Day Opens in Sun, Ends in Chill : Brooks’ Homer Brings McKeon Second Guess

Padre Manager Jack McKeon, engulfed by a sea of note pads, microphones and cameras, kept looking around the room Monday afternoon, just waiting for someone to break the silence.

Finally, he pleaded for someone to ask that first question. At least make a comment. Heck, even a cough would do.

At last, The Question, the one on everyone’s minds, slowly began tumbling forth: “Uh, Jack, uh, do you think, maybe you left Bruce Hurst in the game, uh, a bit too long?”

While reporters ducked for cover, McKeon sat back in his office chair and laughed, nodding to pitching coach Pat Dobson, as if to say, “I told you so.”

Sure, there were plenty of culprits in the Padres’ 4-2 season-opening defeat to the Dodgers in front of 48,686 fans at Dodger Stadium, but McKeon was the one left fending off the questions.

It didn’t seem to matter that the top five batters in the Padre lineup--Bip Roberts, Roberto Alomar, Tony Gwynn, Jack Clark and Joe Carter--went one for 20 with six strikeouts.

“We just didn’t do our jobs, and we didn’t even get on base,” Gwynn said. “I’m not going to sit here and place the blame on somebody else.”

It didn’t seem to matter that the middle of the order--Gwynn, Clark and Carter--came to the plate just once with a runner on base, and failed to even move him over.

“That just can’t happen night after night if we’re going to win,” Carter said.

It didn’t even seem to matter that Hurst was the one who left the forkball hanging over the plate in the eighth inning, yielding a two-out, three-run home run to Hubie Brooks, that erased a 2-1 Padre lead and resulted in their sixth consecutive opening-day defeat.

“I’m the one who threw the pitch,” Hurst said, “I’m the one who’s responsible, you can’t blame anybody else. And that’s the way it should me.”

But no matter who was accepting the blame, it was McKeon who decided to leave Hurst in the game, and it was McKeon who sat in his office for almost an hour afterward, explaining why.

“We didn’t even think about taking him out,” McKeon said. “The way he was pitching, and with his stuff, the last thing on our minds was that he’d hit a three-run homer.

“I’ll tell you what, the way he was pitching, I’d take my chances again every time. It’s not too often you’re going to see something like that happen with Hurst on the mound.”

Hurst, indeed, was just nine outs away from joining Bob Feller as the only pitchers in major-league history to throw no-hitters on opening day. He had retired 16 of the past 17 batters he faced, allowing just two fly balls into the outfield, when he took the mound in the seventh.

“The way he was pitching,” McKeon said, “I really thought he had a chance.”

Brooks, just setting the stage for the ruination of Hurst’s day, broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single to center field. Eddie Murray followed with another single to left, and within seconds, Greg Harris and Mark Grant were warming up in the Padre bullpen.

They never were needed. Kal Daniels sacrificed the runners over, and Hurst induced ground outs to Jeff Hamilton and Mike Scioscia, resulting in just one run.

When Hurst took the mound in the eighth, he still had made only 76 pitches, no more than 13 pitches in any inning after the first. Really, Hurst said, he felt as good now as he did when he opened the game.

“I hope nobody’s second-guessing Jack,” Hurst said, “because I felt OK. I wasn’t tired at all.”

McKeon, playing it cautious, had Craig Lefferts and Calvin Schiraldi warming up in the bullpen when Hurst opened the eighth. Alfredo Griffin, the Dodgers’ No. 8 hitter, led off the inning with a single to left field. He moved over to second on Jose Gonzalez’s sacrifice bunt, and went to third on Juan Samuel’s fly ball to right field. But with two outs, Hurst walked Willie Randolph on five pitches.

“That really didn’t bother me, though, because Randolph has hurt me in the past,” said Hurst, who knew better than anyone else that Randolph had a career .393 batting average (33 for 84) against him. “I just didn’t want to make a mistake to him.”

As Brooks strode to the plate, Dobson went to the mound to chat with Hurst. Dobson asked Hurst how he felt. He told him not to forget about Randolph at second. And he pleaded with him not to leave a ball up in the strike zone to Brooks.

Dobson walked to the dugout. Hurst was left standing on the mound.

“I thought they were taking him out,” Griffin said. “He was hanging a couple of pitches to me that he wasn’t doing in the beginning.

“I knew when they left him in, we had a good chance, because he wasn’t pitching the same.”

Dobson barely had sat down on the bench when Hurst let go of a forkball that stayed high in the strike zone. Brooks swung. The ball landed 400 feet away over the wall.

“I knew it was gone just when I heard that crack,” said Gwynn, playing in right field. “When you hear a sound like that, you know it’s gone.”

Said Brooks: “I was just hoping I’d get a single and tie it up, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Hurst finished out the inning by retiring Eddie Murray on a ground out to third base, but it was too late. The damage was done. And three outs later, when the Padres failed to score against reliever Don Aase--recording just his fifth save in four seasons--the second-guessing commenced.

“What can you say, he made a bad pitch to the wrong guy,” Dobson said. “If he had thrown that same pitch to Alfredo Griffin, it’s probably a fly ball to left field.

“But there was no talk of taking him out, whatsoever. He deserved the chance to win or lose that game. I guarantee if we give him that same chance 15 more times this year, he gets out of it 13 or 14 times.”

There, of course, was speculation that the Padres’ decision might have been different if they still had Mark Davis in the bullpen. You remember the guy? He saved 44 games and won the Cy Young award last season, but took off for Kansas City and their four-year, $13 million offer.

So what about it, if Davis was around, would he indeed have been in the game?

“If we had Mark Davis, we would have done the exact same thing,” Dobson said. “Maybe if he (Hurst) had finished that inning, we might have gone to the bullpen, but not there. It wouldn’t have mattered who was in the bullpen.”

Said catcher Benito Santiago, who went three for three and was hit by a pitch in his four plate appearances: It might have made a tough decision, but we don’t have Mark Davis any more, so we can’t even think of that.”

The Padres instead were left thinking about the 161 remaining games on their schedule, laughing at the notion that opening day was more important than any other.

OK, sure, so maybe outfielder Darrin Jackson wouldn’t be in full-uniform by 9:25 in the morning any other day. It’s doubtful Clark will be shaking hands with all of his teammates before another regular-season game, telling them to have fun. And third baseman Bip Roberts is unlikely to have butterflies before any other game before mid-September.

But it still counts the same. Just one of 162.

If there needed to be a reminder of the relative insignificance of a season-opener, one only needed to talk with Jackson on Monday morning. Jackson, who battled testicular cancer in 1987, was reading a front-page article in the morning paper about Ryan White, the 18-year-old from Indiana who died Sunday after a five-year bout with AIDS.

“That changes your perspective of things in a hurry, doesn’t it,” Jackson said.

Padre Notes

Fred Lynn, who never before had faced Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser, homered in the second inning on the second pitch he had ever seen from Hershiser. When asked what his teammates told him of Hershiser before the game, he said, “They told me I’d probably be going zero for four.” . . . Dodger fans let Padre first baseman Jack Clark know they still have a good memory Monday, booing him loudly during the pre-game introductions. Clark, in case you forgot, hit the home run in the 1985 playoffs off Dodger pitcher Tom Niedenfuer, vaulting the St. Louis Cardinals into the World Series. . . . Tony Gwynn was asked by ESPN announcer Chris Berman which nickname he preferred: Tony Gwynn One for the Gipper; Tony the Mighty Gwynn; or Tony Gwynn, Lose or Draw. Gwynn chose the first; his brother, outfielder Chris Gwynn of the Dodgers, was left with the second nickname. . . . This was the first of four home-openers the Padres will be participating in over the next eight weeks. The Padres, who will have their home-opener at 7:05 tonight at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, also will be in the San Francisco Giants’ home-opener Friday, and the Cincinnati Reds’ home-opener April 17. . . . The crowd of 48,686 at the game Monday was 12,572 more than the Padres played in front of during their combined 14 spring-training games. . . . Former Padre pitcher Dave Dravecky, who retired from baseball last season because of a bout with cancer, will throw out the opening pitch tonight in the Padres’ opener against the Dodgers. There also will be presentations of 1989 Gold Glove awards before the game to Gwynn and Benito Santiago. Gwynn also will receive his fourth Silver Slugger award.