Nelson Finds His Range, Helps Padres Finish Sweep

Rob Nelson knew he was supposed to be patient and all that. It was the sixth inning of a tie game between the Padres and the Montreal Expos and there were runners on first and second and none out. This was not the time to swing himself into a new dance step.

Nelson came to the plate Wednesday night and told himself to wait, battle, find the right pitch.

But here it came, on Pascual Perez’s first pitch. A fastball about thigh high. And Nelson, who has been waiting for more than two lousy seasons, could wait no more.

He swung, the Expos in the field froze and the ball didn’t stop until it had cleared the Petro-Canada sign.

It was a three-run homer that eventually gave the Padres a 6-5 victory in front of 10,485 paying customers at Olympic Stadium and completed a three-game sweep against the team that began this week with the best home record in the National League.

The Expos, who already had won home series this year against such teams as New York and San Francisco, are now a mere 14-8 at home. The Padres are now back to even at 21-21.

And Nelson, who celebrated his 25th birthday with his season’s first homer, feels as if he could blow out a church full of candles.

Nelson has been the Padre regular first baseman since being recalled from triple-A May 7, after John Kruk was disabled with a hip injury. He hasn’t committed an error, he hasn’t done anything really stupid. And Perez gave him the fastball.

“Man, I had to swing,” Nelson said. “Ball was right in my wheelhouse. Ball was a fastball. Sometimes, you just have to swing.”

And then sometimes you have to hold your breath. That was Nelson’s plight three innings later, when it looked as if the Expos were going to ruin his fun before rookie reliever Greg Harris fooled Mike Fitzgerald into a game-ending grounder with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth.

The Padres’ slide was quick and unexpected. After Mark Grant showed his bosses all they wanted to see with four innings of one-hit relief after replacing struggling starter Bruce Hurst, Mark Davis was brought into the ninth with the Padres still leading, 6-3. For all the times Davis has been asked to save one-run games, this supposedly easy appearance was meant as a gift.

“We figured, other guys get saves with three-run leads, why can’t we give one to Mark?” pitching coach Pat Dobson said.

But Davis not only looked the gift horse in the mouth, he allowed it onto the bases. He was, in his word, “terrible.”

He allowed a walk, a single, another walk and then an RBI grounder by Andres Galarraga and an RBI single by Hubie Brooks to put the game in jeopardy. After he walked Tim Wallach to reload the bases, Davis was gone, having blown his first save opportunity this year after succeeding in each of his first 13.

“I wasn’t just bad,” Davis said. “I wasn’t even close.”

And was Harris ever surprised--”When Mark Davis is in there, you never expect to follow him,” he said.

But there he was, against Fitzgerald. And with the crowd standing and rattling their chairs and whistling, Harris threw one fastball and the game was over. Fitzgerald grounded it to third baseman Randy Ready, who threw to Roberto Alomar at second to give Harris his second save. On just one pitch.

“Now wait a minute, it wasn’t like it was easy . . . “ complained Harris, who has had quite a trip with two saves and two losses in the Padres’ nine games thus far. “Anytime you have the bases loaded, it ain’t easy.”

Sure. Let’s let Rob Nelson tell you about easy. Nelson has had it so easy, he was afraid to even think about celebrating his homer. Even though he has only had two of these things in his big league career, about as close as he came to showing excitement was nearly running up the back of Jack Clark, who was on base with Tony Gwynn when Nelson hit it out.

“I don’t show up the pitcher because next time, he could be striking me out four times,” Nelson said.

In his 96 career at-bats, he has had 42 strikeouts, including two in two at-bats against Perez Wednesday. He doesn’t know how many people notice this, but he knows one who does--buddy and former rival Mark McGwire. Thursday morning’s box score is for him.

“I know he and those guys (Oakland teammates) will be reading the paper and seeing it, I know the way they are,” Nelson said. “I’ve been following them . . . it’s good that they will be following me.”

McGwire, you may remember, lost the Oakland first base competition to Nelson in the spring of 1987 when both were rookies. But after Nelson hit .167 with no homers in seven games, McGwire took over.

The past couple of years, while McGwire was spending most of his time in the headlines, Nelson was spending most of his in triple-A Tacoma and Las Vegas. But Nelson hasn’t looked away.

Late Wednesday night Nelson correctly guessed how many homers McGwire has hit this season--eight. Nelson, of course, has one.

Nelson even came within a couple of homers of guessing McGwire’s career total of 92. Nelson has two.

But Nelson said that he can handle the discrepancy. One homer Wednesday. Now, maybe one homer Friday and one homer . . .

“I have learned, whatever happens happens,” said Nelson, hitting .226 with four RBIs in eight games. “I don’t expect anything, I don’t think about what might come along, I just go out every day and think about that day.”

It appears that day is finally all his. Even though Kruk is eligible to come off the disabled list this weekend, and will probably return sometime during the nine-game Padre home stand that begins next week, it appears Nelson will stick around.

This is because at the same time left-handed hitting Nelson was recalled, right-handed hitting Jerald Clark was recalled for backup shortstop Gary Green, who was simply demoted. Clark has done nothing to impress the bosses, going zero for 11, including a flyout on the first pitch from reliever Mark Gardner in a pinch-hit appearance in the ninth inning Wednesday.

So Clark is the leading candidate for demotion. But when right fielder Kruk returns, will Jack Clark go back to first and Nelson hit the bench?

“I feel now I’m going to play, but ever since spring training, I’ve said, I’ll accept what Jack gives me,” Nelson said. “If he decides a bench role is best, that’s fine with me. I’ll accept anything.”

“He’s done what we’ve asked,” McKeon said. “He does have that kind of power that can get us the three-run homer, which would be the difference in a lot of our games lately.”

“For now,” Nelson said quickly, “I just want to get out there Friday (in Philadelphia) and go at it again.”

This from a man who has learned the hard way what patience can get you.

Padre Notes

Shortstop Garry Templeton’s left knee had returned to near normal size Wednesday. Barring further complications, he could be back in the lineup by Friday. “It’s fine, I knew it would be fine,” said Templeton of the one-day scare Tuesday in which he needed the knee drained of fluid and shot with cortisone. He was even out hitting grounders to the infielders before the game . . . Reliever Dave Leiper is still experiencing stiffness in his left shoulder and did not throw hard Wednesday. His condition is still the ambiguous “day to day.” . . . Mark Grant was Wednesday’s winning pitcher by allowing just one hit and no runs from the fifth through the eighth innings. And it wasn’t just any victory. It was his first since last July 2 in Houston. “I’m glad of the way I pitched, but I want to forget about the results and just remember the feeling,” said Grant, whose shutout work marked only the sixth time in 12 appearances this year when he did not allow a run . . . In case you’re wondering why Bruce Hurst was lifted for pinch-hitter Carmelo Martinez so early, even though he allowed just three runs in four innings, well, he had walked five batters and allowed a two-run double to pitcher Pascual Perez. “Hey, we won, I’m glad, that’s all that matters,” said Hurst, still 4-2, who has put together back-to-back quality starts just twice this year.