios. “Yeah, we knew what the cheering was for,” McKeon said after hearing the cheering at odd times. “I didn’t think they were yelling because Dickie Thon was staying in the game.” . . . The forgotten man of this series was outfielder Shane Mack, who batted once and pinch-ran twice and suffered the ignominy of watching pitcher Mark Davis bat for himself in the 10th inning Sunday. Don’t look for Mack, hitting .205, to go to the minors in place of McKeon favorite Stanley Jefferson just yet, though. McKeon doesn’t want to recall Jefferson until he can go back in the starting lineup, which means Wynne must falter first. . . . The Padres allowed nine Dodger homers this series while hitting just one of their own, but the more amazing thing is, they gave up homers to people who haven’t been hitting them. They gave up Mike Davis’ first homer, Franklin Stubbs’ second homer, Rick Dempsey’s second and third homer, Jeff Hamilton’s second and third homer and John Shelby’s fourth homer. After leading the league in allowed homers last season, they are approaching that position again with 56 allowed homers, which puts them in a tie for second with Chicago and Houston, trailing only the Montreal staff, which has allowed 67 homers.