Padres Summon Benes After Astros Pound on Schulze

Third base was supposed to be a Padre problem. And a power hitter. As spring turned into summer, Manager Jack McKeon wanted another power hitter.

But on Tuesday evening in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, the Padres were forced to deal with a problem they didn’t anticipate during those optimistic days of spring training.

Pitching.

Don Schulze, obtained from the New York Yankees July 22 and thrust into the lineup to replace Walt Terrell, lasted four innings, allowing two home runs. Houston hit two more homers on this night, but by then, things were long since decided as the Padres lost to Houston, 12-3, in front of 16,988.

And with a doubleheader Friday against Atlanta and the Padres currently eight games behind first-place San Francisco, the Padres made a move to solve their pitching woes after the game. They summoned Andy Benes, the nation’s No. 1 pick in the June 1988 free agent draft, from Las Vegas (triple A). They also recalled right-hander Dan Murphy (6-9, 4.20 ERA at Las Vegas).

To make room, they dispatched Fred Toliver (7.07 earned-run average) and Dave Leiper (5.02 ERA) to Las Vegas.

Benes will start one of the games of Friday’s doubleheader.

“We saw him in spring training, and he’s got an arm,” McKeon said. “We wanted to be patient with him, because he’s big in our future. But now is the perfect opportunity. We need a pitcher for Friday.”

Benes was 2-1 at Las Vegas with an 8.10 ERA. He allowed 41 hits in 26 2/3 innings. He started the season at Wichita (double A), where he was overpowering, going 8-4 with a 2.16 ERA.

Greg Harris will make his final start on Thursday and then be sent back to the bullpen, where he has pitched well this season. McKeon said he may go with a four-man rotation for awhile.

Five Padre pitchers served up four Houston home runs Tuesday. And what was almost as troubling was four Padre errors.

None of which helped the depleted pitching staff.

Two-fifths of the rotation that began the season for the Padres has disappeared. Terrell is in Yankee pinstripes and Eric Show was knocked out for the season by back surgery.

Into their places came Schulze and Harris. Schulze, 26, was 2-0 before Tuesday’s debacle despite a soaring 4.09 earned-run average. He lasted six innings in his first start as a Padre, against the Dodgers, and five on Aug. 3 against Atlanta.

Harris, meanwhile, left a gaping hole in the Padre bullpen when he moved into the starting rotation. Basically, Mark Grant and Mark Davis are the only relievers McKeon has any confidence in. Before Tuesday, Toliver last appeared in a game on July 30. So did Leiper, who came in in the eighth.

Here’s how much confidence McKeon had in Toliver: With Houston ahead, 6-0, in the fourth Tuesday and the game seemingly out of reach, Toliver got up to warm up in the bullpen. Then the Padres scored three runs to pull within reach. So Grant got up, and Toliver sat down.

Toliver finally got in after Grant allowed four runs on three hits in two innings of work, running the score to 10-3. Toliver walked the first batter he faced, Gerald Young, then watched Craig Biggio drill a pitch over the right-field fence to make it 12-3.

Toliver, though, had a few things to say before he left.

“I’m a starter,” he said. “You don’t pitch this kind of arm every 13 days. I’m a competitor. I know how to win. I don’t like sitting. You have to use me. I’ve got to try and not be (angry) and hold back the tears. I’m an athlete.

“I didn’t go to a rehab center. I don’t do drugs. I’m a good guy. Somebody’s going to give me the ball.”

Schulze (2-1) started things Tuesday by allowing a two-run home run to Glenn Davis in the first and a three-run homer to Davis in the fourth.

Then Grant gave up a three-run homer to Ken Caminiti in the sixth. And Toliver served a two-run homer to Craig Biggio.

“We just got out-homered, guys,” McKeon said. “No question about that.”

Just three National League teams totaled fewer than Houston’s 63 homers entering Tuesday’s game.

Houston starter Jim Clancy (6-9), meanwhile, was able to withstand a Padre rally in the fourth and ease to a win. It was his third victory over the Padres this year.

Schulze started out smoothly, getting Houston’s two leadoff Craigs, Biggio and Reynolds, to ground to shortstop. But then, trouble started on a ground ball to first.

Jack Clark backhanded it, but his flip to Schulze, who was covering first, was low and wide. Schulze couldn’t get his 6-foot-3 frame down in time, and the ball bounded off his glove. Schulze was given the error, and the Astros were still alive in the first.

Davis proved that by taking a one-and-one Schulze pitch over the left-center field fence for his 26th home run of the season.

Defensively, it got worse before it got better for the Padres. In the second inning, Gerald Young reached first when Clark fielded his bleeder and then dropped it while trying to make the throw.

In the third, with Doran on first, Davis hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Garry Templeton. The ball, as well as a potential double play, skipped between Templeton’s legs.

Terry Puhl followed with a single, scoring Doran and sending Davis to second. Here, the Padres--and Schulze--finally got a break.

Caminiti hit your basic, routine single off the left-field wall. It easily would have been a double had the bases not been clogged with unsure Astros. Davis only advanced as far as third, thus halting the activity around the rest of the bases.

Schulze then struck out Billy Hatcher, and got Young to fly to left. Davis tagged up on the fly, but Carmelo Martinez threw a perfect one-hopper to catcher Benito Santiago, who made a sweeping tag in time to double up Davis.

So Houston had three runs, none of them earned.

That lasted until the fourth, when Schulze met Davis for the third time. With Clancy standing on second and Biggio on first, Davis hit another one-and-one pitch even farther into the left-center field bleachers than the first. It was 6-0, Astros, and time was about out for Schulze and the Padres.

But remember, Clancy was the man who started against the Cincinnati Reds last week when the Reds struck for 14 runs and 16 hits in the first inning of a game in Cincinnati. And in the Padre fourth, he reverted to that form.

Templeton, Gwynn and Clark led off with singles, with Templeton scoring on Clark’s hit. Then Chris James doubled to left, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games and driving in Gwynn to make it 6-2.

Martinez struck out looking at a full-count pitch before Mike Pagliarulo grounded to short, giving Clark time to cross the plate while James advanced to third. Santiago, though, flied to left to end the inning.

But Houston scored again in the sixth on a run-scoring Doran single and another three-run homer, this one by Caminiti. It came off Grant and made the score 10-3.

The final runs were scored in the seventh, when Biggio hit the two-run homer off Toliver.

Padre Notes

Mike Scott, the winningest pitcher in the major leagues with a 17-6 record, is doubtful for Thursday’s scheduled start for the Astros against the Padres. Scott reinjured his left hamstring warming up in the bullpen before Saturday’s 7-0 loss at San Francisco. “It will be a miracle if he pitches,” Manager Art Howe said. . . Entering Tuesday’s game, Houston outfielders had hit just six home runs in 1,250 at-bats. Padre backup catcher Mark Parent has six homers in 117 at bats. . . . The Giants’ announcement that pitcher Dave Dravecky, recovering from surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his left arm, will start Thursday impressed McKeon. “If there’s a guy who could do it, he’d be the guy,” McKeon said. “He has so much faith in himself, and he has a tremendous positive attitude. And, he worked like hell to get to this point. He’s a real special guy. Just going out there is enough--for him to throw that first pitch will be quite an accomplishment.” . . . Sandy Alomar Jr. went four for five Monday night for triple-A Las Vegas to extend his hitting streak to 18 games. Alomar, who is batting .479 (35 for 73) during the streak, raised his season average to .307. He has 90 runs batted in.