Davis Helps the Padres Hang On : Reliever Saves 3-2 Victory for Whitson Over the Braves

So it’s not always so pretty. Pretty, Mark Davis has learned in his six big league seasons, is a state of mind.

Take Tuesday’s 1 1/3 innings of pressure work against the Atlanta Braves. He allowed a homer to a guy who has only hit 24 in three big league seasons. He allowed a single to a guy who is 41 years old and hit .208 last year. To keep things fun, he walked a guy.

But think what you want of his night. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Mark Davis will find a empty wall and hang it there.

Because today the Padres are a division-leading team for the first time in three years. Because amid another Tony Gwynn homer (it gave the Padres their eventual winning run) and another fine start by Ed Whitson (fans are giving him standing ovations now), it was Davis who ultimately handed the Padres a 3-2 victory over the Braves in front of a paid crowd of 13,727 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Again.

Five Padre victories, four Davis saves. He couldn’t get in the other victory because of a guy named Bruce Hurst and a one-hitter. At the rate he’s being used and using other teams, Davis will surpass the Padres club-record 37 saves (Rollie Fingers, 1978) by the All-Star break.

Just don’t tell Davis that.

“I don’t think of numbers, I don’t look at numbers, I don’t want anything to do with numbers,” said Davis, one of the precious few major league players who claims not to read about himself in the newspapers. “All I care about is how I’m feeling, how I’m doing my job.

“Once I start thinking about numbers, I get messed up. I think only about pitches. One pitch. Then the next pitch. Then the next batter.”

Good thing, or he would have driven himself crazy Tuesday. He was called into a 3-1 Padres lead in the eighth inning with a runner on first and two outs, relieving Whitson. Darrell Evans hit his fifth pitch into center field for a single, bringing the tying run to the plate. Evans, 41, had homered off Whitson, his 404th career homer. But a single?

If it bothered Davis, he didn’t show it. Five pitches later, he struck out Jody Davis, looking.

Then came the ninth, same 3-1 score, only two pitches later it was 3-2 as Andres Thomas belted his first homer of the season and only the 25th of his three-year career. One out later, pinch-hitter John Russell looped a liner down the left-field line that barely blew foul. Davis barely shrugged.

“I figured, either way, I got to pitch to another batter,” he said.

That batter was still Russell, who Davis promptly struck out. But then he walked Lonnie Smith to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of rookie Geronimo Berroa. A couple of pitches later, Berroa was running down the first-base line on a grounder that shortstop Garry Templeton easily handled for the game’s final out.

Berroa made a rookie mistake. He didn’t know about Mark Davis’ curve.

“I didn’t think he had that good of a curveball,” Berroa said. “It looked like a slow curve, but after I hit it, I said, ‘That was quick.’ ”

At least. It is that curve that Davis used six consecutive times Sunday in striking out the final two batters in a 5-4 victory in Houston. It is that curve that fellow Padre Bruce Hurst calls “the best in baseball.”

“You should see that thing bite,” Hurst said. “It’s as least as good as (Angel pitcher) Bert Blyleven’s. And he throws it so hard . . . “

“Just trying for quality pitches,” said Davis, whose 28 saves last season tied for fourth in the National League. This year he has allowed one earned run in six innings with seven strikeouts.

“Not thinking about anything else but quality pitches,” Davis repeated, “and whatever happens, happens.”

And all in all, another quality victory for the Padres, who moved past Cincinnati and into first place for the first time since April 17, 1986.

“Now,” Ed Whitson said, stating the obvious, “we got to stay there.”

As for Whitson, whatever he is doing out there, with his face in a perpetual grimace and his eyes in a glare, it’s working. And the fans are loving it. For a second consecutive start, Whitson pitched like man overboard paddles water. It wasn’t smooth, but it was survival, and afterward he was rewarded with perhaps the loudest ovation this season, a standing welcome that he acknowledged with a slight tip of the hat and more of that glare. Not only has he been the Padres’ best starter so far, he has become their most popular.

In 7 2/3 innings, he allowed just five hits and one run with eight strikeouts. In two starts, Whitson is 2-0 with a 2.52 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 14 1/3 innings, including gaining the Padres’ first victory this season after San Francisco had demoralized them twice.

Tuesday he was at his finest. In the first inning he hit Gerald Perry in the foot with two out and none on, but then retired Dale Murphy on a grounder. In the second, he allowed back to back singles by Davis and Thomas, and then one out later actually walked the opposing pitcher, John Smoltz, after getting ahead of him. But not worry, as he retired Smith on an easy fly to left to end it.

After breezing through the third inning, he allowed two more runners in the fourth, but struck out Smoltz to end the inning. His only allowed run was the homer to Evans, while his cheers were long and many.

“I think the fans appreciate a guy who can get in trouble and get himself out,” Whitson said.

And of course, the fans appreciated other things Tuesday, such as Whitson’s RBI single and Alomar’s RBI fly in the second to give the Padres a 2-0 lead, followed by Gwynn’s eventual cinching homer in the fifth, already his second this year after hitting only seven the past two seasons.

Padre Notes

Reliever Greg Harris’ sore rib cage is not getting any better, according to the rookie pitcher. He is not being disabled because it is the kind of pulled muscle injury that could heal overnight, but he doesn’t appear to be ready anytime soon. “I just don’t feel good, it doesn’t feel right,” said Harris, noting there is slight pull in his side when he pitches. “I don’t want to rush and ruin my season, but I really want to be a part of the team. It’s just hard.” Doctors have said the injury could be healed in three days, or take as many as 10. Said Manager Jack McKeon: “Why would we want to disable him and have him out for 10 more days when he would be ready in four? We talked this spring about going with nine pitchers, so we’ll be fine.” . . . This spring McKeon talked about improving his bench. So he acquired Luis Salazar. On Tuesday the stadium workers did their part by installing new, thick padding on the previously hard bench in the Padre dugout. “I told you we’d improve our bench,” McKeon said. . . . The Padres’ contribution to contemporary music--”The Bully Boys”--were the hit of the local airwaves Tuesday. Group members Mark Grant and Greg Booker, who recorded a humorous rap song about pitcher Bruce Hurst in a shopping mall studio, were interviewed on local stations while the Hurst song was played throughout the day. In order to take the heat off Hurst, The Bully Boys might write a song about the entire team. “Any announcement will come from our manager, Mark Davis,” Grant said. . . . The Sophomore Jinx Dept: Atlanta third baseman Ron Gant, who finished ahead of Roberto Alomar in the Rookie of the Year voting last year (Gant was fourth, Alomar was fifth) has been temporarily benched, and with good reason. After homering off Houston’s Mike Scott in his second at-bat of the season, Gant has gone hitless, zero for 18, with nine strikeouts and only two balls out of the infield. . . . In one of his first acts since being named club president, Dick Freeman has created the position of vice president of communications and hired advertising man Chuck Gelman. Gelman, 48, was previously chairman and chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based Gelman & Gray Communications, one of the nation’s 50 largest public relations firms, according to a Padre press release. Gelman will be responsible for media relations, community relations and publications.