Can It Get Any Worse for Padres? Yes

Bip Roberts, teary-eyed, sat in front of his locker Saturday, spitting blood into a paper cup.

Joe Carter, having difficulties just putting his left shoe over his bandaged foot, was limping as he walked around the clubhouse.

And to cap off the Padres’ latest excursion into the baseball world, Roberto Alomar was telling reporters that he no longer wants to play shortstop, hoping that the Padres make a trade to acquire one so that he can remain at second.

The Padres are in one fine mess, and the only real difference between this day and any other is that they let a national television audience in on their misery, losing, 8-4, to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It was the 10th loss to the Pirates in 11 games, but so what? Welcome to the club.

The Padres (37-46) have lost four consecutive games and 15 of their past 18, dropping into the depths of the National League West. Not since they resumed playing after the 1981 strike--and lost 17 of 20--have the Padres been in such a prolonged losing streak.

They are playing so poorly that Manager Greg Riddoch not only held a 10-minute clubhouse meeting after the game but said he was planning to keep the players around for a practice session at Three Rivers Stadium, too.

Alas, those plans went awry when the Pirates told him that the groundskeepers were paid by the city and that it would cost the Padres $2,000 to keep them working overtime.

Perhaps first baseman Jack Clark summed up the Padres’ affairs best when he returned to his locker after the game, took a look at the baseball shoes in his locker and snapped at one of the clubhouse boys:

“Come on, can’t you do a better job polishing these things? We look bad enough as it is. We don’t need your help looking any worse.”

No sir, the Padres are doing just fine embarrassing themselves with their own play, thank you.

The only aberration Saturday was that the Padres actually had a lead for the first time in 37 innings when Joe Carter hit a three-run homer in the third to make it 4-3, giving him more RBIs in one swing than he had in his previous 67 at-bats.

But the illusion that they might win vanished two innings later when their biggest nemesis, Barry Bonds, led off the sixth with a homer to tie it, setting the stage for their eighth-inning comedy act.

“Can you believe this stuff that’s happening?” Padre catcher Mark Parent said. “I see it every damn day, but I still can’t believe it.”

Entering the eighth, the Padres were still tied at 4 apiece, which was a strange enough phenomenon these days, but they soon took care of that. Let’s see, we had . . .

Roberts--who led off the inning with an infield single--standing on second base and Alomar on first. Two outs. Phil Stephenson in the batter’s box. That’s when Roberts decided he’d try to distract pitcher Ted Power by feinting toward third, as if he were going to steal. Oops. The only guy he faked out was Alomar, who ran toward second thinking it was a double steal. Roberts was stuck in no-man’s land, then tagged out in a rundown.

“I was already on second base, and then I heard the crowd make a noise,” Alomar said. “I looked up, and Bip was coming back to second. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ What a mess.”

Said Roberts: “I didn’t give a sign. I didn’t even look at Robbie. He wasn’t supposed to be running. I was just trying to make something happen. I tried to be too creative, and I got burned.”

The fun was just beginning.

In the bottom of the inning, Pirate second baseman Jose Lind singled to center with Jeff King on first. But instead of stopping at second, King took off for third. Center fielder Shawn Abner, appearing confused, didn’t know which base to throw to and ended up firing it between second and third. Alomar watched the ball bounce past him, and Lind took second as King reached third.

The Padres were forced to load the bases by intentionally walking Wally Backman, and pinch-hitter R.J. Reynolds made them pay the price by hitting a single to right off reliever Greg Harris, scoring two runs. Reynolds then stole second and kept running all of the way home on Sid Bream’s routine single to right, resulting in two more runs. Right fielder Tony Gwynn’s throw into the infield was much too casual, and when Roberts caught the ball, he looked toward home too late.

“We’re just not thinking out there,” Riddoch said. “We’re just having too many mental breakdowns.”

The Padres have enough trouble just trying to win with all of their physical problems, but when they commit the mental blunders, it’s as if the Bad News Bears are facing the Oakland A’s.

“I don’t care how much ability you have,” Padre outfielder Fred Lynn said, “you have to have a fundamental basic concept of the game. You shouldn’t have to teach players the game once they get here, but what are you going to do? If you don’t know the game, you’ve got to teach them.”

Riddoch, well-aware of the team’s fundamental flaws, was hoping to help rectify that with a mid-season spring training, if you will. Instead, it has rained the past three days in Pittsburgh, leaving the field unavailable for use before games.

“I think those things will come,” Parent said, “but the one thing we need more than anything else right now is to just beat the crap out of somebody. You can’t be aggressive just once in a while. You’ve got to be aggressive all of the time, and we’re not doing that.

“We get a lead, and we’re just sitting on it. We’ve got to go out there like kamikaze-style. We’ve got to beat somebody for nine solid innings and work from there.”

Said Riddoch, who’s still looking for his first victory as a major league manager after three opportunities: “I still believe in these guys, I really do. And I believe at some point there will be a reward for going through all the stuff we have. But it’s not going to be coming to the door. We’re going to have to work through it.”

Certainly, the offense could use a whole lot of work. The Padres are hitting just .210 these past two weeks, scoring three or fewer runs in 12 of the past 14 games. Saturday, they were able to collect just six hits against Bob Walk and Ted Power, each of whom was making his first appearance since coming off the disabled list.

But now, of all times, the Padres might be without the use of their power-hitter, Carter, and leadoff hitter, Roberts, for a few games.

Carter’s left foot slammed into the outfield wall in the second inning as he tried to chase down a double hit by Gary Redus. He played four more innings afterward--and hit his home run--but in the sixth, he told Riddoch that he would be a detriment defensively and left the game. Carter was diagnosed as having turf toe, and his status is day-to-day.

“I’ll play if I can,” Carter said, “but I won’t be doing anybody any good if I can’t go full-speed.”

Roberts, meanwhile, is suffering from a possible abscessed wisdom tooth, and he said the pain is worsening by the day. He was planning to have oral surgery when the Padres return home in a week, but now thinks that perhaps he should have it done as quickly as possible.

“It’s killing me, it’s just killing me,” Roberts said. “It hurts to even talk. I’ve got to see what I can do.”

And just when Riddoch didn’t think his problems could possibly expand, Alomar proclaimed after the game that he doesn’t care for this idea of playing a couple of days a week at shortstop in place of Garry Templeton. He wants to stay at second, at which he was selected to the All-Star Game.

“I can play better, I think, if I stay at second,” he said. “At least I’m already established at second base. Who knows what will happen at short? I say, ‘Make a trade, and go get another shortstop.’

“It’s too hard to me to get used to playing there just one day here and day there.”

And that’s the way it was for Game No. 83. A couple of injuries here. A dissatisfied player there. And mental mistakes everywhere.

When your starting pitcher, Bruce Hurst, strikes out a batter, Walk, for the third out in the second inning, but the ball bounces off the plate to the backstop, allowing one run to score while setting up another, you just know it’s not going to be your day.

“Baseball’s a crazy game, isn’t it?” said Hurst, who left after the sixth with a no-decision.

The Padres, though, have a way of making it seem eccentric.

Padre Notes

Pirate left fielder Barry Bonds continued his personal assault on the Padre pitching staff Saturday, hitting a game-tying home run and drawing two walks. He owns a career .476 batting average (10 for 21) against Bruce Hurst, with two homers; is hitting .463 (19 for 41) against the Padres this season, with six homers and 15 RBIs, and leads the Pirates with a career .354 batting average against the Padres with 12 homers and 30 RBIs. . . . Hurst, on the fact that he has three hits in his past eight at-bats, including a single Saturday: “I guess you could say I’m hitting better than I’m pitching. . . . Pirate starter Walt Terrell, who signed a three-year, $3.6-million contract as a free agent in the off-season, was assigned Saturday to the Pirates’ triple-A team in Buffalo. Terrell, who pitched most of last season with the Padres, has three days to accept the assignment. If he refuses, he becomes a free agent, and any team can claim him for $100,000 while the Pirates are required to eat the rest of the contract. “It’s doubtful he’ll accept it,” Pirate General Manager Larry Doughty said. “We’ve talked to a few teams, but there’s minimal interest.” . . . The Pirates (52-32) had not been 20 games above .500 since the end of the 1979 season, when they were 98-64.