Clark’s Bat Lifts Padres to 10-9 Win

The Padres’ clubhouse was virtually empty late Monday night. The team bus had long gone. The clubhouse boys were picking up the few straggling towels. The only thing that could be heard was the muffled sound of a TV set in a faraway corner.

Sitting alone, quietly contemplating what he had just accomplished the past hour at Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium was Jack Clark.

Two home runs. A career-high seven RBIs. All in two innings.

The Padres, 10-9 winners over the Atlanta Braves, left the clubhouse calling it one of the greatest power-hitting exhibitions they had ever witnessed.

“I’ve never seen anything close,” Padre outfielder Tony Gwynn said. “And I’m not sure I ever will. That was truly amazing.”

Said teammate Bip Roberts: “Man, he just put us on his back and carried us. It’s as simple as that. All we did was hang on for the ride.”

Clark smiled along with the rest of his teammates while the accolades poured in. He slapped palms with the guys. He laughed when they patted his back. He winced when they called him their savior.

Now, he was alone with his thoughts, and wondering just how his life has changed in the past two months.

There was a time this season he was so depressed that he talked of retirement. There was a time he wondered aloud if the Padres would not be better off if they traded him. Deep inside, he blamed himself, and was tormented by his decision to walk away from the St. Louis Cardinals as a free agent at the end of the 1987 season.

“I wasn’t happy at all here,” Clark said. “For whatever reason, and there were many, I just wasn’t enjoying this. All the way back to when I was a free agent, things just hadn’t fallen in place for me. Nothing was going right.

“If it wasn’t for (Padre Manager) Jack McKeon, I don’t know what would have happened to me. He had the patience. He refused to get down on me. And for that, I’m eternally grateful.

“If not for that man, this night, and all of this, never would have been possible.”

And, oh, what a night it was.

Clark’s numbers--surpassed only in club history by Nate Colbert, who had three homers and eight RBIs on Aug. 1, 1972--are quite impressive. But Clark’s numbers don’t tell the whole story.

“This game is going to be remembered for a long, long time,” Padre pinch-hitter Tim Flannery said. “If we get to the playoffs, we know the game that we’ll be looking back upon that got us in there. What an awesome show.”

The Padres, proving they can set up a Hollywood story as well as their neighbors up north, played the type of baseball that got them into this mess in the first place.

They threw away balls. They gave up key hits. They failed in the clutch. By the seventh inning, the Padres were down, 8-3, with no place to hide.

“I’m telling you, it didn’t look too promising,” McKeon said. “To tell you the truth, it looked pretty damn bad.”

Roberts, who would equal his career-high by going four for five, opened the seventh with a single to center. Roberto Alomar followed with a single to right. Gwynn walked to load the bases.

Brave Manager Russ Nixon went to the mound. He asked for the ball from Tom Glavine, and summoned Mark Eichhorn.

While Eichhorn was strolling to the mound, James was telling the guys on the bench that Clark would hit a home run. Gwynn stood on first, telling first-base coach Greg Riddoch that a grand slam would put them right back in the game. And Clark? Well, he was so excited to bat against Eichhorn that he stepped into the batter’s box too soon, narrowly avoiding Eichhorn’s last warmup pitch.

The last time these two faced each other at Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium, Clark hit a three-run homer into the left-field seats in a 9-7 Padre victory.

Clark fouled off the first pitch, then took a ball on the second pitch. The third pitch was sent 454 feet to left field.

The crowd of 5,332 merely gasped, while Eichhorn refused to turn around to see just how far it traveled. For the record, it was the longest home run in Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium this season. Only nine have ever gone longer.

“I was wondering if Fulton County would be able to hold it,” Nixon said. “I’m not talking about the stadium, I’m talking about the whole county.”

The Padres still trailed, 8-7, and when Clark stepped to the plate in the eighth inning with two outs and Roberts on second and Gwynn on first, no one was predicting a homer this time.

Joe Boever, who replaced Eichhorn at the start of the inning, looked to be in complete command of the situation. He had a one-and-two count on Clark, and just missed striking him out when Clark barely fouled off a palmball.

The next pitch was a high fastball. It was going to be a ball, Clark knew. But he also realized that it might be the last fastball he would see from Boever. So he swung.

“Actually, I just tomahawked it,” Clark said. “I just wanted to hit it somewhere. And once I saw where it was going, I just hoped it would stay fair.”

It was not fair by much, but it landed just inside the foul pole, sending off a Padre celebration and a sea of hand-slapping.

Two innings later, it was over. The Padres were winners for the fourth consecutive game, and the ninth time in the past 10 games. It’s their finest winning streak since June 2-12, 1984, and it marked the first they have been seven games over .500 (72-65) since Sept. 6, 1985.

Clark, as the Padres will tell you, is as responsible as anyone for their surge. Since July 29, he has 11 homers and 35 RBIs, while batting .260. In the past eight games alone, he’s hitting .360 (nine for 25) with four homers and 17 RBIs. And if the Padres are going to make up seven games and catch the Giants, it is Clark who will have to lead the way.

“No one in here is going to say anything, but I really let them down for most of this season,” Clark said. “It wasn’t like I was in a slump for a week or two weeks, or I had a slow month. I was in a slump for 4 1/2 months.

“I’m seeing the ball now as good as I have in the last few years. There have been times in ’85 and ‘87, but nothing like this.

“The way I figure it, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do this season, and this is a start. I just hope it’s not too late for all of us.”

Padre Notes

Padre outfielder Carmelo Martinez revealed Monday he definitely will file for free agency at the end of the season. “I’m not coming back here unless they pay me a lot of money for sitting, that’s for sure,” Martinez said. “I really don’t know where I’ll go. It may be far from here. It could be Japan.” . . . There was a one-minute moment of silence for late baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti before the game Monday. The flag was flown at half-mast during the game. . . . Pitcher Ed Whitson (3 2/3 innings, seven hits, three runs) failed for the third consecutive start to obtain his 16th victory. Since equaling his career-high 14th victory on July 25, Whitson is 1-4 in eight starts with a 3.54 ERA. “It was a horrible night for every pitcher tonight,” he said. “It was a night of survival. And no one survived.” . . . The Padres were quite intrigued Monday by the latest batting-practice innovation that displays a video picture of an opposing pitcher. The video simulates the pitcher’s delivery, and a ball is released through a hole in the screen at the point the pitcher would normally throw the ball. “It’s incredible, isn’t it,” infielder Tim Flannery said. “Where was it 10 years ago? I’d be playing another 10 years.” The innovation, called the Determinator, will feature every pitcher in the big leagues. It will sell for $30,000 to $35,000. “That’s something we could really use. I’d love to get it,” Manager Jack McKeon said, raising his voice to make sure Padre president Dick Freeman heard him clearly. . . . Pitcher Bruce Hurst said his groin area still is stiff after his last start Saturday against the Phillies. However, it is not bad enough to deter him from his next start Thursday against the Houston Astros. . . . The Padre team picture could be a little murky this year. Although Eric Show, who’s on the disabled list, showed up at the stadium Saturday for the picture, pitchers Hurst and Greg Harris were late arrivals and missed the photo session. The game plan is to try to superimpose their photos in the team picture, and hope it looks real.