No Relief for Padres as Reds Beat Them in 10th

OK, Padre fans, fill in the blank. A day without reliever Mark Davis is a day without . . . Relief? Victory? Sunshine?

All of the above were correct Saturday night as Cincinnati’s Eric Davis cast a 340-foot shadow over the rest of the Padre bullpen with a three-run homer in the 10th inning to defeat the Padres, 6-3, in front of a paying crowd of 34,838 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The homer came off reliever Greg Booker. Two innings earlier, the Reds had broken open a tie game with a run off the combined efforts of the other three Padre middle relievers--Mark Grant, Greg Harris and Dave Leiper. Harris showed that he is obviously not ready to return from a rib cage injury that had sidelined him for 10 days.

Davis, tied for the league lead with five saves in five opportunities this year, had thrown 46 pitches Friday night and was being held for a one-inning save opportunity, just as the Reds were holding their ace, John Franco.

Except Reds middle relievers Rob Dibble and Norm Charlton gave Franco that chance, and he responded by setting down the Padres 1-2-3 in the 10th for his fourth save.

Davis never got that chance.

“Somebody has to pick Davis up once in a while,” pitching coach Pat Dobson said afterward with a grimace. “At some point, those other guys have to learn to pitch in the kind of situations we had tonight.”

One thing the three middle relievers learned was just how loud these San Diego fans can boo.

Start with Booker, who entered in the top of the 10th with the score tied. Barry Larkin greeted him with a single up the middle. A couple of pitches later, Larkin took off for second and Chris Sabo bounced the ball behind him to second baseman Roberto Alomar, who threw to first for the only out, with Larkin stopping at second. Five pitches later, just one of them a strike, Booker walked Kal Daniels and brought up Eric Davis.

First pitch, boom, fly ball, right fielder Marvell Wynne chased it to the wall and then watched helplessly as it dropped well beyond his outstretched arms. It was Davis’ third homer.

“In a situation like that, he has to throw something up there,” Davis said. “He’s got to try to get ahead. I was looking fast ball and got it.”

Moaned Booker, who was actually allowing his first earned runs this season in his eighth inning of work: “It was supposed to be a sinker.”

Booker added, “I’ve got to do the job when called on, and tonight I didn’t do it. But it ain’t from a lack of effort. If I wasn’t busting my butt, I would worry.”

As Davis rounded the bases while Booker stared for the longest time at the ground, there was new meaning to the phrase “going, going, gone.”

Gone were seven innings of good work by starter Bruce Hurst, who didn’t allow a hit until the sixth. Gone were not one but two Padre comebacks. Trailing 2-1, they tied the game in the seventh on Roberto Alomar’s RBI infield grounder. Then trailing 3-2 thanks to the bullpen, they came back again to tie it in the bottom of the eighth on a single by Jack Clark, a stolen base by pinch runner Bip Roberts and a single by Benito Santiago.

All little things, but all adding up to what could have been a big Padre victory. Instead, they have now split the first two games of this series and are just 3-3 on this home stand with both the home stand and series finale against Cincinnati today at 1:05 p.m.

“That’s the difference between our offense and their offense,” Manager Jack McKeon said. “We have to take advantage of those things. We don’t have the bombers like they do.”

Which brings us back to the bullpen. Granted, Hurst didn’t make the most out of an early 1-0 lead the Padres forged in the third inning on Randy Ready’s double and Tony Gwynn’s RBI single off Reds starter Tom Browning.

Hurst retired the first nine Reds hitters to give him and added on to the 19 he retired at the end of his one-hitter against Atlanta last Monday would have been 28 straight, one more than needed for a perfect game. He walked Larkin to start the fourth and break the streak, but kept the Reds hitless through the five innings, giving him 11 straight hitless innings, one shy of the Padre record of 12 set by Steve Arlin in 1972.

But as Lonnie Smith ruined Hurst’s no-hitter with a homer for Atlanta, Larkin did it for the Reds, hitting a one-out shot in the sixth inning, followed by a Chris Sabo double and Eric Davis RBI single that gave the Reds a temporary 2-1 lead.

All of which meant Hurst needed to be lifted for pinch hitter Mark Parent in the bottom of the seventh with the Padres trailing 2-1. Though the Padre eventually scored that inning, it was time for the bullpen and trouble.

“I understand why I had to come out, the game doesn’t revolve around me,” Hurst said. “I had a one-run lead to work with and I gave it up. I had a bad inning. It was my fault.”

Not for long. With the score tied 2-all, the first pitcher up in the top of the eighth was Mark Grant. It was just his third appearance this year and only his second in the last 11 days. His first pitch to Larkin was a fine one, a called strike across the letters. But then Grant threw a ball in the dirt. And a couple of pitches later, on a 2-and-2 count, he hit Larkin on the hand, sending him to first base.

Sabo then quickly bunted Larkin to second, bringing up Daniels. Ball one. Ball two. Quickly behind, Grant was ordered to just throw two more intentional balls and walk Daniels. Out jogged pitching coach Dobson, to the dugout jogged Grant.

“I was ready,” Grant said, offering no excuses. “I could not pitch for 15 days and be ready. Just walking Daniels, that was the last thing I wanted to do.”

Next pitcher up--Greg Harris. It was the rookie’s first visit with live hitters since pulling a muscle in his left rib cage 10 days ago. Before the game he claimed for the first time that he was “really ready to pitch.”

He was painfully wrong. His first pitch was in the dirt. On his second pitch, way outside, he grabbed his left side. His third pitch was a wild pitch outside and in the dirt that moved the runners to second and third. So Davis, like Daniels, was intentionally walked with a great deal of resignation, loading the bases. Out jogged Dobson again and well, you can guess what happened. Harris could be out for several more days.

“I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do, my side was hurting me,” Harris said softly. “I want so bad to be a part of this team, I really felt good before the game . . . I guess I have to just sit out until it is 100 percent well.”

Next pitcher up--Dave Leiper. While he had just pitched a couple of days ago, he had allowed two earned runs in that one-inning appearance against Atlanta and a total of three earned runs in his last 2 2/3 innings.

Todd Benzinger greeted Leiper with a slow grounder that Alomar grabbed in front of second base but threw high to shortstop Garry Templeton, who touched second for one out but threw late to first, missing the double play and allowing the Reds’ go-ahead run to score, making it 3-2, setting up both the Padres final comeback and their eventual downfall.

Padre Notes

Pitcher Eric Show, whose bulging disk in his back can give him problems after he pitches, said he also felt great despite seven tough innings in Friday’s 6-5 victory. “In fact, the back feels better than when I pitched,” Show said. “Actually, it was like I never pitched at all.” He stopped short of saying he would be ready before his next scheduled start next Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco.