Atlanta Loss Was Sickening Sequel for Padres

Turn the scriptwriters loose. This is perfect for a made-for-television movie. Studios will be fighting for the rights.

Call it “Back to the Past.”

And this isn’t exactly a blast from the past. This is a bummer revisited.

Michael J. Fox won’t get a role in this one. This is no comedy. This is a spot for Vincent Price or Boris Karloff. This one will be rated R, not for violence but rather for being downright gruesome.

What we are talking about is the Padres and the ways they find to lose baseball games.

Back to the past?

Remember Houston?

That’s right, Houston. It was early June of 1989, and the Padres were about to turn the Astrodome into a House of Horrors.

Let’s grimace and reminisce . . .

June 6--Padres lead, 7-4, with no one on and two out in the ninth. Suddenly, the bases are loaded and the score is 7-6. Mark Davis throws strike three past a swinging Alex Trevino. Whew! Whew? The ball is in the dirt, skipping to Benito Santiago’s left. He retrieves it and tags Ken Caminiti charging home from third, but the ball pops loose again , and the tying run scores.

Houston wins in the 10th when Bip Roberts bobbles Glenn Davis’ single and Bill Doran scores from first. It is Mark Davis’ first loss.

Final: 8-7, Houston.

June 8--Padres lead, 5-1, going into the ninth, but neither Eric Show nor Mark Davis can close it out. However, the Padres score in the 10th to take a 6-5 lead. But . . . Glenn Davis hits a two-run homer--off Mark Davis--in the bottom of the 10th.

Final: 7-6, Houston.

When the Padres were so close and yet too far from San Francisco in the final days of the season, we kept hearing “what if” they had won those games in Houston. Those two games haunted them all summer long and into fall and through the winter.

You don’t lament the 7-2 losses or 5-1 losses or even 3-2 losses. You lament the wins that take horribly unexpected twists and turn instead into losses.

Houston can now be put to rest. That was last year’s nightmare.

Anyone who had the misfortune of tuning into Channel 51 on Sunday afternoon knows where I am coming from and where I am going.

That was Stupor Sunday. That was the day the Padres went back to the past.

This was a game the Padres at first had no business winning and then no business losing. This was a day in which they went from heroes to goats and from geniuses to dunces in almost the length of time it takes to run one of their silly promotional commercials . . . Comprende?

Yes, it might well have been a Sunday to celebrate.

After all, Atlanta had a 7-6 lead with two out in the ninth, only to have the Padres draw even when Jack Clark walked and Mike Pagliarulo doubled.

Given new life, the Padres put together an inning fit for a highlight film. Actually, it wasn’t a whole inning. It was a swing. Dennis Rasmussen, of all people, pinch-hit and drove a three-run double to right-center in the 10th.

Things were downright giddy in the dugout. This struggling little crew had seemingly been hit by an industrial strength jolt of adrenaline. A victory like this could pick things up and turn them around.

Except . . .

Jeff Blauser hit a three-run home run off Craig Lefferts in the bottom of the 10th to tie the game. This was a little bit like fighting off a pack of wolves and then dying of a flea bite. Jeff Blauser?

Still, the Padres would have a chance to survive, but for an umpire who could not see and a base-runner who could not count.

Bip Roberts was on first in the 12th when Robbie Alomar hit a ground ball to Atlanta shortstop Andres Thomas. Hesitant at first, Thomas double-pumped and threw too late to second to get Roberts. The only problem was that umpire Charlie Reliford called him out.

When Tony Gwynn followed with a single, Roberts would have scored the tie-breaking run. As it turned out, Gwynn’s single succeeded only in advancing Alomar to second.

It was at this point that Alomar lost track of where he was and what the situation was. When Joe Carter flied deep to center, Alomar loped around third as if two were out . . . rather than one. When his screaming teammates awakened him, he took a shortcut back to second and was ultimately called out for failing to re-cross third base.

End of inning.

One swing later, one swing into the Braves’ 12th, the game was over.

Andres Thomas hit a home run off Lefferts to give the Braves an 11-10 victory . . . and the Padres an 11-10 loss. Andres Thomas?

This was every bit as shattering as Houston ’89. What was more frightening this time was that this game was almost a microcosm of what 1990 has been thus far to the Padres. This game was up and down and in and out and ultimately determined by yet more home run pitches and yet another embarrassing mental lapse.

Stupor Sunday won’t cost the Padres the pennant, but what it represents will.