Whitson Sets the Tone, Martinez Adds a Slam as Padres Rout Pirates

And their oldest and surliest shall lead them.

Padre pitcher Ed Whitson was attempting to bunt in the second inning of Thursday night’s 8-1 victory over Pittsburgh when Pirate pitcher Neal Heaton threw an inside pitch at his Adam’s apple. Whitson dived back off the plate, then jumped up and glared at his bat. Then he glared at Heaton. Then he glared from left to right, arousing fear that he would not only charge Heaton, he would charge the entire team.

One pitch later, he laid down a perfect bunt.

Five innings later, with the score tied at 1, and Pirate runners on first and second with two outs, pitching coach Pat Dobson approached Whitson. Whitson glared at Dobson. Then he glared at the batter, Junior Ortiz. Then he glared at the ball.

Two pitches later, Ortiz hit a weak grounder to shortstop Gary Green to end the inning.

This morning the Padres are at their early season’s highest point (13-10), with the best road start in club history (9-4), after their first three-game sweep in Pittsburgh in eight years. They are in a virtual tie for first in the NL West with Cincinnati, just percentage points behind. And it’s mostly thanks to the oldest and sometimes most forgotten player on the team, a guy who will be 34 next month and is in the last year of his contract and, let’s be honest here, really doesn’t care what it takes to ensure that his team leave the field in one piece.

Ed Whitson will do whatever. Just so long as you don’t call him old. Surly, maybe.

“The way I feel, I am one of the youngest on the staff,” Whitson said after allowing the Pirates six hits and one run over eight innings in improving his record to 3-2 with an ERA of 2.72. Oh yes, he also walked and scored the eventual winning run on Randy Ready’s RBI single in the seventh inning, then drove in the final run on a grounder in the ninth.

“Tell you what, right now I feel like I was 25,” Whitson added in a Tennessee accent that somehow is more pronounced after victories. “I wish I knew back then what I knew now.”

There also was evidence of at least one eternal truth Thursday--a grand slam is a heck of a good time. Although the game had already been won on Ready’s seventh inning single up the middle, Carmelo Martinez added a postscript with an eighth-inning grand slam, the second of his career and the Padres’ first since last Sept. 25, when Benito Santiago took Dodger Ricky Horton deep.

“What a boost that was, for me, for everybody,” Whitson said. “You see something like that, you know things are going right.”

After that five-run inning cinched the game, Whitson must have felt deep inside that he had it coming. You see, although Whitson is just 3-2, he had really only had one bad inning all season. Remember Sunday afternoon, April 16, when he allowed the Cincinnati Reds five runs on six hits in the first? Remember how, when Whitson came to bat in the second, the fans at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium booed?

Take away that one inning, and Whitson is no longer just the best pitcher on the Padres. He has one of the best ERAs in baseball, at 1.53.

“Think about it: one bad inning, that’s all he’s had,” Dobson said. “That ain’t bad for five starts. He is throwing as good as anybody around here.”

Which isn’t bad for a guy who has been lost in the Show-to-Hurst-to-Terrell combination that has dominated perceptions of the Padre starting staff. Whitson has a better ERA than all three and has won as many games as all but Show, who has four.

“The thing is, the Padres know I’ll bust my butt every time out--I’ll take the ball when they give it to me, and I’ll keep it for as long as I can,” Whitson said.

The only run Whitson allowed Thursday came in the second inning, after Bobby Bonilla led off with a double, moved to third on a grounder by Benny Distefano and scored on a flyout by Ken Oberkfell. After that, no runner got past second. Whitson could have easily had his first complete game this year but, with the team leading 8-1 entering the bottom of the ninth, he showed that he had learned something else.

Dobson asked Whitson if he minded being taken out so rookie reliever Greg Harris could get some much-needed work. Whitson, who hates to leaves game and never does so politely, agreed with a smile.

“It’s because I know Greg Harris is a guy we need desperately, and we need to keep sharp,” Whitson said.

By that time, it didn’t matter, thanks to Tony Gwynn’s base-running theatrics, followed by Martinez’s slam. After Gwynn and Jack Clark led off the eighth with singles against reliever Morris Madden, reliever Logan Easley came in and got Santiago on a grounder back to the mound.

Except Easley thought he had Gwynn nailed off third base, and so he threw to catcher Ortiz, who charged Gwynn. But waiting until the last second, Gwynn dived around Bonilla as Bonilla was taking Ortiz’s throw and was safe.

Two pitches later, on an zero-and-two fastball, Martinez drove the ball deep over the left field wall. It helped the Padres score their most runs this year, and most runs in an inning for this year. And all with two strikes.

“I think I hit better with two strikes,” Martinez said after his third homer. “Before that, I try to leave the yard (homer) and swing too hard and never can do it. With two strikes, I just try to get a hit. And that’s when I leave the yard.”’

After the game, Whitson returned to San Diego with Manager Jack McKeon to attend today’s memorial services for former Padre administrative assistant Rhoda Polley, who died Wednesday.

Padre Notes

Gary Green ended a pleasant three days at home with two hits and a spectacular defensive play in only his second start of the season. Given a rare start in place of Garry Templeton because Manager Jack McKeon wanted Green’s family and friends from the nearby Squirrel Hill suburb to see him play, Green responded with a single in the second inning, a double and eventual run in the ninth inning, and a backhanded, circus-flip assist in between. In the sixth inning, with the score tied, 1-1, and two out and pitcher Neal Heaton on first, R.J. Reynolds hit a grounder up the middle. It appeared to be a certain base hit until the lanky, 6-foot-3 Green stretched and picked it up behind the base. Knowing he might not have a play at first, Green flipped the ball back-handed out of his glove into the glove of Roberto Alomar, who was standing on second for the inning-ending force. “No big deal, really,” said Green, who so far this summer has been the perfect rookie--just happy to be here. “I was shading Reynolds up the middle because there’s where he hits the ball and sure enough, I was close enough to be able to run and grab it. Then I hear Robbie yelling for the ball, yelling ‘Give it to me.’ I thought, ‘Fine, I’ll give it to him.’ ” Green, son of former Pirate pitcher Fred Green, slept this week in the house where he grew up. He even hosted teammate Shane Mack for a home-cooked meal. “Yeah, it’s nice, believe me, it’s real nice,” Green said. “But it’s nice to get the win, too. I thought about my family in the first inning, but after that I just got caught up in the game.”

One absent Padre Thursday was pitcher Dennis Rasmussen, who flew to Chicago ahead of the team to prepare for this afternoon’s start against the Cubs.