Padres Go North With Much to Do : Loss Puts Them Six Out Entering Giant Series

Tony Gwynn sat on the bench Thursday afternoon before the Padre game, glaring at the scoreboard, then cursing it.

“Look at that crap,” he said. “Take that crap out of the scoreboard. We know the score. Take the damn thing off.”

But there it was, burning brightly in the twilight:

Cincinnati 3

San Francisco 4

“God, I hate to say this,” Gwynn said softly, “but every time this year we have to have a win, it seems like we lose. We can’t afford to lose this one. We got to have it.”

By the end of the night, Gwynn didn’t even bother glancing at the scoreboard.

Why look at something that tears your heart out?

Atlanta 13, Padres 4.

The Padres, losing for just the fourth time in their past 21 games, are nonetheless on the verge of elimination.

They know it. The 23,394 fans at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, most of whom departed an hour before the finish, know it. The Giants know it.

The Giants’ magic number for winning the National League West is 10. Owning a six-game lead with 15 left to play, the Giants need any combination of 10 victories and 10 Padre defeats to clinch their second division title in three years.

Oh, it’s not over. The Padres’ waning hope lies in the fact that they still have six games left against the Giants, with a three-game series beginning tonight at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

“Only now,” Gwynn said, “we have to sweep.

“I was hoping to be within four games when we went to San Francisco,” he said, “win two out of three and be within three games. Now we have to win them all. We lose one, we’re out of it.

“I’m not going to say it can’t be done, but they’ve never been swept all year. Realistically, it’s going to be hard. Very hard.

“We have to go for the jugular right now.”

It’s just one of those years where everything seems to be falling in place for the Giants, and there’s not a thing the Padres have been able to do about it.

Padre Manager Jack McKeon stayed in his office until almost midnight Wednesday, agonizingly watching the Giants overcome a two-run deficit in the 13th and shutting off his TV without saying a word.

Padre General Manager Tony Siegle, who was out with friends, refused to roam from his radio until the game was completed, then clicking it off and muttering: “It’s a damn shame.”

The Padres arrived at the ballpark Thursday cursing their luck but holding out hope knowing that the Reds had a 3-1 lead over the Giants in their afternoon game. By the time they took infield, it had become a 12th-inning, 4-3 Giants’ victory.

“Regardless of what happens,” McKeon said, “this is a hell of a comeback. A hell of a comeback. Who thought we’d do this?”

Now, the only way the Padres can recover and win this thing is by staging the second-greatest comeback in baseball history. Only the St. Louis Cardinals, who won the 1964 National League pennant after being 6 1/2 games back with 12 to play, have ever pulled off a better one.

“I don’t expect to sweep them,” McKeon said, “but who thought we’d win three from the Expos? Who thought we would sweep the Mets?

“I’m not going to have these guys believing they have to sweep. Two out of three, we’re in good shape. All we lost is time.”

The Padre clubhouse was deathly quiet afterwards, and there were also ominous overtones because of the injury to Padre starter Ed Whitson.

Whitson was forced to leave the game after 2 1/3 innings with a mild strain in his right shoulder. Although Whitson doesn’t expect to miss his next start Wednesday in Cincinnati, the prospect of trying to win the division without him is frightening.

“The doctors said it’s not too serious,” said Whitson, who was examined after the game. “They gave me some medication, but the doctors said it should take it out.”

Whitson’s misery began the moment he took the mound in the bullpen to warm up before the game. He said he felt the pain on the third slider he threw but decided that it was just a twinge that would go away.

Later, it was hard to tell which was more painful; his arm or watching his teammates play defense behind him.

It started when Oddibe McDowell led off the game by hitting a hard grounder past first baseman Jack Clark into the right-field corner for a double. Jeff Treadway, just trying to move McDowell to third, laid down a bunt in front of Whitson.

He probably had enough time to get McDowell at third but instead hurried his throw to first. It sailed past Clark and rolled all of the way down into the Brave bullpen. By the time Gwynn retrieved the ball, McDowell was across the plate and Treadway was standing at third.

Whitson’s misery continued when Lonnie Smith hit a soft roller to third baseman Bip Roberts, who fielded the ball cleanly, checked Treadway back to the bag and threw to first. Oops. Clark bobbled the ball, and everyone was safe.

The fun was just starting. Dale Murphy hit a double-play ball to shortstop Garry Templeton. Templeton had trouble getting the ball out of his glove but finally fed it to second baseman Roberto Alomar, whose relay throw pulled Clark off the bag, allowing another run to score.

Darrell Evans hit a grounder to Clark for another double-play possibility, but again, the Padres were too slow to pull off the double play, getting just one out.

For a moment, it looked as if the inning might end when Jeff Blauser hit a blooper just past the dirt infield. Clark circled back, stuck out his glove to make an over-the-shoulder catch--and dropped it.

Andres Thomas caplitalized with a single to left, making it 3-0, and the inning mercifully ended when Templeton caught John Mizerock’s blooper in shallow left.

Well, while the Padre defense showed improvement, making just one more error the rest of the game, Whitson’s shoulder continued to worsen. He had to leave with one out in the third after retiring Murphy on a grounder to third.

And once Whitson left, the Padres’ hopes of winning this game went right along with him.

First, McKeon tried Mark Grant: 2 1/3 innings, four hits, three runs, one homer.

Next, Pat Clements: 1 1/3 innings, two hits, two runs, one homer.

Then, Dan Murphy: Three batters, three hits, three runs.

And finally, Eric Nolte: Three innings, two hits, two runs, one homer.

In all, the Braves had 15 hits, with three homers, scoring in six of the innings. The last time the Padres lost by a bigger margin was the night of June 9, when they lost, 12-2, to the Giants.

“They looked different tonight,” Brave second baseman Jeff Treadway said. “I can’t say whether it had anything to do with the Giants winning like they did the last two days, but they didn’t look too sharp to me.