Padres, Whitson Add to Reds’ Troubles

When the Padres looked at the Cincinnati Reds’ lineup Tuesday night, they saw personnel that wasn’t fit for a spring-training game.

When they looked into the stands, they saw fans wearing bags over their head, a sight not seen at Riverfront Stadium since Vern Rapp was manager five years ago.

When they looked into the Reds dugout, they saw a troubled manager whose brilliant baseball career is dangling precariously in the judicial system.

“I know we’ve had plenty of problems,” Padre pitcher Ed Whitson said, “but hey, those boys, those are the ones you feel sorry for. It’s a shame what they’re going through. It’s one of those years where, I don’t know how to put it, just everything’s gone wrong for them.”

The day was a microcosm of the Reds’ torment these past six weeks. In the morning, their ace, Danny Jackson, was placed on the disabled list for the second time this season. In the afternoon, team owner Marge Schott kicked Pete Rose and the coaching staff out of the clubhouse and held a players-only meeting. At nightfall, just minutes before game time, All-Star center fielder Eric Davis was hit in the sternum by an errant throw and then scratched from the lineup.

And the evening was spent with the Reds losing, 6-2, to the Padres, dropping their eighth in a row, 14th of the past 15 games and 30th in the past 40.

“It seems like I’ve lost 39 games in a row,” said Rose, who held the post-game interview in his office for the first time in two months, now that the media crunch has died down a bit. “Now I know how Frank Robinson must have felt (when the Baltimore Orioles opened the 1988 season with 21 consecutive defeats).

“I haven’t experienced this before, so it’s hard to explain what I’m feeling. But it happens to everyone in his managerial career, and it’s coming to me right now.”

And here you thought the Padres had problems.

“To tell you the truth, there were a guys in that lineup I’ve never even heard of before,” Whitson said. “I’m not lying when say I didn’t know half of the guys out there.”

Perhaps this is why, he said, the Reds were beating him to a pulp in the early going. With only a few extra feet here and a hit there, Whitson would have been in the showers by the fourth inning.

But there was Whitson pitching through seven innings, and by the time he had his arm wrapped in ice, he had equaled his career-best with his 14th victory of the season.

It might not have been vintage Whitson on this night--10 hits, nine in the first four innings. But then again, who else but Whitson would have even remained in game after he left the field in the fourth inning holding his rib cage in pain?

“I thought that might be it,” said Whitson (14-6), who felt the twinge in the fourth when spinning around and throwing out Jeff Reed at third on a bunt attempt. “It felt bad, but in those situations you do everything you can to stay in there. If we were losing 5-1, or something, I’d say, ‘Well, take me out. Let’s not take a chance.’

“But we had just gotten the lead, and I said to myself, ‘If I have to kick it up to the plate, I’m staying in there.”’

Said Pat Dobson, the Padre pitching coach: “It’s hotter than hell, his side hurts, but you can’t get him out of there. Not a bulldog like that. If it was up to him, he would have pitched the whole damn game.”

Concerned enough to have reliever Pat Clements warming up immediately, the Padres never had to use him until the eighth. By that time, Whitson had retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced, the Padres had a 6-2 lead, and most of the 24,221 at Riverfront were on their way home.

“He’s the guy I like seeing out there,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said. “I just wish we could pitch him more often. When he’s out there, things just seem to happen.”

The last time Whitson pitched, the Padres scored nine runs. The time before, they scored seven. And now, in midst of their worst scoring slump of the season, after just five runs in the previous four games, look what happens:

They score three runs in the fourth, ignited by Roberto Alomar’s double, and highlighted by Garry Templeton’s two-run single. And in the seventh, they get a three-run home run by--you’ll never guess--Shawn Abner.

“I can’t explain it either,” said Whitson, who last won 14 games in 1984 while with the Padres. “It just seems like the sun really shines on me every time I pitch.”

The Padres (48-52) looked as if they were on their way to a fifth consecutive defeat after three innings. They trailed, 2-0, and Tony Gwynn’s leadoff single had accounted for their only baserunner.

“Things were going pretty bad,” Alomar said. “Somebody had to get things started. Somebody had to get on base. I decided to be that guy.”

Alomar lined a double into right, and Jack Clark followed with a single, scoring Alomar. Chris James was right behind with another single, advancing Clark to second.

The Padre players were high-fiving, low-fiving and dancing in the dugout. Pardon their giddy behavior, but you’ve got to remember this is a team that had not managed three consecutive hits in 48 innings.

Then, in what the Padres believed was the key play of the game, Benito Santiago hit a fly ball to deep right field. Clark tagged and went to third, and James did the same at second. Only one problem. Van Snyder’s throw to second was a beauty. Shortstop Mariano Duncan caught the ball and put the tag on James, and umpire Charlie Reliford was all ready to call him out when James knocked the ball away with his forearm.

“He (Reliford) said, ‘You would have been out,’ ” James said. “I said, ‘Bull. I was in there.’ If he was to call me out, he would have had to run me, because I would have been ejected.”

Templeton, just trying to hit the ball to the right side of the infield to score Clark, instead slapped it up the middle, scoring two runs. It provided the Padres with a precarious 3-2 lead, which was extended and became quite comfortable in the seventh.

Templeton opened the seventh with a single to right, and Mike Pagliarulo followed with a ground-rule double, his first hit since joining the Padres Saturday. Rose quickly pulled left-handed starter Tom Browning and summoned left-hander Norm Charlton to face Abner.

The move was curious because Abner only plays against left-handed pitchers, and Charlton gave up a 442-foot home run to Andres Galarraga in his last outing. But the way Rose figured it, if he brought in a right-hander, McKeon would have called upon left-handed pinch-hitter Marvell Wynne. Besides, Abner was hitting just .136 when he stepped to the plate.

“I thought they’d bring in a rightie,” Abner said, “but I guess because I was hitting so bad, they thought it didn’t matter who they brought it.”

Two pitches later, Rose realized he had made a huge blunder. Abner sent a hanging breaking ball 400 feet into the left-field seats, and the Padres suddenly had a 6-2 lead.

“Obviously, I didn’t bring in Norm Charlton to throw a three-run homer on the second pitch,” Rose said. “That was lights out. That was a Michael Tyson ending right there.

“But you know something, it’s been that kind of season.”

Padre Notes

Don’t look for Padre pitcher Bruce Hurst to rely on information from teammate Mark Grant again. Not after the $635 he cost Hurst on Monday. When Hurst left the clubhouse Sunday, he innocently asked Grant what time the team bus was departing San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium for their chartered flight to Cincinnati. Grant told him 11 a.m. Hurst showed up at 10:35, but when he arrived, no one was around. Grant had given him wrong information. The bus departed at 10:10, with the plane leaving at 11 a.m. Not knowing what to do, Hurst went to the airport, shelled out $635 and caught a one-stop commercial flight to Cincinnati. He arrived at the team hotel at 9:35 p.m. And Grant? He was there in plenty of time, having re-read his travel itinerary Sunday night. He says he tried to call Hurst but didn’t have his phone number. Grant apologized profusely Tuesday to Hurst, but no amount of apologizing was going to bring back Hurst’s $635. . . . The Padres, who are in the market for a starting shortstop, will not attempt to pick up shortstop Rey Quinones off the waiver wire, Manager Jack McKeon said. Quinones, a starting shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates this season, was released Saturday by the Pirates and will clear waivers Thursday. “I’m not interested,” McKeon said. “Let someone else have the problem.” . . . The Reds have put 12 players on the disabled list a total of 14 times this season, resulting in 40 different players suiting up. . . . The Reds’ starting lineup consisted of just three players who were in their opening day lineup. They’ve had to call up 11 players from their triple-A club in Nashville, Tenn., and seven still are on their roster. . . . Pitcher Don Schulze joined the Padres Tuesday. He was acquired Saturday along with third baseman Mike Pagliarulo from the New York Yankees in exchange for pitcher Walt Terrell and a player to be named. He spent the past few days moving his belongings to his hometown of Chicago. He’s scheduled to start Saturday night against the Dodgers.