Moreland, Templeton Help Padres to Unusual Victory

Say what you want about this Padre youth movement. Nights such as Tuesday are the reason Manager Jack McKeon will hug, kiss and coddle his veterans.

With their team trying to win a second consecutive game against the embarrassed San Francisco Giants, in chilly Candlestick Park, against a pitcher who has lost to the Padres three times in 10 years . . . in from the statistical cold came Keith Moreland and Garry Templeton.

Nine innings later, the Padres followed them out with a 8-3 victory, remarkable not only in that it was their second victory in a row over the defending National League West champions, but that it was against one Rick Reuschel.

Face it, the Padres entered with as much chance of beating Reuschel as Reuschel has of doing shampoo commercials.

Reuschel, portly, balding and 39 years old, had won all three starts against the Padres this season, with a 1.74 ERA. In fact, he had not lost to them in nearly two years, having won five in a row over them since July 8, 1986. Going back to 1978, he had lost to the Padres only three times in 14 decisions.

But the Padres, led by two doubles from Moreland, a single and triple from Templeton and a total of five RBIs from the pair, ran through that jinx, and their road jinx, and into a spot as one of the National League’s two hottest teams.

Since May 28, when McKeon took over from Larry Bowa, the Padres have gone 15-10, just behind the Chicago Cubs’ 14-9 record during that time. In earning their fourth victory in seven games on this trip, the Padres have won just one fewer road game in the past five days than they did in their previous 23.

And they did it first with Moreland, who entered hitting .277 with only three homers and 24 mostly noncritical RBIs. And then with Templeton, who was hitting .182 with just six RBIs.

The oldest players on the team (Moreland 34, Templeton 32) also had been the most disappointing. They also had been the most staunchly supported by McKeon, who believes a man’s past can always become his present again. Such as it did Tuesday.

Not that the two veterans didn’t have plenty of help, namely from Padre starter Dennis Rasmussen, who won his third game in three starts since he was acquired from the Cincinnati Reds for Candy Sierra on June 8. He held the Giants to eight hits, lowering his Padre ERA to 2.19. Sierra, meanwhile, was recently demoted by the Reds to triple-A Nashville.

Rasmussen first displayed his intentions in the second inning. After allowing a walk to Kevin Mitchell and a single to Mike Aldrete to put runners on first and third, he struck out Bob Brenly and Jose Uribe. It was all the spark the Padre offense needed.

The Padres had already scored one run in the second, and they added two in the third and another in the fourth before they ran Reuschel out of the game, knocking him for four runs on six hits in 3 innings. They added two more in the fifth against reliever Randy Bockus and two more off Scott Garrelts in the ninth to set up an attempt at a rare road series sweep.

The final game Is today at 1:05 p.m., when Ed Whitson (7-5) faces the Giants’ Atlee Hammaker (3-1). The Padres haven’t swept a three-game road series in two years, since June 20-22, 1986, in Los Angeles. A sweep completed today would be on precisely the same three days.

The only thing that could slow the Padres Tuesday was a delay that should land home plate umpire Jerry Crawford in some sort of umpires’ “Believe It or Not” museum. In the fifth inning, the Giants’ Candy Maldonado fouled a ball off catcher Benito Santiago’s glove and directly off Crawford’s left hand. He was helped from the field wincing and nearly crying in pain and taken to a local hospital. The game was halted for 13 minutes while third-base umpire Doug Harvey put on the home plate gear.

Not that unusual, perhaps, except Crawford left Monday night’s game in the third inning after taking a ball off the left thigh.

That must be how the Giants felt, beginning with the Padre second.

After one out, Moreland doubled to left. Randy Ready was hit by a Reuschel pitch, and Santiago’s grounder then forced Ready at second and moved Moreland to third. This set up Templeton’s two-out, 2-and-1 RBI single up the middle.

On to the second, when Roberto Alomar singled and John Kruk walked, and Moreland put a 1-and-0 pitch into the left-field corner for two more runs.

Templeton led off the third with a triple to the right-center field wall, his third triple of the season. A Rasmussen single through the right side of a drawn-in infield scored him and eventually finished Reuschel.

The Padres added two more against rookie Bockus in the fifth on Templeton’s grounder and a wild pitch. A walk to Marvell Wynne and back-to-back doubles by Tony Gwynn and Kruk gave them their throw-away runs in the ninth.

Padre Notes

Reliever Lance McCullers rejoined the team after he missed three games (two days) for treatment of a back spasm by one of his personal physicians in San Diego. Neither he nor the Padres are revealing the name of the doctor, mainly because he is not a team physician. But he has seen McCullers for the past several years, and whatever he is doing, it seems to be working.