Padres Win Despite Mound of Trouble : Hawkins, Davis Hold Reds to 4 Hits for 6th Straight Victory

Those good-fortune Padres were at it again Wednesday, this time providing baseball’s exact definition of the word “charmed.”

They had a major crack-up on the pitching mound--and still won by a shutout.

In picking up their sixth consecutive victory--equaling their season high--Andy Hawkins and Mark Davis combined to stop the Cincinnati Reds, 1-0,in what may have been the longest low-scoring game in recent history, clocking in at 2:45.

Reason? The game was stopped twice because the pitching mound was falling to pieces.

Reds reliever Rob Murphy, with his team trailing, 1-0, stopped proceedings for 10 minutes in the eighth to allow groundskeepers to fill up what he considered a small ditch.

Ah, but one man’s ditch is another man’s dream. One inning later, with the tying run on first and one out, Davis entered the game and recalled the groundskeepers to re-dig the ditch. At one point, Davis even dropped his glove and lifted dry chunks of dirt out of the hole himself.

“Good move,” pitching coach Pat Dobson noted later. “Added about five miles to his fastball.”

In front of a half-screaming, half-giggling crowd of 12,734, Davis promptly struck out both pinch-hitter Luis Quinones and pinch-hitter Nick Esasky to pick up his 27th save, second on the Padres’ single-season save list behind Rollie Fingers, who had 37 in 1978.

The Padres now have won 15 of 19 and moved to within 1 1/2 games of the third-place Reds. But what Manager Jack McKeon first wanted to talk about was that mound.

It seems that when was moved for last week’s football game, and then replaced afterward, it was left covered by a tarp in 100-plus degree heat. It simply dried out and by Wednesday had all the texture of fine china.

“I realize this is football season, and we’ve only been on the road 11 days . . . “ McKeon said sarcastically, implying that the grounds crew had plenty of time to fix the mound. “The problem is, this doesn’t make us look like a major league club. I could see if it was just one pitcher having problems, but both . . .

“We’ve always been second fiddle here (to football). We have no problems all year except when football season starts. Who knows what effect this could have in crucial games down the stretch.”

Said Murphy: “Where I was landing, it was dug out three or four inches. I couldn’t stretch out across it.”

Said Davis: “I didn’t feel comfortable until (the clay) was out of there. Murphy wanted it in, I needed it out. Basically, the mound was falling apart.”

Bill Wilson, manager of the stadium, said the problem would not happen again.

“With all the hot weather we had, it just dried out the dirt,” Wilson said. “We’ll get it right. We’ll get it right (today).”

Employing his own sarcasm, Wilson added, “Obviously a 1-0 shutout, it must have been real hard on the pitchers tonight.”

It certainly wasn’t too hard on Hawkins, who is having his best year since 1985, when he was 18-8 with a 3.15 ERA.

In 8 innings, he allowed just four hits. In 19 starts, since McKeon took over, he has lasted fewer than six innings just twice. He has allowed more than three earned runs just three times. Overall, he is 14-10 with a 3.32 ERA.

“Best I’ve seen him pitch, ever,” teammate Ed Whitson said. “He’s not afraid of anything. He doesn’t feel the pressure.”

Runners reached base in eight of the nine innings in which he appeared, but Hawkins survived every time, including an impressive eighth. Chris Sabo led off with a single to center. Hawkins then fell behind Kal Daniels, 2 and 1, before fooling him into hitting a weak fly to left. He then struck out Eric Davis on a fastball that made Benito Santiago’s glove pop and the crowd roar.

He then fell behind Paul O’Neill, 3-and-0. But he threw a fastball for a strike and another fastball for a strike, and then a flustered O’Neill popped out to third baseman Tim Flannery to end the inning.

“He knows how to pitch, he doesn’t give in,” McKeon said.

Since McKeon took over, the Padres are 54-37, the second-best record in baseball behind only the Oakland A’s, 56-38 during that time. They have done it not just with pitching but with sneaky runs such as the only one they scored Wednesday, in the fourth inning off Red starter Ron Robinson.

Roberto Alomar led off the fourth with a single to center field that, because of a little greed, could have easily been an out. Alomar rounded first and dashed toward before realizing that center fielder Davis had properly fielded the ball and thrown it back to second baseman Ron Oester.

Alomar stopped in his tracks and retreated first, seemingly an easy out. But Oester made an equally bad move and threw the ball into the dirt, and Alomar was safe back at first.

Tony Gwynn, in a 1-for-12 slide, then broke out with a single to right. The ball rolled underneath Dave Collins’ glove, and Alomar scored.

Padre Notes

Manager Jack McKeon has taken what may be a first step toward also continuing as the general manager, contacting the agents of free agents Garry Templeton and Andy Hawkins to begin talks. “Chub (Feeney, club president) told me to contact them and set up preliminary discussions,” McKeon said. “I’m not doing anything, just talking.” Templeton’s agent is Richie Brye; Hawkins’ is Jerry Kapstein. Both players, two of the four Padre free agents, have expressed a desire to remain in San Diego, with Templeton even saying, “If it’s my choice, I’m staying.” The other two Padre free agents--Eric Show and Dickie Thon--will likely also begin talks soon. Show’s agent, Steve Greenberg, already has a Sept. 14 appointment with Feeney to discuss Tim Flannery. The Padres hold a one-year option on his soon-to-be expired contract. The topic of Show will probably come up then. Thon said Wednesday that he hasn’t even talked to his agent, Bill Landman, and will probably wait until after the season. “I just want to finish strong,” Thon said. . . . Tony Gwynn’s sore left index finger is approaching the serious stage. He missed batting practice Monday, taking only a few swings in an early session before deciding the pain wouldn’t allow him to continue. He then retreated to the trainers’ room for his daily regimen of ice and electronic stimulation. “We’re doing all we can,” trainer Dick Dent said. “For the rest of the season, Tony has been told to play when he can.” After the season, as has been previously reported, Gwynn has been offered the option of a second surgery on the finger, this one to shave the bone and reduce the pressure caused by his first surgery last spring, in which doctors snipped a swollen flexor tendon. “I don’t know what I’ll do, I’ll decide after the season,” Gwynn said. “I’ll hang on for the rest of this season, but it’s just tough. I can’t do what I want to do, I can’t even do what I have to do. I can’t hit the ball the other way. I can’t throw like I want.” . . . A new addition to McKeon’s wall is a framed dollar bill, symbolic the $1 he claimed he’s receiving for managing the team. The inscription underneath the bill reads “1988 San Diego Padres Manager’s Salary.” That’s not quite correct, considering the Padres paid $125,000 this season to Larry Bowa, their former manager. . . . Who was that big kid hitting batting-practice balls into the orange seats in left field? Sandy Alomar Jr., the injured minor league catcher whose surgically repaired left knee has healed such that he can now hit and even bend down behind the plate, something he did for five minutes in the bullpen before the game. “I’m feeling good,” said Alomar, considered baseball’s top catching prospect and the Padres’ top commodity in this winter’s trade market. After a home plate collision Aug. 9, he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Aug. 14. But even with Alomar’s Las Vegas team beginning their Pacific Coast League playoffs, the Padres aren’t going to push him. “We’re going to remain very calm about all this,” said Tom Romenesko, the Padre farm director. “We are going to make darn sure he’s ready. And he’s not ready.”