James Lifts Padres With Homer in 11th

A real, live pennant race came to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium Friday night, just like the ones you hope for each year as August begins fading into September.

It had a screaming manager, a balking pitcher and a protesting team.

The problem for the Padres was that they weren’t the team in the pennant race. The good part for them was that it was the New York Mets who most of the difficulties.

By evening’s end, the Padres were 5-3 winners in 11 innings in front of 32,150 fans.

The winning runs came with two out in the bottom of the 11th when Chris James hit a Randy Myers pitch into the left field seats. The ball was hit so hard that Met left fielder Kevin McReynolds never moved.

Jack Clark, who had walked, was on first.

“You just got to be ready to hit when you get up against Myers,” he said. “He’s not going to let you pick away.”

It was James’ 12th homer of the season--his 10th since coming to San Diego. And it was the exclamation point on an eventful night.

It came after the Mets protested the game, which was after Met Manager Davey Johnson was ejected, which was after . . .

It started in the sixth. The Mets were clinging to a 1-0 lead, knowing that the Chicago Cubs had already beaten Atlanta Friday afternoon.

The Mets were now two games behind the first-place Cubs in the NL East and, with a nine-game West Coast swing looming, wanted to get started in the right direction.

Their trouble started after Ed Whitson’s lead-off double in the sixth. Met starter Sid Fernandez threw to Dave Magadan at first on an appeal play, claiming Whitson missed first. But first base umpire Jerry Crawford called a balk, sending Whitson to third.

Fernandez was flustered. Up stepped Bip Roberts. Out to the mound went catcher Mackey Sasser. After Sasser returned to his position, Davey Johnson came running out of the dugout to talk with Fernandez.

Their advice didn’t do much good. Roberts sent a one-and-one pitch into the left field seats to make it 2-1, and three pitches later, Roberto Alomar homered to left to make it 3-1.

It was Alomar’s first homer since June 5 and the first time since last Sept. 12 that the Padres had hit back-to-back home runs.

None of that did much for the Mets’ attitudes. Davey Johnson left the dugout again, this time to discuss the situation with the umpires. But Johnson talked more than he listened and was ejected.

At that point, Met third baseman Howard Johnson wanted to deliver a few soothing words to Fernandez, but third base umpire Bill Hohn, wanting to speed up the game, wouldn’t allow it.

That’s when the Mets protested the game.

Two innings later, they tied it. Gregg Jefferies led off with a single, and after Whitson got Juan Samuel to pop out, Padre pitching coach Pat Dobson called for left-handed Mark Davis.

The move seemed logical. First, Davis has 31 saves. Second, batter Howard Johnson had 30 homers at that point--25 against right-handers.

But sometimes in baseball, logic doesn’t matter. Johnson picked out Davis’ fourth pitch--the count was one-and-two--and put it over the left field fence to make it 3-3.

Davis lasted 2 2/3 innings and was charged with one run on three hits. He gave way in the 11th to Greg Harris, who earned the victory to improve to 6-7.

On the way, some weird things were happening.

There was Whitson on the mound, in the middle of a career year. Third in the National League in victories--a career-high 15--eighth in earned run average and tenth in innings pitched.

Sasser, batting a respectable .288 but having entered this season with just 40 hits, stepped to the plate in the second and singled to right.

Significant? Well, at that point, Sasser was nine for nine this season against Whitson. The streak was broken in the fourth, when Sasser flied to left.

On the other side of the statistical spectrum was Padre first baseman Clark. By evening’s end, he was zero for 26 against the Mets this season.

Fernandez isn’t exactly a stranger to the Padres. He pitched seven innings against them 11 days ago, allowing a mere six hits and two runs. But familiarity doesn’t make it any easier to hit him. Entering Friday’s game, he led the National League having held opponents to a .202 average.

On the other hand, he wasn’t winning, either. He got his fifth consecutive no-decision Friday, giving him no decisions in seven of his past eight outings.

For a while Friday, the Padres didn’t do much damage to his stats. Fernandez sailed along until the sixth, allowing just two Tony Gwynn singles through five innings.

The Mets, meanwhile, came into the game not having scored in 20 innings. Whitson extended that streak just one more inning before the Mets scored a run in the second. That came when Garry Templeton booted Kevin McReynolds’ grounder to lead off the inning. After Whitson struck out Dave Magadan, Sasser rapped a single to right to move McReynolds to third. He scored on Kevin Elster’s fly to left field.

Whitson lasted 7 1/3 innings, allowing two runs--one earned--and five hits. He struck out six.

Padre Notes

The field was in relatively good shape for the beginning of the Padres’ nine-game home stand Friday after a San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium performance by The Who Tuesday. The only visible signs of the concert were in right field, where brown patches marked the turf where the stage had been . . . Tony Gwynn started Friday for the first time since Monday. Gwynn pinch-hit Tuesday in Philadelphia and was given Wednesday off to rest his aching left Achilles tendon and right wrist. It was his first off day this year.