Padres Move Past Giants

It is the most miniscule of numbers, but for the San Diego Padres one ten-thousandth of a point represents one giant leap.

Tuesday night at Candlestick Park, the Padres played a game of decimals, not inches, beating the Giants, 4-3. The win moved the Padres percentage points--.50735 to .50725--ahead of the Giants and into fourth place in the National League West.

By games, the Padres--who have won five in a row--are tied with the Giants for fourth place. Both teams are 9 games behind the Dodgers, who lost to Atlanta Tuesday.

The game was a battle of two teams going in opposite directions, the Padres on the way up and the Giants on the way down.

The Giants, the 1987 National League West champions, who lost their fifth in a row, committed five errors, blew an early 2-0 lead and left 10 runners stranded. The crowd of 5,770 who braved the wind at Candlestick Park was the smallest Giants’ home crowd in two years.

The Padres, in contrast, survived a rocky beginning by starter Dennis Rasmussen and recovered to get the most out of a minimal offensive output. San Diego squeezed four runs out of six hits, with the winning run coming on a ninth-inning pinch-hit double by Tim Flannery.

Flannery, who started the year 1 for 15 as a pinch-hitter, now has 5 hits in his last 5 pinch-hit appearances.

The victory continued Rasmussen’s streak against the Giants. Rasmussen, who gave up eight hits in eight innings, is now 4-0 in his career against San Francisco and 3-0 this season, with one win coming when he wore a Cincinnati Reds uniform.

Reliever Mark Davis saved Rasmussen’s victory. It was Davis’ 26th save of the year and his one inning pitched added to his club record of consecutive scoreless innings, bringing the total to 27.

But, early in the game, it didn’t look like Rasmussen or the Padres would survive this outing. The entire San Diego defense appeared to be frozen to the Candlestick tundra.

The Giants, whose offense has sputtered all season, coughed out two runs in the first inning, oiled by the Padres’ defensive clumsiness.

Leadoff hitter Brett Butler chopped a ball over third baseman Randy Ready’s head for a single. One out later, Will Clark slapped a ball into Rasmussen’s cleats that caromed into left field. Kevin Mitchell’s hit into left field scored Clark. Catcher Bob Melvin’s hit, again into Rasmussen’s feet, scored Clark and gave the Giants a 2-0 cushion.

And if Giants’ starting pitcher, Atlee Hammaker, had continued his early form, the Padres might have gone home still in fifth place.

Hammaker had a no-hitter through five innings, rescued in the fifth by a changed call that took a base hit away from Roberto Alomar and gave an error to the Giants’ defense.

But the floodgates opened on Hammaker in the sixth. Dickie Thon--the first batter Hammaker faced in the inning--singled to center and an error by right fielder Candy Maldonado allowed Thon to take second. Ready’s double scored Thon and Carmelo Martinez’ single tied the game.

One more Padre hit, a single by Keith Moreland, finished Hammaker for the night.

The Padres scored another run in the seventh when Alomar capitalized on the Giants’ fielding miscues, drawing a walk, stealing second, and taking third and scoring on two Padre errors.

The Giants came back to tie the game when pinch-runner Donell Nixon scored on a wild pitch by Rasmussen.

It took Flannery’s ninth inning double into the left-field corner to give the Padres a sweep of the Giants, ending their road trip with a 7-3 record. The last time the Padres won five consecutive road games was August of 1985.

After Flannery’s double, Giants’ reliever Scott Garrelts came inside on the next batter Thon, who headed for the mound. Members of both teams left their dugouts for a standoff at the plate. Flannery took the opportunity to take third and cross the plate.

He knew he’d get sent back. But he was having fun. The 10-year veteran of the Padres has seen a lot of lows. He just wanted to keep the current good times going.

Padre Notes

Tony Gwynn, who continues to battle daily against pain in his left index finger, did not take batting practice with the team before Tuesday’s game. After Monday’s game, Gwynn said the pain “just keeps getting worse.” . . . Despite the injury, Gwynn continues to rank second among National League hitters, batting .312. His average has risen 69 points since July 2. . . . Former Padre Kevin Mitchell was sorry he missed his hometown’s heat wave. “I’d much rather be playing in 101 degrees. You don’t have to worry about getting tight,” said Mitchell, shivering in Candlestick Park’s 60-degrees-and-windy version of a late-summer evening. . . . Mitchell isn’t surprised at his former team’s recent surge. “They’re having fun. They’re not tight. but it couldn’t have happened last year. Not with (former Padre manager Larry) Bowa.”