Padres Finally Get Hits but Not Enough to Overtake Braves

The score burned brightly throughout the day on the huge scoreboard in right field, and by the time the Padres took their last swings in batting practice Saturday afternoon, they knew they had a precious opportunity.

There was not a player in the clubhouse who didn’t know that the San Francisco Giants had lost.

There also was not a player around who was unaware of the significance.

All they needed to do was knock off the lowly Atlanta Braves, and the Padres would wake up this morning just 7 1/2 games behind the first-place Giants, the closest they’ve been since June 17.

“We knew what we had to do,” Padre center fielder Tony Gwynn said. “We knew before the game started we could pick up one game.

“Now, we know we’re running out of time.”

The Padres expended most of their energy just trying to collect a single hit, and even though they finally were able to spoil Tom Glavine’s no-hit bid in the seventh, they could not catch up and lost, 5-4.

The defeat left the Padres (59-59) cursing themselves, departing San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium along with the rest of the crowd of 21,657 knowing that the upcoming three-city, nine-day trip east will let everyone know if they still have a remote shot at winning this thing.

“I think it’s going to make us or break us,” Gwynn said of the trip, which begins Tuesday with a three-game series against the New York Mets. “This trip notoriously has killed us, but we did all right last time, winning six of the nine games.

“The only trouble is that at this point in the season, we’ve got to win them all. We can’t afford to just win six of nine. We don’t have the time.”

The way Padre Manager Jack McKeon has it figured, the Padres need to win two of every three games they play. That would provide them with 88 victories. He doesn’t know if that would be good enough, but at least it would give them a chance.

“You know, just like that first game last night (a 6-5 loss in the opener of a doubleheader), I thought we were going to win the thing (Saturday),” McKeon said. “When I sat there in the dugout, I really thought we’d win.

“It’s a big difference from before. Before, you thought it’d be nice to come back, but I’m not sure we believed it. Now, we really feel that way.

“It’s just that tonight, we started too late.”

For a long while Saturday night, the question was not so much whether the Padres would win, but whether they’d even get a hit.

Tom Glavine, who has a 3-0 record and 2.74 ERA against the Padres this season, mowed them down through six innings without allowing any.

With the outcome seemingly decided anyway, the Braves owning a 5-0 lead after 6 1/2 innings, all eyes were on Glavine.

This was a guy who never before had flirted with a no-hitter past the fourth, but here he was at the age of 23, bidding to become the first pitcher to throw one since Tom Browning’s perfect game last Sept. 16 against the Dodgers.

Really, this was as much a surprise to Glavine as anyone else in the stadium. Sure, Glavine (11-6) had impressive credentials, entering the game tied for the league-lead with four shutouts. But when he came into the dugout after the fifth inning, he whispered to Brave trainer Dave Pursley, “I don’t know what’s going on out there. I don’t have very much.”

Glavine later said: “I wasn’t fooling anybody. It was one of those nights that whenever they hit the ball, it was right at somebody. Or it was to center field, and Oddibe (McDowell) tracked it down.

“I was tired after the fifth, but as long as I had it going, I was going to stay out there and hope for the best.”

Glavine went out for the sixth and pitched another one-two-three inning, and when he got Gwynn to hit a ground to second for the third out, the Padres were battling history.

The last Brave pitcher to throw a no-hitter was Phil Niekro on Aug. 5, 1973, in Atlanta.

The team?

You guessed it.

The Padres.

The Braves had scored two more runs in the top of the seventh, building a 5-0 lead, when Glavine again came to the mound. His only flaws to this point had been hitting Bip Roberts with a pitch and twice walking Jack Clark.

After Clark led off by flying to left, Glavine knew that just eight more outs were needed for headline news across the country and that he would not have face the heart of the Padre order again until the ninth.

The Padres never allowed him to get to that point.

Chris James ended Glavine’s no-hitter and shutout with one swing, stroking a three-two pitch into the left-field seats for his ninth home run of the season, extending his hitting streak to a team-high 17 games.

Then, as if the Padres had been awaiting for someone to show them the way, Garry Templeton followed suit by lining a single into left. Luis Salazar, pinch-hitting for Mike Pagliarulo, drilled a home run into the left-field seats.

Poor Glavine had not only had lost his no-hitter and shutout but was in danger of blowing his five-run lead.

He settled down in time to get Mark Parent on a short hopper to second base and held his breath as pinch-hitter Carmelo Martinez flied out to the warning track in center field.

Brave Manager Russ Nixon, figuring this was no time to get sentimental, told Glavine that he was through for the night at the end of the inning and summoned Jim Acker for the eighth.

The Padres were not through. They got one more in the eighth inning on Clark’s two-out single up the middle, scoring Roberts from second, and made it oh so interesting in the ninth.

Templeton led off the ninth with a single to left and was sacrificed to second on Salazar’s bunt. Parent, who had flied to the warning track in the fifth, was allowed to bat. He swung at the first pitch and hit a scorching ground ball, but right to third baseman Jeff Blauser, who threw him out at first.

The Padres now were down to their last out, and stepping to the plate was Marvell Wynne, the man who got picked off in the ninth Friday night on the hidden ball trick.

One swing of the bat would redeem his mistake of 24 hours ago, allowing the Padres to at least send the game into extra innings. Instead, he struck out, and the Padres went down the second time in three games to the Braves.

“You know, when things are going good,” McKeon said, “you win those games. If this was the Giants, they’d probably win tonight’s game. We couldn’t do it.

“And now, we’re running out of time.”

Padre Notes

Padre center fielder Marvell Wynne, who was tagged out at second when Jeff Treadway executed the hidden ball trick in the ninth inning of the first game Friday night, says his embarrassment still hadn’t waned by Saturday. “I didn’t want to come off the bag when that happened,” Wynne said, “I just said, ‘Call a balk. Call something.’ And when that didn’t happen, I was looking for a hole to crawl into.”. . . . Since being ejected Aug. 4 in the first inning against the Dodgers while arguing a called strike, Padre outfielder Tony Gwynn is hitting .417. . . . Padre reliever Mark Davis, who’s running away with the Rolaids Fireman of the Year award, has been successful in his past 12 save opportunities. By recording his 30th save Friday night, he joins Rollie Fingers as the only pitchers in Padre history to save 30 games in a season. Fingers owns the team record with 37 saves in 1978. Davis has been scored upon in just one of his past 21 appearances and has allowed just 12 of 50 inherited baserunners to score this season. . . . Padre outfielder/first baseman Carmelo Martinez, who is in a one-for-19 slump, was benched Saturday. . . . Padre left fielder Bip Roberts is hitting .333 over this past 31 games. . . . Infielder Eddie Romero, who was released a week ago by the Boston Red Sox, was claimed off waivers Friday by the Atlanta Braves and was in the starting lineup at second base Saturday. . . . The Padres are off today and Monday and then will embark on a nine-game trip beginning Tuesday in New York against the Mets: Ed Whitson (14-8) vs. Sid Fernandez (9-3) Tuesday; Dennis Rasmussen (5-8) vs. Ron Darling (10-9) Wednesday; and Bruce Hurst (11-8) vs. Frank Viola (1-1) Thursday. Andy Benes (0-1) is expected to start Friday against the Montreal Expos, and Manager Jack McKeon said that Don Schulze (2-1) likely will start Saturday against the Expos, although he could use Greg Harris (5-6).