Padres’ Offense Is AWOL

Notice was posted early Monday afternoon by Garry Templeton, the Padres’ shortstop and captain. Team meeting, players only. Five o’clock.

The subject?

The official response: “None of your damn business.”

The unofficial response: The Padres still are upset at the San Francisco Giants, and in particular reliever Jeff Brantley, for his errant pitch Thursday that broke Padre catcher Benito Santiago’s left arm. But they decided in the meeting that they’ll pick their spot for getting even, certainly not wanting to make it so obvious.

But after the Padres’ latest performance Monday, a 2-1 defeat to the Giants at Candlestick Park, the Padre hitters should be informed of the possibility of further head-hunting directed their way.

The only difference is that the guys who might be throwing at them will be wearing Padre pinstripes.

Certainly, something’s got to be done to wake up the Padre offense, because the way these guys are going they’ll be out of the National League West race by the All-Star break.

The Padres, losers for the third consecutive game and sixth time in seven games, once again showed that their offense is little better than the United States’ World Cup entry.

They have now scored just 15 runs in their past eight games, and are hitting .170 in the past seven games.

Hell, Giant third baseman Matt Williams has driven in 13 runs by himself the past eight games.

“The way we’re hitting,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said, pointing toward reporters around him, “you guys could hold us to four or five hits.”

Trevor Wilson hasn’t been issued a press credential to anyone’s knowledge, but considering that until this month, he had won all of two games in his major league career, this guy doesn’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of anyone.

So what does the guy do? After pitching a one-hit complete game against the Padres last week, he shuts them down again for an encore, yielding just three hits in 6 1/3 innings.

The only difference was that a week ago, he came within three outs of pitching a no-hitter against the Padres at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

His no-hitter ended this time when Bip Roberts singled in the first inning, but heck, no reason to be greedy, right?

Wilson, a guy who couldn’t even make the Giants’ beleaguered pitching staff out of spring training, has now pitched 16 1/3 shutout innings against the Padres, yielding a grand total of four singles. The Padres’ cumulative batting average against Wilson in his two starts this season: .083.

“You wouldn’t think he could be doing this,” said Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn. “But what can you say? Obviously, we’re having a tough time with anyone that’s out there?”

McKeon juggled his lineup Monday trying to find some magic, and even wiggled his fingers at them from his office as if giving them mystical powers.

He moved Gwynn to the leadoff spot for the first time this season. Roberts was dropped to the No. 2 spot. And Garry Templeton was moved up a notch to sixth in the lineup.

So what happens? Gwynn goes hitless for his third consecutive games for the first time this season, extending his hitless skein to 12 at-bats. Roberto Alomar goes zero for four, and now is in a four-for-30 skid. And Joe Carter and Jack Clark went hitless once again.

It’s mighty tough to win ballgames these days when the top five batters in the order go one for 17?

“It’d be easy to blame one guy,” Padre starter Ed Whitson said, “but right now, you’ve got a whole ballclub struggling its butt off. I give up two (earned) runs in eight innings last time, and two runs in seven innings this time, and I got two ‘L’s” to show for it.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frustrated, but the key now is for everyone to keep even-keeled. We all have to hang in there and hope this mess comes to an end.”

The only time the Padres managed even so much as a rally was in the seventh inning when Clark led off with a walk, and Mike Pagliarulo hit a one-out single. Giant Manager Roger Craig made sure it would amount to nothing more. He called upon Brantley, the pitcher who broke catcher Santiago’s left arm last week with an errant pitch.

Mark Parent studied Brantley. Dug in at the plate. And smoked Brantley’s first pitch.

The only trouble was that it landed smack in Brantley’s glove, and it happened so fast that Pagliarulo had no chance to get back to first, and Brantley had the easy double play.

“As soon as I hit it, I thought, ‘Yeah, we got something here,’ ” Parent said. “But it didn’t take more than a second for me to say, ‘Damn, here we go again.’ ”

Really, the only intrigue of the evening occurred in the eighth inning. Greg Harris, who already had hit three batters this season, was on the mound. Brantley was at the plate.

“To be honest with you,” Brantley said, “I was thinking of getting hit. But I can’t worry about that. I’m not going ot change the way i pitch because i hit somebody.”

Instead, Harris’ first pitch simply was a ball that rose high and inside, but not particularly close to Brantley. Three pitches later, Brantley grounded out to first.

“I’m not going to do something right there,” Harris said. “Hey, it’s a 2-1 game. There’s a time and place for everything, and this was not the time.”

Actually, many of the 26,388 that showed up at Candlestick came to see a spectacle instead of a baseball game. They came to see the feud between the Giants and Padres, hearing all about the Padres’ quotes last week after Santiago’s injury. Why else did five Bay area columnists show up at Candlestick on a Monday night?

But nothing happened. Just a lot of boos. A whole lot of boos. Most of them directed toward Clark.

After all, it was Clark last week who said: “You know how I feel about the Giants, anyway, I can’t stand them. Now, I just hate them that much worse. Their time will come, believe me, their time will come.”

And now:

“Nothing’s changed,” Clark said, “but the last thing we want to do is spend all of our time thinking about the damn Giants.

“We’ve got enough problems just taking care of ourselves without worrying about them.”

Said Parent: “It was kind of funny the way they were booing us. When we were being announced, and they announced Jack, they really booed him. For me, there was just a smattering of boos.

“Jack turned around and said to me, ‘Hey, not bad. It’s a start.’ ”

Padre Notes

Padre pitcher Dennis Rasmussen was diagnosed Monday with a strained left shoulder, but still is expected to make his next scheduled start Friday night in Atlanta. Dr. Cliff Colwell performed a Magnetic Resonance Imaging test on Rasmussen’s shoulder, which proved to be negative. Rasmussen left Sunday’s game against the Dodgers after one inning, returned to San Diego for an examination Monday morning, and rejoined the Padres Monday night. . . . It’s official. Joey Cora, 5-feet-8, 150 pounds, is the Padres’ emergency catcher. Cora went to the bullpen before the game and caught Andy Benes. How was it, little guy? “Ah, he doesn’t throw hard enough for me,” Cora said. . . . The Padres drafted Alan Benes, the high-school brother of Andy Benes, but sorry, Alan Benes is headed to Creighton on a baseball scholarship. “I think it was a courtesy pick, more than anything,” Andy Benes said. “It was nice they did that, though.” . . . Padre Manager Jack McKeon was under the weather with a cold Monday. . . . Despite the fact that the Giants were averaging 7.6 runs a game in June before Monday’s game, Dusty Baker, Giant batting coach, said: “Even now, we’re not getting guys in from third base the way we should. We’ve got the potential to be scoring 10 runs a game. . . . Giant first baseman Will Clark has scored in 13 consecutive games, four short of the National League record held by Ted Kluszewski of Cincinnati in 1954. . . . Giant catcher Gary Carter is just one game shy of setting the National League record for most games caught, and he is eight games shy of collecting his first $100,000 bonus. He receives $100,000 bonuses for games 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 and 110. . . . The Padres have nominated pitcher Bruce Hurst for the Roberto Clemente Award, which is presented annually to the player who best represents the game of baseball both and off the field through his humanitarian endeavors. The award will be announced July 9 in Chicago, the day before the All-Star Game. . . . The Giants placed pitcher Atlee Hammaker on the 15-day disabled list and purchased the contract of Randy O’Neal from their triple-A Phoenix club. Hammaker is suffering from a hematoma (cyst) under his left tricep muscle. Hammaker is the 10th player--sixth pitcher--to be disabled this season. Just how bad is Giants’ health these days? Norm Sherry, the Giant pitching coach, is suffering from a pulled oblique muscle under his rib cage, requiring the Giants to call up Larry Hardy, their triple-A pitching coach. . . . Giant third baseman Matt Williams, after batting .533 with three home runs and 12 RBIs and a .967 slugging percentage, was selected Monday as the National League Player of the Week. . . . The Giants have juggled their pitching rotation for the Padre series. Francisco Oliveras (0-0) will pitch tonight for the Giants against Bruce Hurst (3-6) at 7:35; and John Burkett (7-1) will pitch against Andy Benes (6-4) at 12:35 p.m. Wednesday.