Padres Beat Seattle, Finish With a 12-2 Spring

Outfielder Tony Gwynn said key areas for the Padres this season will be the top of the order and the bullpen.

Well, in the Padres final exhibition game Sunday in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners, leadoff hitter Bip Roberts drove in both runs with a home run and a single, and relievers Pat Clements, Mark Grant and Calvin Schiraldi faced just 10 batters combined in three innings allowing zero hits.

They, along with starting pitcher Ed Whitson--three hits in six innings--enabled the Padres (12-2) to win their 10th consecutive game ending spring training with the best record in the Major Leagues.

Then again, Gwynn said, “Spring training games don’t count . . . It doesn’t mean a hill of beans until you get out there for real.”

“For real” begins this afternoon (1:35) against Orel Hershiser and the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

That the Padres finished their best spring ever did not seem to matter one way or another to most of the players or Manager Jack McKeon. “Just keep it going,” McKeon said.

Said Gwynn, “This is as ready a team as I’ve ever seen.”

The Padres probably thought similarly last year, when they had their then best spring record of 18-8. But 4 1/2 months later, the Padres were one game below .500 (63-64) and 10 games behind first-place San Francisco on August 23. An amazing 26-9 run to finish the season lifted them to second place, three behind the Giants.

“I believe what the guys did at the end of (last) year, and finding out how to win in an unselfish manner, it carried over,” McKeon said.

Despite it being an exhibition game in front of a dismal paid crowd of 4,183, the Padres proved McKeon’s point Sunday.

Third baseman Roberts homered deep into the right field bleachers in the third inning. It was his first home run batting left-handed since joining the Padres, and he has just four in a little over two years in the Majors.

“I never try to hit (home runs),” Roberts said. “And when I do, I’m very surprised. I just try to hit the ball on the ground. It’s a good sign for me that I hit the ball on the ground after that.”

Roberts grounded out to second his next time up and then singled on the ground between first and second in the seventh inning driving in Jerald Clark with the winning run.

Outfielder Fred Lynn was zero for one with a walk, snapping his eight-game hitting streak and dropping his team-leading average to .480. But the oldest Padre at 38 did manage to steal a base. He has had just three the past two seasons.

From the mound, Whitson and Co. took care of the Mariners (7-9). Clements (3-0) was the winner. Schiraldi got his first save. With his six innings and zero earned runs allowed, Whitson turned his ERA perfectly around this spring from 6.43 to 3.46.

“Whit pitched outstanding,” said pitching coach Pat Dobson, who added that he’s been impressed with the staff as a whole. “I think we’re as advanced as anybody at this point,” Dobson said.

Maybe as a team, too, but the Padres would prefer to prove that from here on.