Padres Reach Midpoint on Rise, Beat Cardinals

The Padres reached the halfway point of their season Saturday night in a way that gave everyone a feeling that the best is still to come.

Undaunted by the early exit of pitcher Dennis Rasmussen, their new-found ace, and trailing by five runs after four innings, the Padres rallied to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5, in front of 24,812 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Tony Gwynn supplied the winning hit with an RBI single in the seventh after Garry Templeton had tied the game with a two-run homer.

Templeton added an RBI single in the eighth for good measure, further demonstrating that he is beginning to bust out of what had been a deep early-season slump.

“I’ve always been a slow starter,” Templeton said. “I was hitting the ball well; I just wasn’t getting any results.”

His 3-for-3 performance, which also included a walk, raised his average 14 points to .220. Templeton is in the midst of an eight-game streak in which he is batting .444 (12 for 27) with 12 RBIs.

His home run was his first of the season and his first since Sept. 19 in Houston. And it didn’t come cheaply. Templeton drove the pitch from reliever John Costello 10 rows deep into the right-field stands to tie the game at 5-5.

“Basically, I was looking for a pitch to get the runner (Benito Santiago) over from second and give the next batter a chance to make it a one-run game. All of sudden, I hit it out of the ballpark.”

The display of power surprised even Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog, who managed Templeton in his last two seasons in St. Louis.

“I’ve never seen him hit it that far,” Herzog said.

Said Costello: “I tried to throw low strikes. Instead of getting it down, I got it over the plate, and he made me pay.”

Costello was replaced by Ken Dayley, who immediately gave up a double to Marvell Wynne, pinch-hitting for winning pitcher Mark Grant. Dayley retired the next two batters before Gwynn lined a single to center that scored Wynne with the game-winner.

“Even though it was 5-0, guys kept saying, ‘Let’s peck away.’ Jack (McKeon) kept saying, ‘Let’s peck away,’ ” Gwynn said.

“Before we might have said, ‘Let’s peck away.’ But now we believe we can.”

They are the first team in the majors to reach the midway point, and they did it seven games before the All-Star break.

The midyear report shows the Padres in fifth place with a 36-45 record, one game behind the fourth-place Cincinnati Reds and 11 behind the first-place Dodgers in the National League West.

That is an eight-game improvement from last year at this point, when the Padres were 28-53 and in sixth place, 17 1/2 games out of first.

Most of the turnaround has occurred since McKeon took over from Larry Bowa as manager May 28. The Padres, 16-30 under Bowa, are 20-15 under McKeon. That is the best record in the National League West in that span. The only problem is that the Padres have been able to gain only a half-game on first during that time because the team with the second-best record since McKeon took control is the division-leading Dodgers (19-15).

“Since Jack took over, the club is playing with a lot more confidence,” Gwynn said. “Our execution has been outstanding, and we’ve been getting good pitching.”

The Padres had another strong game from their relievers as Greg Booker, Grant and Mark Davis each pitched two innings of one-hit, shutout baseball in relief of Rasmussen.

Grant earned his second victory against six losses, and Davis picked up his 15th save in 16 opportunities. He is now second in the National League in saves, one behind the Cardinals’ Todd Worrell.

The good work out of the bullpen could not have come at a better time, as Rasmussen’s charmed beginning for San Diego finally came to an end.

After winning his first four starts as a Padre, Rasmussen was chased after he allowed five runs in the first three innings.

Rasmussen started by striking out 3 of the first 4 batters, but his early troubles began when he allowed a one-out single in the second inning to third baseman Terry Pendleton and then walked catcher Tony Pena.

It appeared Rasmussen might get out of the inning without any trouble after first baseman Mike Fitzgerald flied out to left. But second baseman Jose Oquendo lashed a double down the left-field line that bounded into the Padre bullpen, allowing Pendleton and Pena to score for a 2-0 lead.

Rasmussen started the third with his fifth strikeout--his fourth on called strikes--but the beginning of the earliest end for Rasmussen as a Padre started when Ozzie Smith reached first on an error by Templeton. The error was the team’s first in 63 innings over 7 games, ending their longest such streak in two years.

Center fielder Willie McGee singled to center to set up right fielder Tom Brunansky.

The Cardinals acquired Brunansky from Minnesota April 22 in exchange for second baseman Tom Herr in a trade that was supposed to add some punch to the Cardinals’ notoriously power-poor lineup. And if judged only on his games against the Padres, the Cardinals couldn’t have made a better deal.

Brunansky, who had three homers in a three-game series in San Diego in April, stung the Padres again. This time he drove Rasmussen’s 1-2 hanging curveball seven rows into the left-field stands for a three-run homer and a 5-0 lead. Four of Brunansky’s 10 homers have come against the Padres, and all but one of his five hits against the Padres has been a home run.

Rasmussen was able to end the inning by getting flyouts from Pena and Fitzgerald, but he was replaced by pinch-hitter Tim Flannery.

It was by far the shortest appearance in Rasmussen’s five starts since joining the Padres in a trade with Cincinnati for Candy Sierra June 8. He had gone at least 6 innings in each of his previous four starts and had gone the distance in two of them.

In that stretch, Rasmussen, who allowed 5 hits and 5 runs (4 earned) in his 3 innings against the Cards, had given up 24 hits and only 9 runs (8 earned) in 31 innings for a 2.27 ERA.

“Ras just had one of those nights,” McKeon said. “But that is all right, because our bullpen did the job.”

With Rasmussen gone and the Cardinals’ Larry McWilliams starting the game by allowing only two singles in four shutout innings, the Padres looked as if they might be headed for a long evening. But slowly, the Cardinals, who had lost 15 of their previous 20 games, began to unravel.

The Padres started by getting two runs back in the fifth after Santiago singled and Templeton walked with one out. Dickie Thon, pinch-hitting for Booker, struck out on three pitches, but Shane Mack hit a line drive double to right that just cleared the glove of a leaping Brunansky. Santiago and Templeton scored to cut the lead to 5-2.

The Padres drew to within 5-3 in the sixth when Gwynn hit a leadoff triple and Keith Moreland drove him home with a sacrifice fly.

Costello replaced McWilliams in the seventh, but he didn’t last long. Santiago ripped a leadoff double to the right, and then Templeton belted his home run.

It was the first runs allowed by Costello in 10 innings since being recalled from Triple A Louisville May 29.

The Padres added their final run in the eighth in a sequence that started with a two-out single by Chris Brown. Santiago then singled to left, and Templeton drove home Brown with his third hit of the game.

“I knew if I kept working, my ability would come through,” Templeton said. “I’m just to do what the situation needs.”

Padre Notes

Dennis Rasmussen has been named the Padre pitcher of the month, and Marvell Wynne player of the month for June. Rasmussen was 4-0 in four starts with a 2.27 ERA since he joined the Padres June 8 in a trade with Cincinnati. Wynne, who was selected for the second consecutive month, batted .282 in June with 3 home runs and 9 RBIs. . . . Chris Brown made his second start in a row at third base Saturday. It was only his fourth start since June 18. His others were in consecutive games at Atlanta last weekend. . . . The Padres’ victory over St. Louis Friday night in the first game of the nine-game home stand marked the fifth time in five tries that the team has opened a home stand with a victory.