Padre Party Is Crashed by Giants

The Padres’ night began with handshakes and interviews, congratulations and acknowledgements.

Players shaking hands with the manager. Groundskeepers shaking hands with the manager. Everybody saying kind things to Tim Flannery and Tony Gwynn.

But that was before Wednesday’s game between the Padres and San Francisco Giants. By game’s conclusion, the law of averages had snuck up on the Padres and socked them with a 6-5 loss.

On the day the Padres picked up his option for 1989, Flannery went 2 for 3 with a walk.

On the day he returned to the lineup after worrying that he might be out the remainder of the season, Gwynn fired a warning flare at Chicago’s Rafael Palmeiro, who is leading in the race for the National League batting title. Gwynn hit the ball hard four times despite a sore left hand and went 1 for 5. Palmeiro is hitting .3074 and Gywnn .3072.

But on the day the club announced a new managerial contract for Jack McKeon, the Padres dropped to the .500 mark (72-72) for the first time since Sept. 3.

You can’t win them all.

“We battled them,” McKeon said.

The loss was the third consecutive for the Padres, who finished the home stand at 3-5--their first losing home stand since going 5-7 against Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Chicago from April 22 through May 4.

San Diego dropped the season’s series to the Giants, 10-8. Still, the Padres showed improvement. Last year, they lost 13 of 18 to San Francisco.

Mostly, the Padres lost Wednesday night because of poor pitching. Five pitchers combined to issue six walks, hit a batter and allow 12 hits. Starter Jimmy Jones (9-13) was dispatched to the clubhouse by the fourth inning in his shortest outing of the year.

On the other side, it took the Padres awhile to get started against San Francisco’s Don Robinson (7-4), who allowed just two runs and eight hits in seven innings. In his last seven starts preceding Wednesday’s, Robinson had an earned run average of 1.38.

The Giants scored four of their runs on four sacrifice flys--tying a National League record. Still, the Padres rallied in the ninth and nearly sent the game into extra innings.

Trailing, 6-4, entering the ninth, Flannery drew a lead-off walk. Garry Templeton reached first safely but forced Flannery on a ground ball to second. After Mark Parent flied to center, John Kruk walked and Roberto Alomar singled to center. Templeton scored to make it 6-5. But with Kruk at third, Gwynn sent a hard, sinking liner toward third, which Matt Williams grabbed just before it whistled past him into left field.

“You sit there in that situation and he’s the guy you want up there,” McKeon said of Gwynn.

Said Gwynn: “I’m sitting here still thinking I got a base hit.”

The Giants took a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Mike Aldrete walked, and Ernest Riles followed with a sharp double to right. Jones flirted with trouble a bit longer when he hit the next batter, Kirt Manwaring, in the arm with a pitch.

Jose Uribe lofted a fly to center to drive in Aldrete. Jones escaped further damage by getting Don Robinson to ground into a fielder’s choice and Brett Butler to ground to first.

Then came the fourth. Four consecutive singles, and Jones was gone before getting an out. Riles started things with a shot to right, Manwaring followed with another to left, and Riles scored when Uribe got the third single of the inning. Robinson, up next with runners on first and second, banged a single under the glove of Flannery, who was playing in at third. The ball skipped into left field to drive in Manwaring. Padre pitching coach Pat Dobson came out to replace Jones with Mark Grant.

The Giants got another run in the fifth. Candy Maldonado doubled into the left-field corner, Aldrete walked and each advanced a base when Benito Santiago’s attempted pick-off throw to second bounced into center field. Maldonado scored when Riles flied to left.

The Padres finally scored in the fifth. Keith Moreland went from first to third on a Flannery single to center and scored when Templeton grounded into a fielder’s choice. Templeton also knocked in the Padres’ second run during a two-out, seventh-inning rally. Santiago and Flannery singled, and Templeton followed with a single to right to score Santiago.

But the Giants weren’t finished. Lance McCullers walked Williams, who was batting for Robinson, to start the eighth. Then Brett Butler and Robbie Thompson laid down a couple of bunts, both going between third base and the pitcher’s mound for singles.

With the bases loaded, Will Clark flied to deep left to drive in Nixon.

The Padres closed the gap a little in the eighth. Kruk led off with a walk and was balked to second. Two batters later, Gwynn lined a single to center, scoring Kruk and chasing Joe Price. Carmelo Martinez greeted Lary Sorenson with a single to center, scoring Gwynn.