Padres Like the Sound of Beating Reds Twice

Disharmony filled San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium Wednesday evening, but for a change, it wasn’t the Padres’ problem.

No, the rampaging Padres swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 and 10-4, giving them three victories in a row over the NL West’s first-place team and allowing them to feel pretty good about themselves, at least for a night.

If you steered clear of the Padre clubhouse, though, positive vibrations weren’t the order of the evening. The Padres were about the only ones in a good mood. Between games, the crowd of 25,744 booed lustily when comedienne Roseanne Barr made a mockery of the national anthem, and Cincinnati Manager Lou Piniella, angry after the 2-1 loss to the fourth-place Padres, refused to open the Cincinnati clubhouse.

Piniella hasn’t liked what he has seen this week, and it’s easy to understand why. After a Cincinnati victory Monday, the Padres have suddenly begun to look like the team many expected them to be, and they pretty much dismantled a Cincinnati team that arrived with the highest winning percentage in baseball.

Piniella had cooled off by the end of the evening. What else could he do?

“They hit everything we threw up there today,” Piniella said. “We’ve got to regroup tomorrow. That’s all we can do.”

The Padres scored 10 runs against the Reds Tuesday and again on Wednesday, the second and third times they have done so this season. That matches a Cincinnati season high for runs allowed in a game.

“You guys have no idea how good this feels,” said Padre Manager Greg Riddoch, whose victory output Wednesday matched his previous total for the season. He is now 4-11.

In the first game, the Padres got a vintage performance from Ed Whitson and a rare one from reliever Craig Lefferts. Then, in Game 2, they unleashed an offense that had been curiously quiet for most of the past month, pounding out a season-high 20 hits.

First, the glitter. In the second game, the Padres scored in each of the first six innings. Mike Pagliarulo was three for five with five runs-batted in, Tony Gwynn went four for five with two RBIs, and Tom Lampkin and Roberto Alomar each had three hits. Pitcher Calvin Schiraldi even homered in the fifth. The Padres chased Cincinnati starter Rick Mahler (4-4) after four innings. He allowed 12 hits and eight runs.

Schiraldi made his first start of the season in the second game. He went six innings, allowing two runs and five hits as he ran his record to 3-2.

The drama came in the first game. The Padres scored two runs in the first inning and got an impressive defensive play from shortstop Garry Templeton in the sixth. Combine that with Whitson and Lefferts . . .

Whitson (8-7) went 7 1/3 innings, allowing a run on six hits. He struck out four and walked none while lowering his earned-run average to 2.84. He threw 89 pitches--60 for strikes.

He has now gone seven consecutive starts--48 1/3 innings--without allowing a home run.

Still, it was just his second victory since June 23 and third since June 2. In his seven losses, the Padres have scored more than one run just twice. They were shut out once.

You can understand, then, why Whitson’s postgame cigarette seemed to taste better than usual.

“Oh, Lordy,” he said. “It’s about time I get one of these 2-1 wins. We’ve had some serious bad luck.”

Part of the reason he was able to get the victory was because of Templeton’s game-saving leap to his right in the sixth. The score was 2-1, Barry Larkin was on second, and Eric Davis was at the plate with two out. Davis hit a hard grounder into the hole between short and third that might have scored Larkin, but Templeton dove, stood up and fired to first. He caught Davis by a step. Whitson waited to greet Templeton before leaving the field.

“That was the turning point of the game, I thought,” Whitson said. “That was one of Tempy’s old plays he made years and years ago. He’s still making them.”

Whitson left in the eighth with one out and Larkin on second, again the potential tying run. Lefferts came on for his first appearance in 10 days and was sharp. He held the Reds hitless and struck out two while earning his 13th save. He has allowed just four of his past 29 inherited runners to score.

“We’ve got a new guy you’ve heard about on the mound,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said, smiling. “His name is Craig Lefferts. We just brought him up from the bullpen.”

Riddoch said he wanted to use Lefferts in Tuesday’s game, but Bruce Hurst was throwing a shutout, and how can you take a guy out of the game when he’s doing that? So he talked with Lefferts in the outfield before Wednesday’s doubleheader, and Lefferts assured Riddoch that he would be ready anytime Riddoch needed him.

“He told me (rest) doesn’t affect him like some pitchers when they don’t get used a lot,” Riddoch said. “He was right.”

The Padres scored two in the first, and it turned out that that was enough. Bip Roberts led off with an infield single, and Alomar followed with a single up the middle, moving Roberts to second. Trouble was, Gwynn grounded into a double play.

Roberts moved to third on Gwynn’s grounder, and the Padres were in a situation they’re pretty good at blowing: Two outs, runner in scoring position. Not tonight. Roberts scored on a passed ball with Jack Clark at the plate, and then Clark walked. Joe Carter followed by drilling a ball just inside of third base and into the Padre bullpen in left. Clark scored, and Carter had a stand-up double.

The Padres led, 2-0.

Things got easier later, and who would have figured that the Padres would take three of four from the Reds and sweep their first doubleheader since June 17, 1988, against the Dodgers? It was their first home doubleheader sweep since Aug. 9, 1985, against Houston.

The Padres still trail the Reds by 18 games, though.

“Our goal isn’t to catch the Reds, it’s getting whoever is on top of us (in the standings),” Whitson said.

They say it’s not over until the fat lady sings, and Roseanne sure sang Wednesday--or tried to, anyway. So what happens? The Padres go out and win again, against Cincinnati, nonetheless.

So maybe Roseanne should come back and sing again?

Nah.

Padre Notes

Catcher Benito Santiago had the cast removed from his left arm Tuesday night and went through his first rehabilitation workout Wednesday afternoon. Santiago said he will wait a week before discussing a target date for his comeback. It likely will not be before mid-August, though, and possibly as late as Sept. 1. His arm was weak, and he worked with light weights, but Santiago said he felt great mentally having just gotten rid of the cast. “The thing drove me crazy,” he said. “It was on a month and a week, but it felt like a year and a half already.” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said he doesn’t want to rush Santiago’s return. “It’s encouraging to see the kid back out here,” Riddoch said. “It’s important that we make sure he’s 100%. We don’t want a situation where he’s set back.” Riddoch said the Padres haven’t yet decided whether Santiago will spend time on a rehabilitation assignment in Las Vegas (triple-A), but if he did, he would have to make a pretty quick recovery; the triple-A season is done by the end of August. Santiago’s arm was broken on June 14 when San Francisco pitcher Jeff Brantley hit him with a pitch.

The new Padres owners would like to change the team’s uniform colors to navy blue and orange. Any change would have to be approved by major league baseball. . . . Bruce Hurst has thrown the past two complete games by a Padre pitcher. He defeated Cincinnati, 10-0, Tuesday and St. Louis, 3-1, on July 7. . . . Padre Library: Bip Roberts is reading Dave Dravecky’s book “Comeback.” “It’s pretty good,” he said.

Friday’s and Saturday’s games against Houston will both begin at 7:35 p.m. Joan Kroc Night is Friday, and the Equitable Old-Timers game is Saturday. This is the last Equitable Old-Timers event, as the company has decided to not sponsor the series anymore. It will not be a regular game but take the form of a home-run hitting contest. . . . Cincinnati second baseman Mariano Duncan left the first game Wednesday for a pinch-hitter in the third inning after re-aggravating an injury to his left wrist.