Hurst Gets Bad Start for Padres : He Gives Up Eight Runs as the Giants Win Again

Look at it this way.

If Tony Gwynn didn’t hurl his body against the center-field wall to make a catch . . . if John Kruk didn’t leap across the warning track to make a catch . . . if Roberto Alomar didn’t swan dive into a line drive for a catch . . . if Tim Flannery didn’t dig holes at third base to make three catches . . . the Padres would have lost, 15-3.

As it was, their second consecutive fall to the San Francisco Giants Monday was at least by something resembling a baseball score--8-3--even if Bruce Hurst did feel as if he had been passed, punted and kicked.

In front a paid crowd of 21,768 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, making his National League and Padre debut, Hurst learned at least one thing. When you walk outside without your best stuff, they treat you here just as they would in Boston or Bangkok. They murder you.

Baseball’s biggest free agent winner this winter ($5.25 million for three years) was a victim of a different sort of collusion as the Giants joined together to put him through five innings that stretched into the darkest parts of his imagination. One of baseball’s premier left-handers was racked for 10 hits and eight runs, including two homers (back to back) and three doubles, and he even threw a wild pitch.

Just four batters into his Padre career, he had allowed a run. Two innings later, he allowed six, facing 10 hitters in a stretch that included a three-run homer by Will Clark and another homer--one pitch later--by Kevin Mitchell.

After that inning, also for the first time as a Padre, the calm Hurst flung his glove.

“I was awful,” said Hurst afterward, professionally facing and answering all questions. “I think my target area was dugout to dugout.”

He said his shoulder, which had suffered from some stiffness during the spring but didn’t bother him as he went 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA, felt fine and loose in the 80-degree heat. He said it was his mind that was hurting. Being the new kid on the block, Hurst said, has taken his concentration around the block.

“I felt great, I had a nice sweat going . . . but I just wasn’t prepared to pitch,” Hurst said. “There’s been a lot of distractions going on around here lately, there’s been a lot of things happening . . . trying to get settled here, trying to do this or that, maybe do too much . . . but I’m not going to make excuses. That’s my pet peeve--they don’t ask too much, just that you be ready to pitch. I should have been ready. I wasn’t.”

The Padres’ right-handed middle relievers were ready, as Greg Booker and Mark Grant combined for four shutout innings, including five strikeouts in the final two innings by Grant. The middle relievers have now thrown 6 1/3 scoreless innings in two games, giving much pleasure to McKeon, who has felt they have taken undue criticism.

At this point, the only thing that would make McKeon happier is a victory for his 0-2 club. Especially since the Padres may tend to take early season losing a little worse than other teams. After all, they have lost their first five games in each of the past two seasons en route to baseball’s worst starts each of those years.

“We’re going to be OK, we’re not going to panic,” McKeon said. “I said in spring training that some of these guys were actually pitching too good, and that I knew they had to have a bad outing, and hoped they would have it then. It’s all part of the game. We’ll be here tomorrow.”

If nothing else Tuesday, as they struggled against the smart pitching of starter and winner Kelly Downs (seven shutout innings), the Padres proved their defense is with them. If only they hadn’t needed such defense.

Example: With one out in the first, Robby Thompson lined a single to left. Will Clark doubled into the right-field gap, moving Thompson to third. Mitchell bounced a single past shortstop, scoring one run and moving Clark to third.

Then Candy Maldonado simply crushed a ball to center field . . . but Gwynn chased it down and made a leaping, bouncing-off-the-wall catch. Observers ranked it among Gwynn’s top three career catches--and he has had four in which he’s gone over the wall. That catch was followed by a diving stop by Flannery at third base off a Matt Williams grounder to save another run.

“I don’t know if the catch was that good,” Gwynn said. “It was like, I couldn’t tell where the wall was. Then I just caught it and karate-kicked the wall, and that was it.”

Said Giant Manager Roger Craig: “Those guys playing defense never quit.”

Flannery made another diving stop the next inning, but by the third, it didn’t matter. Quickly now--Brett Butler doubled. Thompson walked. Clark homered off of what turned out to be a pitch that typified Hurst’s night.

“It was a fastball,” Clark stated.

“It was a forkball,” Hurst said with a sigh.

Kevin Mitchell then hit his second homer in two games, to right. Maldonado singled. Kruk made a great leaping catch off Matt Williams’ hit to right. Kirt Manwaring reached first on a throwing error by Flannery. Jose Uribe singled in a run. Manwaring scored on a passed ball by Benito Santiago.

When asked if he felt awful for Hurst, Gwynn said, “I felt awful for everybody. You could just see that Hurst wasn’t getting the ball where he wanted.”

Which brings us to today, 1:05 p.m., the Padres’ Ed Whitson against the Giants’ Don Robinson. Whitson is one of the Padres’ best pitchers at stopping losing streaks, and while two games is not considered a losing streak, the Padres only lost more than three games in a row once last year under McKeon.

Whitson, who ended last night’s game in a rare pinch-hit performance because McKeon had run out of players, said he’s ready to for anything.

“I’ve been good at this (winning games after losses) in the past, and hopefully, I’ll be good at it again,” Whitson said. “The Giants are hitting as good as I’ve ever seen them hit as a team. But I’ll be out there. You can count on it.”

Padre Notes

Rhoda Polley, the Padre administrative assistant who threw out the first ball Monday, resigned Tuesday to concentrate on her fight with cancer. . . . Monday’s loss means the Padres won’t equal one of baseball’s most unusual records of last year, when they were the only team to win the first game of every home stand, going 9-0. They are still 17-2 in the past 19 home-stand openers. . . . Outfielder Shane Mack, on the 15-day disabled list with a sore elbow, is still unable to throw the ball any harder than a light toss. He won’t be ready for a couple of weeks, at which point he will be shipped to triple-A Las Vegas.

Luis Salazar was not surprised at the giant reception he received in Monday night’s opener, including chants of “Louieeeee.” “Hey,” Salazar said, “I’ve been here before, you know? These people remember.” This is his third stop here. . . . No wonder the Giants have won eight of their past 11 games here, including their last six. They are loaded with San Diego connections. No fewer than eight Giants either live here or used to play here, according to research by the Giants’ publicity staff. Manager Roger Craig, coach Norm Sherry, and players Kevin Mitchell, Terry Kennedy, Craig Lefferts and Joe Price all live in the area. Coach Bill Fahey and pitcher Dave Dravecky used to play here.

Giant fans will be heartened by the news that disabled pitcher Mike Krukow looked good in a simulated game Tuesday afternoon and could come off the disabled list within a couple of weeks. The return of Krukow, 7-4 with a 3.54 ERA last season before undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery Sept. 13, will send either Don Robinson, Scott Garrelts or Atlee Hammaker to the bullpen. . . . In the Miracle Cure Dept., Giant third baseman Mitchell says he has been hitting so well this spring--a major-league leading .455 during the spring and then two homers in the first two regular season games this week--because of simple thing: contact lenses. Mitchell said he has not been truly seeing the ball since he was hit in the face with a pitch by Jay Tibbs, then a Cincinnati pitcher, in 1986. He decided this winter to get the lenses, and the results have spoken loudly for themselves. . . . Padre Fever Dept: On Monday, a local radio station auctioned 22 bats signed by the 1984 Padres. They were sold, for charity, for $4,600.