Padres 6 Games Out After Edging Expos

That smoke coming from the Padre dugout in the seventh inning Tuesday night wasn’t from Manager Jack McKeon’s cigar.

No, the wheels of strategy were spinning, and McKeon was figuring out how to kick his team into overdrive.

The scoreboard said the Padres were trailing Montreal by a run. It also said first-place San Francisco was behind Philadelphia by five.

So, after scoring 31 runs in their previous three games, the streaking Padres used sacrifice bunts by Marvell Wynne (seventh inning) and Benito Santiago (ninth) to edge the Expos, 2-1, at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium for their season-high sixth consecutive victory.

Luis Salazar knocked in both Padre runs without hitting the ball out of the infield, the second run coming with one out in the ninth.

The Giants lost, second-place Houston lost, and suddenly the Padres (68-64) are just six games out of first and two out of second.

They are closer to first than they have been since June 9, and for the first time since May 31, they are four games over .500.

For those looking ahead, the Padres will play the Giants six times before the season ends.

“We played good baseball and battled back,” McKeon said. “The guys see how it’s being done. We’re playing as a cohesive unit and not worrying about batting averages or anything else but winning.”

Said Tony Gwynn: “It’s a good feeling. The guys are excited again about baseball.”

Gwynn was two for four and improved his league-leading batting average to .348.

The winning run came in the bottom of the ninth when Salazar punched an infield single off the glove of Montreal shortstop Spike Owen, scoring Wynne from third.

But the man who put the Padres in position to win was starter Greg Harris, who pitched his best game of the season. Just 10 days after being hit hard in Montreal, Harris battled back against the Expos and scattered five hits in seven innings. He allowed just one run, struck out six and walked four.

“I’ve changed my mechanics somewhat,” Harris said. “I’m staying back better. Things are coming together at the end, and that’s giving me better velocity.”

Mark Grant (6-2) pitched the final two innings and got the victory.

It was also a game haunted by the ghost of Keith Moreland. Remember the way Moreland ripped San Diego fans after he left for not supporting the Padres? Tuesday’s crowd statistics: Paid, 13,989. After the Padres tied the game in the seventh, a few thousand fans left. After the eighth, a few thousand more left.

But the Padres weren’t affected as they marched along to who-knows-what. Wynne started the bottom of the ninth against Expo reliever Richard Thompson with a single to center. Santiago’s bunt moved Wynne to second, and he took third on a wild pitch.

This was two innings after the Padres clawed their way back to a tie. Trailing, 1-0, entering their half of the seventh, the Padres went to work.

Jack Clark led off with his major league-leading 105th walk. Chris James, playing for the first time since Friday, moved Clark to second with a single to left.

Then the chess game began. Montreal brought left-hander Zane Smith in to face left-hander Wynne. McKeon called for a bunt, and Wynne responded. The bunt went to Smith, who threw Wynne out as Clark and James moved to third and second.

The Expos walked Santiago intentionally to set up a double play situation. Montreal Manager Buck Rodgers replaced Smith with ace right-handed reliever Tim Burke, and McKeon countered with Salazar to bat for Mike Pagliarulo. Salazar hit a ball sharply up the middle, and it was stopped by a diving Tom Foley, who flipped the ball to second to force Santiago. But Santiago slid hard enough to take out Owen, so Clark scored and Salazar was safe at first.

McKeon sent Tim Flannery in to bat for Harris. Flannery grounded to nearly the same spot as Salazar, and Foley once again stopped it and went to second for the third out.

That made it 1-1.

To that point, the pitchers were the stars of this game, but the Expos finally got to Harris in the seventh. Nelson Santovenia singled to center and went to second on a balk. After Owen flied to right, Expo pitcher Pascual Perez topped a ball down the third-base line. Pagliarulo barehanded it, but Perez beat the throw to first.

That moved Santovenia to third, and pinch-runner Rex Hudler scored when the next batter, Dave Martinez, grounded to Clark. Clark threw to second, and Garry Templeton relayed back to Harris covering first, but the throw was a split second too late. Martinez was safe, and the Expos led, 1-0.

It was 10 days ago that Harris labored through his worst start of the season. In just 4 1/3 innings against Montreal, he was pounded for six runs and eight hits.

Against the same Expos Tuesday, Harris breezed for four innings. His only real trouble came in the third, when he walked two of the first three batters. But with runners on first and third, Harris got Martinez to fly to left and Foley to ground to second.

After setting the Expos down one-two-three again in the fourth--as he did in the first and second--Harris had an interesting confrontation with Perez in the fifth.

Perez came to bat with runners on first and third and one out, and then came trouble. Not for Harris--for Perez. Already booed heavily by fans who still remember his part in the infamous Atlanta-San Diego beanball war in 1984, Perez began having communication trouble with third base coach Jackie Moore.

Moore was madly flashing signs, apparently wanting Perez to squeeze bunt. Perez was staring blankly toward Moore. Time was called three times so the two could converse. Perez missed one bunt and then swung and fouled off two pitches with the runners moving.

By the time Moore and the confused Perez chatted for the third time, the crowd was howling. Harris then threw his fastest pitch of the night past Perez for the strikeout, drawing the biggest cheer of the night to that point.

Up next was Martinez. He threw a third strike across the outside corner to end the threat.

In the first five innings, the Expos managed to hit just two balls out of the infield. And just one of those was dangerous. Andres Galarraga led off the fifth with a deep drive into the right-center field alley. Wynne chased it down after a long run.

The other ball to leave the infield was Martinez’s fly to left in the third.

The Padres, though, weren’t doing much better at the plate. Through the first five innings, they managed just a Gwynn single, which came in the fourth. It extended Gwynn’s hitting streak to 13 games, which matches his high for the season May 29 through June 11.

Gwynn stole second, his 39th stolen base of the season, but was left there.

Padre Notes

The Padres announced that they will honor retiring infielder Tim Flannery on Fan Appreciation Night, Sept. 30, before their game with San Francisco. If the team continues to win, though, Flannery just might delay his Sept. 29 retirement. “I ain’t leaving if the club is in first or second place,” Flannery said. “They can give me a day, but you never know. I keep telling these guys (his teammates) to keep me around for the playoffs. If I get a chance to help the club win by pinch-hitting, I might stick around.” . . . Second baseman Roberto Alomar was sidelined by the flu for the second day in a row. He was too sick to make it to the stadium. . . . Pitcher Bruce Hurst said his injured groin is feeling better and told Pat Dobson, the Padre pitching coach, he thinks he will be able to make his scheduled start Saturday. Hurst is scheduled to throw on the side Thursday, after which the Padres figure they will have a better idea of his condition. . . . Chris James was in the starting lineup Tuesday for the first time since Friday. He missed three games with a bruised right hand.