Padres’ Pitching Fails; Cubs Rally to Win, 11-10

At their current rate of descent, the Padres should be knocking on the cellar door of the National League West by the All-Star break.

Having tried everything else short of backing up the truck, Manager Jack McKeon called a team meeting before Sunday’s series finale against the Chicago Cubs at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Just like everything else, the ploy didn’t work.

The Padres were so bad this time--at least their pitching was--that even 10 runs were not enough for them to stagger through. They twice blew three-run leads en route to an 11-10 defeat that ran their losing streak to five games and gave the struggling Cubs a three-game sweep.

A paid crowd of 30,268 saw the team that almost everybody picked to win the division drop three games below .500. For what it’s worth, only the fact that every other West Division club also lost kept McKeon’s charges within 11 games of the first-place Cincinnati Reds.

Actually, these classic underachievers should be looking down instead of up. Their nosedive has dropped them within 4 1/2 games of the fifth-place Houston Astros and within five games of the last-place Atlanta Braves.

For the second consecutive game, the Padres were victimized by one of their old pals, Luis Salazar. Following up his key three-run triple of Saturday night, Salazar won the game with a three-run homer off Craig Lefferts in the eighth inning.

The Padres went into the fateful eighth with a 10-7 lead, having retaliated against Greg Maddux and Les Lancaster after starter Dennis Rasmussen had let a 4-1 lead melt away in the fourth. Lefferts took over from Greg Harris, who had been removed for a pinch hitter, and gave up one run on three singles before Salazar knocked one of his sliders into the seats in left-center field.

That was it. Despite the shaky condition of the Cubs’ bullpen with closer Mitch Williams recuperating from knee surgery, the Padres were out of rallies. They managed no more than a walk in their last two turns at bat against Paul Assenmacher and Bill Long.

Lancaster gained his club-high seventh victory despite giving a three-run homer to Jack Clark in a four-run fourth that gave the Padres an 8-6 lead. Long, who was picked up from the crosstown White Sox early in the season for an obscure minor-league pitcher named Frank Campos, earned his first National League save in his first opportunity.

Lefferts had been taken out after one inning Friday night because of a tired arm--Harris frittered away that game in the ninth--but denied that there was anything wrong with his arm Sunday.

“I’ve got no excuses,” the left-hander said. “I felt good. I tried to jam him on the fists with a slider and got it out over the plate. That was the only bad pitch I threw.”

Doug Dascenzo and Ryne Sandberg singled with one out in the inning and Andre Dawson singled in a run with two out, just before Salazar teed off, but only Dawson’s single was hit hard. Dascenzo’s hit barely made it to left field, and Sandberg got his when Dascenzo beat shortstop Garry Templeton’s throw to second on an attempted force play.

“He just hung one slider,” McKeon said. “He did a great job on Dawson, keeping him from going deep. And he pitched great in the last inning--one-two-three. I thought he was fine, but getting that slider up to Salazar was the ballgame.

“It seems like every time one of those balls drops in for a little single, the next guy hits a home run.”

As for the pregame meeting that had no discernible effect, McKeon said, “It was nothing special. I covered a few things that needed to be covered. That’s what you do when you have a meeting. You tell them the facts of life. I’ve had meetings when they go out and win, and I’ve had ‘em when they go out and lose. In the end, the two pitchers will decide the game.”

Actually, with the rival starters being equally bad, it was just one pitcher who decided this one. The game was Lefferts’ to save--it would have been No. 12--and he wound up with his third blown save opportunity.

Salazar, who served three terms with the Padres before being traded to the Cubs last Aug. 31, finished the series with six hits in 12 at-bats and eight runs batted in. He is eight for 16 since sitting out two weeks with a sprained ankle, and has boosted his average to .287.

“I’m just happy to get the big hit again,” said the smiling Venezuelan. “It was especially nice to hit in the clutch, in a situation like today.

“I wanted a pitch I could handle, and I hit it in a good spot. Lefty (Lefferts) let a slider hang a little bit over the plate.

“It made me happy to come from behind and win this game. These people here liked me so much. They made me feel right at home. I miss San Diego, and I know they miss me.”

Long also used to be San Diego property, although he never put on a Padre uniform. When he was in the minor leagues, both he and Salazar were traded to the White Sox in December 1984 along with shortstop Ozzie Guillen and pitcher Tim Lollar for pitchers LaMarr Hoyt, Kevin Kristan and Todd Simmons.

“I had four saves (in three seasons) with the White Sox, but I was mostly a starter,” Long said.

This was quite a series for the veteran right-hander, especially considering the fact that he was fresh off the disabled list. Just back on the roster after recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, he pitched scoreless ball in all three games and earned a victory (he is 3-0) and a save.

“This series was a test on my (right) knee,” Long said. “I had torn cartilage, but really, the surgery was no big deal. It was equivalent to pulling a hangnail off a finger.”

Two plays at third base, one involving each team, played key roles in the outcome. As might be expected considering the way things have been going for the Padres, both went in favor of the Cubs.

After the Padres had scored twice in the seventh to pad their margin to 10-7, Fred Lynn, who had singled in a run as a pinch hitter, was trapped between third and home and tagged out. When Dawson singled in the first run of the big Cub eighth, Sandberg, who had been on second, was held up at third by Coach Chuck Cottier.

“You have to give credit to Cottier,” said Cub first baseman Mark Grace, a San Diego State alumnus. “Ryno wouldn’t have had a chance to score on that play. If he had been thrown out at the plate, Looie (Salazar) never would have had a chance to hit the game-winner. It’s little things like that that make the difference.”

Both Lynn and Sandy Alomar, the Padres’ third-base coach, attributed Lynn’s misadventure to confusion.

Lynn said, “Sandy was waving me to score, and then he stopped me. It would have been easier for me to realize the situation if he had been farther down the line. We were side by side, and by the time I picked the ball up, it was too late.”

Alomar admitted that he had misread the play, saying, “I figured with two out and Lynn running hard, he could make it. Then I looked up and he didn’t have a chance, so I stopped him, but he had made too wide a turn.”

Interestingly, this was the second consecutive Sunday on which the Padres squandered a 10-7 lead and ended up with an 11-10 loss. Lefferts also was the victim in Atlanta a week ago.

Salazar’s decisive home run was the fifth of the afternoon. Shawon Dunston and rookie Hector Villanueva also connected for the Cubs, and Garry Templeton joined Clark in the long-ball derby for the Padres.

Templeton’s home run matched his 1989 season total of six. He also had a single, and is now hitting .429 against Cub pitching for the season.

The Padres had won four out of six from the Cubs going into this series, but caught the faded NL East champions on a rare roll. The sweep ran the Cubs’ winning streak to a season-high five games.

Even with this run of success, the Cubs are in fifth place, 10 games under .500, but they seem to be playing with more enthusiasm than the Padres.

“We haven’t given up on the season,” Grace said. “We still feel good about ourselves.”

And the Padres?

“It seems like we get down when things go against us,” said pitcher Ed Whitson. “I can’t remember the last time we fought back to win in the late innings.”

Padre Notes

Bip Roberts was out of the Padre lineup Sunday because of a sore knee, but his vacation didn’t last long. He entered the game in the sixth inning in a double switch when pitcher Mark Grant was taken out. . . . Coach Amos Otis was back in the Padre dugout after missing Saturday night’s game because of the illness of his daughter Dawn, 20. “Her fever is down to 101,” Otis said. “It was 103 when we took her into emergency. She started getting cramps in her left side on the plane home from Houston Thursday night. She’s home now, and she’s a lot better.”

Baseballs autographed by the Padres were given out at Sunday’s game, and the promotion boomeranged when fans showered the field with them after Padre home runs by Garry Templeton and Jack Clark. Each time the game had to be delayed. There were even a few balls throw out after the Cubs’ game-winning homer by ex-Padre Luis Salazar. The Padres’ Tony Gwynn said afterward, “That (throwing the balls) was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. I don’t think we’ll see that promotion again for a while.” . . . Gwynn’s three hits snapped an 0-for-12 skid. . . . Padre pitcher Dennis Rasmussen’s single in his only at-bat raised his average to .400.

The Cubs’ sweep was their first over the Padres since May 2-4 1988. . . . Sunday’s game marked Cub pitcher Greg Maddux’s 11th futile try for his fifth victory. “Everything I throw is high,” he said. . . . Cub veteran right-hander Rick Sutcliffe, who has been out all season after undergoing a rotator cuff operation, expects to be pitching in a month or so. He said, “I’m long-tossing now, and I figure I’ll be throwing hard before long.” . . . Another season-long Cub casualty, catcher Damon Berryhill, of Laguna Niguel, had the same surgery last August and is almost ready for a rehabilitation assignment.