Padres, Show Stop Cardinals

Blown pickoff play. Bad rundown play. Foul pops treated like disease carriers. Pitching mound feeling like a man could die out there.

The Padres’ Eric Show looked around and realized, hey, it’s all the same thing. It’s, how shall we say it, not the first time this has happened.

The Padres played another unusual game Sunday, the most unusual part being, Show was neither bothered nor bewitched by it. Through 100-degree heat, through one inning that should have been ashamed to associate itself with professional baseball, Show threw a complete-game five-hitter, retiring 17 of the last 18 hitters in leading the Padres to a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

“How I felt is hard to describe,” said Show afterward, looking pale and cool as always, even his hair neatly parted. “It was like, I’ll pitch as hard as I can and whatever happens, happens.”

Largely because of the ever-maturing Show, whose fifth complete game already ties a career high, several things have thus happened to the Padres.

Item: They won three of four games at St. Louis, the first time they’ve won that many at Busch Stadium in a series since 1980. After suffering their only loss here in the ninth inning Saturday, they have even become cocky about it.

“Before, we’d say we’re lucky to win three out of four here,” said Tony Gwynn, who went 1 for 4 to extend his hitting streak to a team-high 12 games. “Now it’s like, we feel we should have won all four.”

Because of the heat on the field, which approached 140 degrees, Gwynn wasn’t having that much fun Sunday: He was one of a couple of Padres who soaked their feet, shoes and all, in buckets of ice between innings.

Item: In the four games since the All-Star break, the Padre starting pitching has averaged eight innings per game, going 3-0 with a 1.68 ERA and causing even veteran Keith Moreland to search for superlatives, if not gestures.

“Amazing starting pitching,” Moreland said. “I’m shaking my head.”

Odd Item: The Padres suddenly, actually believe they can do well in their next series. It begins tonight at the home of baseball’s hottest team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, authors of nine straight wins.

“We’re glad to go in there now, we’d rather have them hot,” pitching coach Pat Dobson said. “The worst thing you want is to hit a team like that on a losing streak.”

Now do you believe it’s been hot in St. Louis this weekend? The temperatures not only made the Padres say crazy things, but act them out as well.

When Show took the mound, the temperature was 101 degrees, about 40 degrees higher on the AstroTurf. Three innings later, when the Cardinals scored their first run on two hits, two fielding errors and one mental error, his insides reached the boiling point.

“Walking to the mound was like walking into a furnace . . . then in the third inning it became make or break,” said Show, who later improved his record to 7-9 while lowering his ERA to 3.49.

With a 3-1 lead thanks to RBI singles by Moreland and Chris Brown and an RBI double by Dickie Thon, Show started the third by getting Cardinal pitcher Joe Magrane on a foul popout. Or so he thought. Catcher Mark Parent lost the ball in the sun, and by the time he found it, it had popped out of his glove. Show settled down to get Magrane on a groundout.

But then Show allowed a one-out single to Vince Coleman and another single to Ozzie Smith, moving Coleman to third, and here’s where the inning went to seed.

With Willie McGee batting, Show spun and picked Smith off first. Or so he thought. In an ensuing rundown, Thon was chasing Smith back to first and noticed Coleman straying off third, and suddenly threw there instead. Coleman dived back safely and Smith strolled back to first.

Admitted Thon: “A bad play by me. I thought I had Coleman. I should have gotten the easy out.”

Concluded Show: “It was time to bear down.”

So he retired McGee on a grounder that, while scoring Coleman, forced Smith at second and seemed to take the air out of the Cardinal offense. Or so Show thought. He promptly threw an attempted pickoff of McGee into the dirt under Moreland’s glove, and by the time the ball stopped rolling, McGee was on third. Then a Show fastball hit Tom Brunansky in the arm.

“By then, you know, I was really feeling hot,” Show said. “But in that situation, there’s only one thing you can do.”

And he did it. On a simple slider-sinker selection, he got Mike Laga on a grounder to second to end the inning. Jose Oquendo led off the fourth with a single, but it was 18 batters before another guy reached base. Oquendo, with two out in the ninth, walked. It was Show’s first walk of the game. In his last 39 innings, he has walked five men.

This kind of control is why Sunday’s ninth was not like Saturday’s ninth, when the Padres blew a 2-1 lead and lost, 3-2. On four pitches, Show struck out pinch-hitter Terry Pendleton to end the game.

Padre Notes

Keith Moreland had two hits to continue a hot spell that has him hitting .364 (12 for 33) in his last 10 games. Moreland says his sore left shoulder is feeling better, and credits a cortisone shot he received after the Padres’ final game before the All-Star break a week ago. “Every day my extension is better, every day I feel better,” said Moreland. “Maybe a shot was finally the right thing to do.” Moreland hurt the shoulder diving for a fly ball in the first spring game, but with his unwillingness to leave the lineup, has downplayed the injury since.

The recent firing of Philadelphia third base coach Dave Bristol will have no effect on the unemployment of former Padre manager Larry Bowa, at least until after the season. Though Bowa, a former Phillie, has been mentioned as a replacement for Bristol, Phillie Manager Lee Elia said Saturday, “We aren’t going to do anything until next year.” Bristol and batting coach Del Unser were fired Thursday, at which point Bowa called friend Elia to inquire about the opening. Phillie owner Bill Giles recently said he and Bowa nearly had a deal whereby Bowa would join the club as an announcer. “But it fell through, and nothing will be possible until December,” Giles said. In the meantime, Bowa is at his Bryn Mawr home near Philadelphia, collecting the balance of his $125,000 contract for the rest of this season.

The successful series in St. Louis lifted Padre spirits, but it also began pointing out two problem spots in the lineup--center field and left field. In center, Marvell Wynne’s hot string is unraveling, as he went 0 for 9 in the Cardinal series, and struck out four times. His replacement, Shane Mack, went 2 for 6 and failed to back up second base on a ninth-inning overthrow Saturday night, leading to the Padres’ 3-2 loss. “My swing is fine, my mechanics are fine, but all of a sudden I’m not seeing the ball well,” Wynne said. “I just have to start seeing it again.” Manager Jack McKeon admitted his concern, but said, “I don’t want to juggle anything just yet, we’re playing too well.” If neither player improves, look for this season’s opening day center fielder, Stanley Jefferson, to arrive from triple-A Las Vegas within 10 days. The other spot causing concern involves two struggling players, Carmelo Martinez and John Kruk. The left field position combined to go 3 for 14 during the four-game Cardinal series, with Kruk going 0 for 5 and Martinez going a respectable 3 for 9, but failing at the plate several times with runners on base. Overall, Kruk is hitting only .250 and Martinez is hitting .210. “I’ll just have to keep throwing them out there and see what happens,” said McKeon, whose next trade may involve this position.