Whitson Can’t Get Any Relief : Reds Beat Padres, 4-3, Cashing In on Bad Outing by McCullers

The best that can be said about the Padres Sunday afternoon is that it’s a good thing the plane they stepped on afterward was bound for Atlanta.

The shenanigans the Padres pulled here against the Cincinnati Reds will wear comfortably in the land that has spent the summer with the Braves, the worst team in the National League.

The Padres lost to the Reds, 4-3, giving up four runs in the sixth, an inning that included nine Cincinnati batters, two hits and a thousand laughs.

The Padres handed the Reds four walks, a passed ball, a blown double play and a blown forceout. Only two balls were hit out of the infield, only one of which went for a hit; the other hit came on a grounder.

“What a nice day,” Carmelo Martinez stated after striking out four times, including once into a double play. “We had fun today.”

The finale came when reliever Lance McCullers entered the sixth with the bases loaded and the score tied, 2-2. He walked Bo Diaz on four pitches. Diaz had not walked in 122 previous at-bats.

A couple of pitches later McCullers threw an inside slider to Ron Oester, not a bad idea except that catcher Benito Santiago was expecting a down-the-middle fastball. The ball tipped Santiago’s glove and bounced to the backstop for a passed ball and the Reds final run walked home from third base in the person of Eric Davis.

McCullers has done this before with the bases loaded this season. Here on June 28, he walked Tracy Jones to give the Reds another 4-3 victory.

“There’s one way to solve that--avoid using him with the bases loaded ,” frustrated pitching coach Pat Dobson said. “He’s obviously not comfortable. We’ll just have to give him an empty bases to work with.”

It was also the fourth time this year, beginning with opening night in Houston, that McCullers has blown a game started by pitcher Ed Whitson, whose record fell to 10-7.

“This was an ugly loss,” Whitson said. “A darned ugly loss.”

Countered winning pitcher Tom Browning with a shrug: “If you’re going to win ugly, this is the time of the year to win ugly.”

Indeed, the Reds moved within 7 1/2 games of the first-place Dodgers, with the Dodgers due in Cincinnati Tuesday for three games. The Padres, meanwhile, take their act to Atlanta, where the Braves still trail them by 12 1/2 games.

It was so much fun, the best part might not have even been the lousy inning, but two separate shouting matches between a Padre and a Red. Chris Brown jawed with Oester, and Martinez jawed with Diaz. Although nothing happened in either case, at least one person wouldn’t have minded if it did.

“Maybe that’s what we need, a good fight with another team,” McKeon said jokingly.

They certainly beat up enough on themselves Sunday, and all in that one inning. This came after Whitson had breezed through the fifth with some of his best stuff of the season, allowing just two hits with five strikeouts.

But then he started the fifth by walking Browning on five pitches, and then throwing even a wilder ball to second base on a grounder by Dave Collins. Instead of turning a double play, shortstop Dickie Thon was barely able to leap and pull the throw down for one out, and the rally was on.

“That was the play, a good throw and I get a double play on that,” Thon said.

Next up, Chris Sabo, who singled into the left-field corner to put runners on the corners. Barry Larkin then walked on four straight pitches to bring up Davis, who grounded a ball deep in the hole between second and third. Thon was barely able to grab the ball, but still had time to throw Larkin out at second, but the throw was wide.

“Again,” Thon said, “a good throw gets him. I just got caught funny while throwing it.”

An RBI fly by Paul O’Neill and a walk to Nick Esasky and the bases were loaded for Diaz, who has walked just twice unintentionally this season, and not since June 3.

In came McCullers, and four pitches later the Reds led on Diaz’ first game-winning RBI since May 15.

McCullers contended that two of those pitches were strikes, but catcher Santiago said they weren’t.

“I thought at least two were in there--the strike zone hasn’t changed that much.” McCullers said. “The umpire (Tom Hallion) must have been tired or something.”

Said Santiago: “They weren’t even close. After Diaz saw the first two, he was taking.”

Then came the passed ball, which Santiago implied revealed another struggle for McCullers--a struggle to read the signs.

“I gave the sign for a fastball, and maybe he just didn’t see it,” Santiago said. “It’s happened before with him, and with bases loaded, it’s bad. I know, there is no way the ball gets by me if I am expecting it. The ball would kill me first. But he throws a slider and I can’t get to it.”

“I guess there was a mix-up,” McCullers said. “It’s frustrating, because if I get out of the inning, we can win.”

The inning wasted Roberto Alomar’s first homer since June 29, his seventh overall, and RBI doubles by Tony Gwynn and Marvell Wynne.

Padre Notes

A blow by blow of Sunday’s shouting matches . . . Incident No. 1: With two outs in the first inning, Chris Brown walked. It was only his 16th walk this season, fewer than 11 other Padres. Statistics being what they are, this irritated Tom Browning. He turned and hollered at Brown. According to Reds Manager Pete Rose, their conversation went like this: Browning: “You aren’t that good.” Brown: “You aren’t that good, either.” Juicy stuff, certainly, enough to incite second baseman Ron Oester into joining the fray. He began yelling at Brown, who again yelled back. The words were too naughty for anyone to repeat, and neither Oester or Brown was available later to talk about it. “Just say there was some pretty good lipwork going on,” Rose said. “I don’t know who I’d pick in a fight--Oester is taller but Brown is bigger.” . . . Incident No. 2: When Carmelo Martinez ended the fifth inning with a strikeout, Roberto Alomar was stranded on second base. After Martinez last swing, Red catcher Bo Diaz began shouting at him, accusing him of using Alomar to steal the signs. According to Martinez, here’s what happened next: “I looked at Diaz and said, ‘Right, and Robbie really did a good job of stealing those signs, didn’t he? I’m having a terrible day and now I’ve got to listen to you? The way I’m going, I didn’t even know Robbie was on second base!”’ As the players walked their separate ways, Diaz jawed back, and they continued to shout until Martinez was in the outfield and Diaz was in the dugout.