Padres Deal Kruk, Ready to Phillies for Chris James : In Game, Davis Hits for Cycle as Reds Win, 9-4

When Padre pitcher Walt Terrell last faced Eric Davis, Terrell was in his last season with the New York Mets and Davis was a Cincinnati rookie just a few games removed from double-A.

A lot has happened since 1984.

While Terrell spent the next four seasons in the American League with the Detroit Tigers, Davis grew up to become one of the National League’s great young power hitters.

The two finally met again Friday night, and now Terrell knows what he missed. Don’t expect him to look forward to the next confrontation.

Davis became the first National League player to hit for the cycle this season and the first Cincinnati player in 30 years to accomplish the feat, leading the Reds to a 9-4 victory over the Padres in front of 29,227 at Riverfront Stadium.

The loss, combined with San Francisco’s victory over Atlanta, dropped the fourth-place Padres to 2 1/2 games behind the National League West Division-leading Giants.

Davis drove in six runs with his single, double, triple and home run.

Most of the damage came against Terrell.

Davis ripped Terrell for an RBI double in the first, a run-scoring single in the third and a three-run homer in the fourth. That accounted for three quarters of his cycle and five of the eight runs Terrell allowed in his four innings.

“All three hits came on changeups,” said Terrell, who returned to the National League when he was traded from the Tigers in October. “I got them inside, and you can’t do that with him. He has too much bat speed. If you pitch him inside, it better be hard if not he is going to hurt you. If you are going to pitch him like that (off speed), you better do it outside.”

Davis closed out the Reds’ scoring and completed his cycle with an RBI triple in the seventh against reliever Dave Leiper.

He saved the toughest for last. The triple, his first of the season, came in his last at-bat. He hit Leiper’s pitch into the gap in right-center field. He slid safely into third but not before he put his tender left hamstring to the test. Davis only came off the 15-day disabled list May 19.

“I didn’t feel it then, but I feel it now,” Davis said shortly after emerging from the training room with his hamstring packed in ice. “I knew I needed the triple for the cycle, but I’d rather have a healthy hamstring than the cycle.”

That triple made Davis the first Red to hit for the cycle since Frank Robinson on May 2, 1959 (against the Dodgers).

Davis wasn’t born until 1962.

“I know it’s something that doesn’t happen very often,” Davis said.

Neither Davis nor Terrell said they remembered their last meeting, when Davis went one for three. Chances are, Terrell will not forget this one.

Only 198 players have hit for the cycle since record-keeping began in 1876, according to the Reds publicity department. Toronto’s Kelly Gardner is the only other player to hit for the cycle this season.

Statistically, it is tougher to hit for the cycle than it is to pitch a no-hitter.

That might help to explain what happened to Padre third basemen Luis Salazar. He, too, entered his last at-bat needing a triple to complete the cycle. But reliever Norm Charlton struck him out in the ninth.

Salazar had an infield single, two-run homer and double in his first three at bats. But by the time Salazar homered in the fifth, the Reds had built an 8-1 lead.

Davis had Terrell in trouble from the start.

His RBI double in the first scored Barry Larkin with the first of eight runs against Terrell.

Davis added his second RBI on a single in the third to give the Reds a 3-1 lead, and he finished off Terrell and the Padres with a towering, three-run homer in the fourth that dropped behind the left-field wall.

Davis’ homer was his eighth and his second three-run homer against the Padres. His first was the difference in a 6-3, 10-inning victory April 15.

Terrell got right fielder Paul O’Neill to fly out to end the fourth, but that was the last of him. He left for a pinch-hitter in the top of the fifth after having allowed eight runs on 11 hits.

The performance was statistically the worst by a Padre starter this season and helped cover a shaky outing by Reds starter Tom Browning.

Browning, who usually pitches as well against the Padres as he does against any team in the National League, was not at his best this time, but he hardly needed his best stuff.

He gave up eight hits and four runs before being lifted after allowing a single to Benito Santiago and a double to Salazar to start the seventh.

It still was enough to give him his ninth victory in 12 career decisions against the Padres.