Padres Outlast Cincinnati, 11-7, in Another Wild One : After 20-Minute First Inning San Diego Had 6-5 Lead, But Still Needed a Four-Run Ninth to Win

The telephone rang Thursday at 1:20 in the morning. Padre Manager Jack McKeon, who had been sound asleep, picked up the receiver and listened to the frenzied voice on the other end.

It was Tony Siegle, the Padre general manager. He had just heard that the Dodgers’ 7-0 lead over the San Francisco Giants had been reduced to 7-6 in the ninth, with two runners on and nobody out.

“I don’t know why I called him,” Siegle said. “I was just so damn mad I had to call someone. I guess I expected maybe Jack to do something about it. Tell me it’s a nightmare. Tell me something.”

McKeon calmed Siegle down. He managed to fall right back asleep. Ten minutes later, the phone rang again.

Siegle, who had just gotten off the phone with Padre President Dick Freeman in San Diego, reported the bad news: Giants 8, Dodgers 7.

“Well, that was it for me,” McKeon said. “I couldn’t fall asleep after that. I was up all night.”

That was the start of their day.

Less than 12 hours after his late-night scoreboard watching session, Siegle was sitting wide-eyed in a chair at Riverfront Stadium as the top of the first inning unfolded. In the bottom of the first, that gaze turned into a squint. A few pitches later, it was a scowl.

By the time the inning ended, Siegle had his head buried in his hands.

“This is like Chinese water torture,” Siegle said. “When’s it ever going to end?”

In a season that has been perhaps the most bizarre in the Padres’ 21-year history, and a month that long will be remembered as perhaps the zaniest, it’s unlikely anyone involved will forget this day, the first inning in particular.

The Padres won the game, 11-7, over the Cincinnati Reds. But to call it just another four-run victory is like saying Laurence Olivier was just another actor.

“It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen,” McKeon said.

Padre shortstop Garry Templeton: “I’ve never seen anything like it.

Reds center fielder Eric Davis: “To tell you the truth, I hope I never see anything like it again.”

With the Giants’ 4-3 victory over the Dodgers Thursday night, the Padres stayed five games out of the NL West lead.

Thursday’s Padre-Reds game began with Cincinnati pitcher Jack Armstrong lasting exactly 13 minutes, failing to retire any of the five batters he faced and yielding three hits, including a three-run homer by Jack Clark. It took 20 minutes for the Reds to record an out. And by the time the fans had finally settled into their seats, it was 6-0.

Why, with that kind of lead, McKeon said he figured the Padres were in for an easy one. He could finally rest his bullpen, take the regulars out a few innings early, and they could laugh and giggle all during their four-hour flight to Los Angeles.

Those ideas vanished quicker than Pete Rose’s line of credit.

Dennis Rasmussen, in a virtual replica performance, also faced five batters. He also gave up a three-run homer. And, yes, he also failed to retire a batter.

When the light bulbs on the scoreboard finally stopped blinking, after a 37-minute first inning, the scoreboard read: Padres 6, Cincinnati 5.

“I couldn’t believe it,” McKeon said. “Things were happening so fast out there I couldn’t even get a guy warmed up until it was too late.”

Indeed, Rasmussen threw just seven pitches, five for strikes. And all five were hit quite sharply.

“Well, at least no one can say I didn’t challenge the hitters and pitch quickly,” Rasmussen said, managing to find a little humor in his outing that hiked his ERA from 4.17 to 4.42.

It was a game in which the first seven Padre batters reached base, highlighted by Clark’s homer into the left-field seats. The trouble was that they obtained just two more hits the next seven innings, scoring just one run on Darrin Jackson’s sixth-inning homer.

Heading into the ninth with the game tied, 7-7, the inning opened with Tony Gwynn hitting a single off bullpen stopper John Franco. It didn’t end until the Padres had batted around the lineup, scoring four runs.

Mark Davis came in to pitch a one-two-three ninth, and although there was no save situation, he ensured the Padres of their first sweep ever in Cincinnati.

Oh, what a game.

Of course, only in Cincinnati would a game like this be upstaged by the antics off the field.

In the second inning, all interest was diverted from the game to the Reds broadcast booth, where Randy “Macho Man” Savage of the World Wrestling Federation just happened to be. The Reds stood up in their dugout, turned around and started waving wildly to the man wearing the purple and gold tights and a crown on his head. Naturally, the fans turned around to see what the commotion was about, and even the umpires stood while between innings with their eyes transfixed on Savage.

Well, Reds owner Marge Schott didn’t care for this one bit. She left her box seat and immediately had Savage removed from the ballpark. Savage departed by ripping up a poster of fellow wrestler Hulk Hogan, and throwing the debris into the stands.

You should have seen the disturbance in the Reds’ clubhouse. Schott could have spit on the American flag, and it would not have caused such annoyance to the Reds’ players.

“He’s (Savage) a celebrity,” Davis said. “If a celebrity can’t be in a booth, who can? That’s bull. If it had been a guy in pest control, he would have been welcome here.

“They should have paid him to watch this . . . game.”

With a crowd of just 12,522 on hand, it’s becoming quite obvious that few are willing to pay out of their own pocket to see this team, losers of 10 in a row.

While the Reds seemingly had other things on their mind afterward, the Padres’ concern again centered on the pennant race and their increasing frustration with the Giants.

The Giants entered September having won just two games when the trailed in the eighth inning. In the past 16 days, they’ve pulled off five comebacks, the latest Wednesday when they rallied from a 7-0 deficit in the sixth, 7-3 in the ninth.

You’d think the Padres would get used to it by now, but as the season nears an end, the Giant victories are becoming more painful by the day.”

The entire Padre clubhouse was talking Thursday morning about the Giants’ victory. They spoke in anguish about Dodger Jay Howell’s performance. And then John Tudor’s stint. They ripped into Mike Marshall for the fly ball he should have caught. They wondered what he still was doing in the game, anyway, instead of a defensive replacement. And just when the bitter topic was about to die, someone else would bring it up, creating more groans and cursing from the players.

“It’s just leaving us exhausted, mentally exhausted,” said Gwynn, who went two for five, raising his batting average to .337. “You’re tired already from playing your game (Wednesday). Then you stay up late watching the Giants’ game. Then you play another. I’m telling you, it’s tough.”

Said Mark Grant, who allowed just three hits in five innings in relief of Rasmussen: “To see us playing like we are and not picking up any ground, it hurts. It hurts bad. We’re doing all we can, and we’re feeling great when we leave the ballpark.

“Then we go home and turn on ESPN, and feel crummy.

“Are those guys ever going to lose?”

Padre Notes

The Padres’ Sept. 29 game against the Giants has been sold out, and the starting time of the Sept. 30 game with the Giants has been moved from 7:05 to 7:20 p.m. because of a pregame ceremony honoring Tim Flannery, who will retire at the end of the season. . . . Second baseman Roberto Alomar suffered a jammed left hand on a steal attempt in the seventh inning Wednesday and was scratched from the lineup. X-rays were taken but showed nothing serious. Alomar, a switch-hitter is expected to play tonight the Dodgers with right-hander Tim Belcher starting but may miss Saturday’s game with lefty Fernando Valenzuela scheduled. “I don’t think I could swing left-handed right now,” Alomar said. . . . Pitcher Calvin Schiraldi, who suffered a strained right forearm in his last start Saturday against the Giants, pitched on the side Thursday for the first time and is expected to start Saturday. Only one problem. Schiraldi said he will have to pitch from the stretch the entire game. “I don’t like pitching out of the stretch,” Schiraldi said, “but if that’s what it takes, that’s all I can do. When I go into my windup, I can feel the pain, and that hurts my mechanics. It’s a distraction. And I don’t need distractions.” . . . Bip Roberts, making his first start since being carried off the field last Friday because of a bacteria in his stomach, went three for five with a stolen base and a RBI. “The cardiac kid did all right,” Manager Jack McKeon mused. . . . Although he has hit 25 home runs, it was not until the sixth inning Thursday that Jack Clark was hit by a pitch for the first time this season.

PADRES AT A GLANCEScorecard

FIRST INNING

Padres--Roberts singled to right and stole second. Templeton walked. Gwynn doubled to right, Roberts scoring, Templeton stopping at third. Clark homered to left, his 25th. James walked. Birtsas relieved Armstrong. Santiago doubled to left, James stopping at third. Pagliarulo singled to right, James scoring, Santiago stopping at third. Jackson flied to center, Santiago scoring. Rasmussen flied out to left. Roberts forced Pagliarulo. Six runs, five hits, one left.

Reds--Collins singled to left. Quinones singled to center, Collins stopping at second. Davis homered to left, his 33rd. Benzinger singled to center. Roomes doubled to left, Benzinger stopping at third. Grant relieved Rasmussen. Madison grounded to shortstop, Benzinger scoring, Roomes taking third. McGriff grounded out to second, Roomes scoring. Richardson singled to center. Armstrong grounded to first. Five runs, six hits, one left.

FIFTH INNING

Reds--With two outs, Benzinger singled to left. Roomes doubled to right, Benzinger scoring. Madison grounded to first. One run, one hit, one left.

SIXTH INNING

Padres--Mahler took the mound. Jackson homered to left, his fourth. Flannery flied to center. Roberts grounded to second. Templeton grounded to first. One run, one hit.

SEVENTH INNING

Reds--With two outs, Roomes was hit by Harris’ pitch. O’Neill, batting for Madison, singled to center, Roomes stopping at second. Winningham singled to right, Roomes scoring, O’Neill stopping at second. Richardson forced Winningham. One run, one hit, two left.

NINTH INNING

Padres--Franco took the mound. Gwynn singled to center. Jack Clark singled to left, Gwynn stopping at second. James sacrificed. Santiago was walked intentionally, loading the bases. Martinez, batting for Pagliarulo, walked, Gwynn scoring. Cora ran for Martinez. Jackson forced Santiago, Jack Clark scoring, Cora stopping at second. Jerald Clark singled to left, Cora scoring, Jackson stopping at second. Roberts singled to right, Jackson scoring, Jerald Clark stopping at second. Sebra relieved Franco. Templeton fouled out to third. Four runs, four hits, two left.