Padres, Davis Again Let Victory Get Away

Through the first two months of the season, the Padres lived off the left arm of Mark Davis.

He was their savior, and it seemed there was nothing he could do wrong.

Of their 30 victories, Davis appeared in 21. He won twice, was perfect in 17 save opportunities and had two no-decisions. No finer figures could be found in the major leagues.

It was a magical tour that appeared as if it would never end. That is until this week, when Davis ran into the Houston Astros, a team hotter than any individual.

For the second time in three games Thursday, Davis failed to hold a three-run lead in the ninth, then yielded the winning run in the 10th. This time, it was a two-run homer by Glenn Davis with one out that gave the Astros a 7-6 victory in front of 13,578 at the Astrodome.

The loss was the Padres’ third in a row and left them with a 1-6 start to a 10-game trip that concludes with a three-game series in San Francisco starting tonight. It dropped them under .500 (30-31) and into a tie for fourth with the idle Dodgers, five games behind Cincinnati and Houston.

The victory was the Astros’ 13th in 14 games. While that alone qualifies them as the hottest team in baseball, it is the way they are winning that makes it extraordinary.

First there was the 22-inning marathon victory over the Dodgers Saturday (and Sunday), then the game Tuesday against the Padres in which they tied it in the ninth on a wild-pitch third strike, and now this.

“(Those) two nights I was waiting to go out to the mound to shake the guy’s hand,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said. “I guess that is what happens. You get good pitching, and you don’t get runs. You get the lousy pitching, you get the runs. It will turn, I hope; if it doesn’t, we’ll all be nuts.”

What really has McKeon crazy is trying to figure out what is wrong with Mark Davis. Two blown saves that turned into his first two losses have the Padres wondering.

“It’s a like a hitter that goes into a rut,” McKeon said.

Pat Dobson, the Padre pitching coach, said Davis went through a similar spell last season.

“He gets a little wild, and he starts trying to guide the ball rather than throw it over the plate,” Dobson said. “Then he gets wilder. When he does get it over, they hit it. That’s where he is at now.”

The collapse by Davis was a odd twist to a game in which starter Eric Show appeared to be cruising toward a club record 93rd career victory, holding a 5-1 lead to start the ninth.

But Glenn Davis and Terry Puhl singled to open the inning, and after Rafael Ramirez scored Davis with an infield single, Show was replaced by Mark Davis.

It was clear from the start that Davis, who walked in two runs in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s game, was having control problems again. He threw two balls to the first batter, catcher Craig Biggio, before Biggio stroked a double down the left-field line, scoring Puhl.

“I’m in a situation where I’m letting the ball go not knowing where it will go or what it will do,” Davis said.

The Astros sent Alex Trevino to bat for relief pitcher Mark Portugal. He worked the count to 2-1 before Davis uncorked a curveball that bounced in the dirt five feet in front of the plate and skipped past catcher Mark Parent to the screen for a wild pitch.

That scored Ramierez to make it 5-4 and allowed Biggio to take third. Trevino then scored Biggio with the tying run on a sacrifice fly to right.

The Padres took a 6-5 lead in the 10th when Roberto Alomar led off with a single to left, stole second and scored on Tony Gwynn’s single to center.

Against another team, that might have been enough to win, but not against the uncanny Astros.

Davis walked Gerald Young on a full count in the bottom of the 10th. McKeon said he considered removing Davis at that point, but when Bill Doran grounded to shortstop, he stuck with him.

Two pitches later, Glenn Davis took a 1-1 pitch high over the left-field wall for his 14th home run.

Gwynn was beside himself after the loss.

Gwynn went three for five with three RBIs to extend his batting streak to 10 games, matching Clark for the team season high, and raise his average on the road trip to .600 (18 for 30).

“You hate to put to blame on anyone,” Gwynn said. “But when you sit down and look at what happened in this series, we did our job as hitters, we did our job as defensive players, the starters did their job, but the bullpen didn’t come through. It’s obvious.”

The Padres took a 3-0 lead in the third off starter Bob Knepper despite getting only two balls out of the infield.

Two infield singles, two sacrifice bunts, an error, a sacrifice fly and a rolling single to right by Jack Clark brought the runners home.

The Padres could have had more, but Chris James grounded into a double play with runners on first and third to end the inning.

The Astros got one run back in their half of the inning on a two-out double by Young and an RBI single by Doran.

The Padres added two more runs in the fifth for a 5-1 lead, and again sloppy Astro fielding helped their cause.

Salazar led off with a grounder to shortstop. Ramirez fielded it cleanly, but his throw to first pulled Glenn Davis off the bag, allowing Salazar to reach base.

Salazar reached third on Alomar’s double to right, and both runners scored on Gwynn’s single to right.

And until the ninth, Show and the Padres were in command.

“(Show) pitched a great game,” McKeon said. “But you got a 5-1 lead, you have to close it out. I don’t care who you are. Get good pitches, close them out.”