Padres Burn Braves on Hits to Hot Corner

Garry Templeton knows all about the good and bad things that can happen on the field. On Sunday, he saw both.

Templeton hit a three-run double, and the Padres took advantage of four errors, three by third baseman Jim Presley, to score seven runs in the second inning and beat the Atlanta Braves, 9-4.

“I feel for guys like that,” Templeton said of Presley, “simply because I’ve had games like that myself.”

Presley said the Padres were “hitting rockets.”

“You either catch them, or you don’t. It was a tough day. All you can do is hope we score a lot of runs and catch up,” he said.

Dennis Rasmussen (11-13) gave up three runs on five hits in seven innings. One of the hits was Dave Justice’s 25th home run, most among major-league rookies.

Templeton led off the second by reaching on an error by Presley, and singles by Jerald Clark and Mark Parent tied it, 1-1, against Steve Avery (3-9).

After first baseman Francisco Cabrera misplayed Paul Faries’ bunt, Parent stole third and scored on a wild pitch. Rasmussen singled, and another error by Presley enabled Bip Roberts to reach safely.

Two outs later, Presley’s third error on Joe Carter’s grounder loaded the bases, setting up Templeton’s double. Roberts hit a two-run homer, his eighth, in the third for a 9-1 lead.

“Playing against the Braves, we need as many runs as we can get,” Templeton said. “That inning helped us out a lot. We were winning, 10-2, here early in the season and they came back and beat us, so we weren’t too comfortable I think until about the seventh inning. To get a lot of runs against the Braves, the way they hit against us, was real helpful for us.”

Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said, “baseball is funny.”

“Jim had a great game the other night. It’s a lonely feeling when this kind of game happens. I might have had five errors one night myself,” Cox said.

The Braves scored in the first on singles by Ron Gant and Justice and Presley’s sacrifice fly. Justice and Cabrera homered in the sixth, and Mark Lemke had an RBI double in the ninth.

Padre Notes

The Padres won the season series over the Braves, 10-8. . . . The three errors by Jim Presley were the most by a Brave player in one inning since Bobby Lowe made four in one inning in 1900. . . . With four more runs, Ron Gant will become the first Brave to score 100 runs in a season since Dale Murphy had 115 in 1987.