Trip Home a Success for Padres

For the first time this season, the Padres leave for a trip today not wondering if happiness is seeing San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium in their rear-view mirrors.

Their 2-1 victory Wednesday night in front of 13,533 gave them a three-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies and their first winning home stand (6-3) in four tries.

Even better, they did so in one of those dramatic ways that leave a good feeling.

Marvell Wynne was the hero, hitting a two-out, eighth-inning RBI double down the right field line that landed barely fair near the Philadelphia bullpen.

Roberto Alomar, who led off the inning with a walk off loser Jeff Parrett, was running on the pitch and scored easily.

The Padres could not have asked for a better sendoff to launch them on a 10-game trip that will take them through the cities of three of their closest National League West rivals.

The victory raised their record to 29-25, four games over .500 for the first time, and kept them in third place in what is becoming an increasingly close division race. That could begin to sort out in the next week as the Padres embark on a trip that will take them in succession to Cincinnati, fourth-place Houston and division-leading San Francisco.

After having squandered several earlier scoring chances, they have Wynne to thank for their standing.

“I got it up in the (strike) zone, belt high,” said Parrett, who started the eighth in relief of starter Bob Sebra. “He was right on top of it.”

That was because Wynne was anticipating exactly what Parrett delivered.

“I got the pitch I was looking for--a three-one fastball,” Wynne said. “It was right where I wanted it.”

The hit made a winner out of reliever Greg Harris (1-2). Harris pitched a scoreless eighth after starter Dennis Rasmussen left having allowed only two hits, including a first-inning home run by former Padre Dickie Thon, in seven innings.

Mark Davis came on in the ninth for his 17th save in as many opportunities, but he had to pitch out of a jam after Von Hayes reached third with one out on a single to right and a two-base error by John Kruk, who allowed the ball to get under his glove and roll just in front of the warning track.

Davis got Chris James to ground out to third and Steve Lake to strike out to end the game.

Rasmussen wasted little time adding to his most undistinguished statistic--a penchant for first-inning trouble. This time it was Thon, the game’s second batter, who added to Rasmussen’s season-long first-inning woes by hitting a line drive to left on a one-and-one pitch. The ball clanged off the railing in front of the lower stands.

It was the second home run for Thon, equaling his total of the previous two seasons and extended his batting streak to 10 games.

Thon’s homer marked the 10th time in 11 starts that Rasmussen had yielded a first-inning run and raised the first-innning count against Rasmussen to 17 runs, 28 hits and five home runs.

But this time, the Padres, who by contrast have had trouble scoring in the first inning--only 13 times in their previous 53 games, including four of five times against the Phillies--got the run right back. They needed only one hit off Sebra to do it.

Right fielder Bip Roberts opened with a single to center, extending his three-game on-base streak to seven plate appearances. Roberts (whose streak ended on a groundout to first two innings later) stole second and moved to third on Alomar’s groundout to second. He scored on Tony Gwynn’s fly down the left-field line in foul territory.

Rasmussen did his best to make the most of lone run. He had no trouble in the second and third, setting down the Phillies in order. But he found himself in a jam in the fourth, loading the bases on two out with a single and two walks before going to three and zero on Lake.

But Rasmussen was able to work the count back to three and two before getting Lake to end the inning on a popup to first.

Rasmussen got back on track the next three innings, retiring the side in order the fifth and sixth and allowing only a two-out walk in the seventh before he was lifted for a pinch hitter and replaced by Harris.

Rasmussen left with his best pitching line of the season--one run on the homer to Thon, two hits, four walks and four strikeouts in seven innings. The Padres, meanwhile, were having their own problems against Sebra, a career 13-24 pitcher who was making only his third start since being recalled May 17 from triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Sebra, the 10th pitcher to start for the injury-riddled Phillies staff, had handled the Padres easily in his first start--a 3-1 victory on May 21 in Philadelphia in which he allowed one run on seven hits and struck out eight in eight innings. But in his next start, he was racked for five runs in four innings in a 6-1 loss at San Francisco.

That is not to say the Padres did have their chances, putting runners on base in the second, third, fourth and seventh innings, including leadoff hitters’ doubles in the fourth and seventh. But each time Sebra was able to pitch out of trouble.

In the fourth, Wynne opened with a double and was sacrificed to third by Benito Santiago, but Sebra avoided a run by getting Tim Flannery on a liner to third and Garry Templeton on a strikeout.

The seventh followed a similar pattern, after a leadoff double by Santiago and a sacrifice by Flannery put a runner on third with one out. But the Padres failed to score as Templeton again struck out, Kruk (batting for Rasmussen) walked, and Roberts ended the inning by popping out to third.

Sebra was replaced by Parrett to start the eighth.

“Sebra kept us in the game,” Phillie Manager Nick Leyva said. “But I had to take him out, he was completely out of gas.”

Padre Notes

The annual summer free-agent draft will be Monday through Wednesday, and Manager Jack McKeon, who became a grandfather for the fourth time Sunday, is playing a different kind of expectant father role. His youngest, son Kasey, is a senior catcher at San Diego State and has hopes of being drafted. . . . Utility infielder Randy Ready, who has not played since May 20 in Philadelphia because of a right hamstring injury, should be available to start when the Padres begin a three-city, 10-game road trip Friday in Cincinnati, McKeon said. Ready strained the muscle May 17 in Montreal. . . . The Padres will not return home until June 13, when they open a three-game series with the Reds to kick off a 12-game home stand.

WINNING PITCH

KFMB-AM will retain the rights to broadcast Padre games. Story, Page 13A.