Davis Strikes Again for Padres, Finishes Braves

He has gone from unhittable to unreal to unconscious. Baseball’s un-reliever, quiet and calm Mark Davis, entered the Padres’ game against the Atlanta Braves Friday night in the ninth inning with a runner on first and none out and the Padres clutching to a 5-3 lead.

Waiting for him was the heart of the Braves order--Dale Murphy, Ron Gant and Jody Davis.

Here’s what they got:

Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike.

Game over. The Padres won, 5-3, and Davis recorded his eighth save in his eighth appearance in a season just 17 games old. All of them have come with the tying or winning run on base or at the plate at the game’s end.

This time Davis needed just 10 pitches, all strikes, resulting in two strikeouts and a flyout to right field.

“Right now,” marveled Braves Manager Russ Nixon, “Mark Davis is the premier reliever in the game.”

Certainly he’s the one least likely to walk a man. Going back to his last save, two days ago in San Francisco, where he struck out Robby Thompson to end a 4-3 victory, Davis has thrown 14 consecutive strikes. That’s 14 consecutive pitches either directly across the plate or close enough that a batter makes contact with it.

Friday, after Gerald Perry had chased starter and winner Bruce Hurst with a leadoff single in the ninth, Davis retired Murphy on a called strike, a swinging strike, a foul ball and a swinging strike. Murphy had put the Braves ahead, 3-1, with a two-run homer off Hurst in the fourth.

Davis then nailed Ron Gant on a called strike and two consecutive swinging strikes. He finished Jody Davis with a called strike, a foul ball and a fly ball to left.

In a game that featured a two-out, two-run double by Benito Santiago in the eighth off Joe Boever, capping a Padre comeback, and good six-hit pitching by Hurst despite early trouble, it took Davis just five minutes to steal the show.

“The way he’s going, pretty soon we’ll just be standing in the outfield the whole game saying, ‘Get us to Mark, get us to Mark,’ ” said Tony Gwynn, who had his first three-hit night of the season.

There is no record kept on consecutive strikes, but there are major league records kept on saves in one month (13, by Cincinnati’s John Franco last July) and saves in a one year (46, New York Yankees’ Dave Righetti, 1986). Davis, who has nine games left this month and 145 left this year, has a shot at both.

At his current pace, the Padre record for saves in a season--37 by Rollie Fingers 1978--seems certain to fall. Of course, at his current pace, he would have 76 saves. That is more saves than most pitchers will have innings pitched.

Just don’t tell Davis. Continuing in his season-long quest to remain ignorant of all statistical matter Friday, he begged reporters not to hit him with any numbers.

“The less I know, the better I do,” repeated Davis after the Padres won their third consecutive game, this in front of 14,070 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. “I’ve been doing the same thing with my pitches in spring training, and if I keep feeling good, I will continue to do the same thing tomorrow. No matter what the stats say.”

Davis still remembers last June 22 in San Francisco and the infamous episode when he entered a game with a 7-4 lead in the ninth. He was incorrectly thinking that he needed just one inning to set the Padre record for consecutive scoreless innings, when actually he was several innings away. He promptly gave up four runs and lost the game and afterward said, “I’m sorry, thinking about the record and all, it hurt my concentration.”

“What record?,” he was asked.

“You mean I wasn’t about to set a record? Somebody told me I was going to set a record,” he replied.

“What record?” he was again asked.

As it turned out, Davis later did break Goose Gossage’s record of 20 1/3 innings, going scoreless 27 2/3 innings in late summer. But he and numbers had had it.

“I’m just happy with my production, and how the team is going, and I don’t want to think about anything else,” Davis said.

How about character comparisons? Garry Templeton offered one Friday night, saying, “He reminds you of Goose Gossage with that attitude. He goes out there, and he ain’t holding back. He ain’t messing around. They are seeing his best pitch.”

Said Davis: “I don’t think I look like Goose. I don’t look mean out there, do I? I don’t want to. I want to look calm and be calm.

“I think what Tempy means is, I throw strikes. And that’s nice of him to notice.”

If Templeton didn’t notice, if any of the Padres haven’t noticed, it would prove that a man can play baseball while in a deep sleep. Davis has 16 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings with a 1.59 ERA. And if Friday is any indication, he doesn’t just throw, he thinks.

On facing Murphy: “I just wanted to keep the ball out of his power zone, which means keep it away from him. If he beats me, he beats me to right field.”

On Gant: “Same thing as Murphy. Make him beat me to right field.”

On Jody Davis: “Throw a strike on the first pitch. Get ahead of him, and then make him hit it to the biggest part of the ballpark (right center field, exactly where Jody Davis hit it).”

As the Padres notched their second consecutive comeback victory, and fifth comeback victory in nine this season (9-8 record), the other hero was Santiago.

He entered the night on a seven-game hitting streak during which he had hit .333 with two homers and five RBIs. But against Braves starter Pete Smith, with a runner on second in the second, Santiago grounded out. With runners on first and second in the fourth, he grounded into a double play. And then with a runner on first in the sixth, he fouled out.

When he stepped up against Boever (no earned runs in 11 innings) in the eighth inning with the Padres down, 3-2, and runners on second and third, he just wanted to make contact.

“Last year, with guys on base, I try to hit the ball out of the stadium,” he said. “This year, stay back, go for base hit.”

And so he did both, after waiting on a zero-and-two outside pitch that in previous years he might have hacked at. This time, he let it go by for a ball and then shot the next pitch down the left-field line and into the corner, scoring both runners.

Last year with men in scoring position, Santiago hit .148. This year he is five for 15 (.333).

“I figure, if I don’t improve, I hit .248 for the season again,” said Santiago, now hitting .259. “I am now more patient. I got three homers this year, but even my homers, I don’t care about. I just wanted them to be hits.”

Padre Notes

Quietly, after a quick and strong pursuit, it appears the Padres have dropped out of the Gary Ward sweepstakes. The former New York Yankee outfielder, who cleared waivers and became a free agent Thursday, wanted to come to the California and thought the Padres would be the best place--but he ultimately has decided to stay in the American League where he could remain a designated hitter. He will likely sign with Detroit. According to Manager Jack McKeon, the Padres are also not involved in Pittsburgh’s current search for a catcher to replace injured Mike LaValliere, who is likely lost for the season with an injured knee. You would think the Pirates would be interested in triple-A catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. But as of yet, no.

Padre pitching coach Pat Dobson was missing from Friday’s game; McKeon gave him permission to fly to his home in Florida to clear up some personal business. He will return to the Padres today. . . . The Padres’ national No. 1 draft pick last summer is proving to be the real thing. Pitcher Andy Benes, formerly of University of Evansville and now at double-A Wichita, is 2-0 with an 0.78 ERA. In 23 innings, he has allowed just 15 hits with the remarkable figure of 32 strikeouts. Thursday night, Benes allowed Midland just three hits and one walk while striking out 16 in a complete game, 6-0 victory. Not that the Padre scouting department is doing handstands or anything, but of their previous 10 first-round June draft picks, only two are currently in the major leagues, and both are playing in New York (Andy Hawkins, 1978, Yankees; Kevin McReynolds, 1981, Mets).