Padres Beaten, 4-0, as Jones Struggles for Just an Instant

So, Jimmy Jones, what are you going to do this time?

“I probably go home and stare at the ceiling for a couple of hours,” Jones said late Saturday. “Just like last time.”

No longer just a pitcher but a human sleight-of-hand, Jones pulled another funny one Saturday, disappearing for a couple of batters in the middle of work and leaving early with an eventual 4-0 loss to the Montreal Expos in front of a paid crowd of 20,986 at Olympic Stadium.

In throwing a chop-block at the Padres’ hopes of equaling the .500 mark for the first time in two seasons--they fell to 63-65--Jones also cemented his reputation as the staff riddle.

How can someone have great statistics and bad statistics? Or, what does it mean to be all pitch and no win?

Jones (8-12) allowed just four hits and one earned run in six innings. But he lost on an unearned run, scored in the second inning, when he allowed an RBI single by a guy named Luis Rivera, at the time hitting .195 with runners on base. There were two outs, first base was vacant, and pitcher Bryn Smith was on deck.

“Sometimes,” Padre catcher Benito Santiago said, “Jimmy just gets tense out there.”

“Sometimes,” pitching coach Pat Dobson said, “he just tries to be too perfect.”

Whatever, Jones’ life lately has been filled with Luis Riveras. During his past six starts, he has a solid 3.40 ERA in 37 innings. But during that time, dating back to July 24, he has won just once.

“It’s always a pitch here, a pitch there,” Manager Jack McKeon said.

Everywhere, Luis Riveras:

--On Aug. 11 in Atlanta, it was a rookie named Terry Blocker with an RBI triple in the seventh, his first big-league RBI. Padres blow 1-1 tie, lose, 2-1.

--On Aug. 22 against Philadelphia, it was a guy named Milt Thompson with a seventh-inning RBI double. Padres blow 4-1 lead and lose, 6-5.

And now Saturday, when the Padres could have used a command performance from Jones, they instead got the usual ill-timed inconsistencies.

“He wasn’t too bad tonight,” McKeon said in perfect summation, “but he wasn’t too good.”

And the other guy, Montreal veteran Bryn Smith, was darn good. His slow, off-speed stuff held the impatient Padres to five hits over seven inning, and then Joe Hesketh threw two more innings of the same to finish them off. And suddenly, playing .500 for the season has taken a back seat to just playing .500 for the next nine games in four cities.

“Getting .500 would have been nice, but we at least have to get .500 on this trip,” said Carmelo Martinez, who did not homer Saturday, did not even get a hit. “And you know, this is a hard trip.”

The Padres, 1-1 thus far and headed for New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco after today, don’t stand a chance at that if they play like they did Saturday, not so much getting beat as leaving too many doors open and refusing to close others.

The offense put runners on second and third with one out in the first inning. But then grounders by Martinez and Keith Moreland, who went 0 for 4 and stranded three, ended the inning and started the problems.

“The way their guy can pitch, I knew as soon as we didn’t take advantage of that in the first inning, we could be in trouble,” said McKeon, who watched Smith improve to 9-8 with a 3.13 ERA.

More trouble came quickly with two out in the second inning, when Dickie Thon made a diving stop of a Mike Fitzgerald grounder but threw it under Moreland’s glove at first base for an error, giving Fitzgerald second.

“That’s a tough error . . . looking back I should have gone (off the base) and got the ball,” said Moreland, who stretched and missed it as it skipped under his glove.

Up stepped Rivera, hitting .224 overall. Jones threw him an outsider slider. Rivera flung his bat at it. Base hit up the middle. Expos lead, 1-0, everything else becomes meaningless.

“That was the best slider I threw all night long,” Jones said, shaking his head. “Or at least I thought so.”

So the puzzle continues. He threw what he thought was a good fastball to Dave Martinez to open the third, and Martinez skied it to deep center, into the gap for a triple. A fly ball by Tom Foley made it 2-0.

“He guided the ball,” Dobson said. “He makes too many non-aggressive mistakes, getting beat because he is too worried about being so good.”

Suddenly in big trouble, Jones said he then quit worrying about how great his pitches were, or were supposed to be.

“I decided just to throw as hard as I could and see what happened,” Jones said.

All he did was face the minimum 11 batters from Foley’s fly until he left the game for pinch-hitter Marvell Wynne after the Expo eighth.

During that time, he allowed just one hit, a sixth-inning single by Foley. He then struck out Hubie Brooks and watched Santiago throw out Foley attempting to steal to end the inning.

The Expos’ final two runs came off reliever Greg Booker, who had not thrown in 17 days.

So why can’t Jones just rare back and throw hard like that all the time? He said--and scouts confirm this--that he just doesn’t throw hard enough anymore.

“I feel fine, I don’t know what it is, but I don’t throw nearly as hard as I used to,” Jones said. “I used to be in the mid to high 90s (m.p.h.), now I might just hit 90 occasionally. It’s OK, as long as I can learn to throw strikes with other pitches. It’s just a matter of adjusting.

“Yeah, I am kind of frustrated. I just have to keep believing that it will work out, that I can start getting the wins.”

The bottom line is the Padres are willing to wait. At least for now.

One reason is that everyone else on the staff is doing so well.

“You always have one guys struggling, Jimmy just happens to be the guy,” McKeon said.

Another reason: This is still just his second big-league season.

“No matter what you see, I still see progress from the first of the year,” Dobson said. “I keep telling him, if you could be perfect, you could win every game. I think he’s listening.

“He expects a lot out of himself--and maybe he should. But let’s let him mature. For now.”