Padres Rain on the Reds

The Cincinnati Reds were quizzed all afternoon Friday on their preference of teams to play in the National League playoffs. When they finally got away for batting practice, they spent the next 45 minutes in a team meeting, dividing playoff and World Series shares.

While the Reds were breaking up their meeting, debating among themselves which brand of champagne would be best to spray on each other, a crowd of 35,399 was congregating at Riverfront Stadium, preparing for their celebration.

There was only one element missing in all of their gala preparations.

Wouldn’t you know it, the Reds had to go out and play a baseball game.

Yep.

San Diego Padres 2, Reds 1.

The champagne stays chilled and, for at least one more day, the Reds remain dry.

“It seems like we’ve been waiting for this a long time,” said right fielder Paul O’Neill of the Reds, “but what’s another day?

“People aren’t going to roll over dead for us because we’re in first place. San Diego proved that tonight.”

The Padres hardly resembled the team that was swept last weekend in San Diego, when they lost four games by a combined score of 34-12.

“It was certainly a refreshing change,” Padre first baseman Jack Clark said.

There was Bruce Hurst pitching a four-hit complete game, with only Chris Sabo’s home run in the second inning preventing him from obtaining his major league leading fifth shutout.

There was Clark, tying the score with a 450-foot homer in the seventh inning against starter Danny Jackson.

There was Benito Santiago winning the game with a two-out double in the ninth.

And there was Red Manager Lou Piniella, taking his frustration out on reporters for being--ready for this?--too positive.

“We’ve got two more games to win,” Piniella said angrily. “This thing isn’t over yet.

“I know the media in this town has made a big hullabaloo of this, and it’s given this team a false sense of security.”

Still, the Reds’ magic number to clinch their first division championship since 1979 is only one, and they own a five-game lead with five games remaining. To blow it now would make the Phillies’ collapse in ’64 look like a letdown.

But when you’ve been in first place all season, began selling playoff tickets a week ago, and were displaying videos celebrating the 1979 division championship on the scoreboard Friday night, the Reds can’t be faulted for looking a little silly dragging this division race into the final days.

“It’s gone on too long already,” said Red pitcher Jose Rijo, the man who claimed the race was over a week ago. “Let’s get it over with. Enough’s enough.”

Perhaps that’s what the Padres were thinking Friday. This is a team that has watched six teams celebrate championships in the past eight years.

“I’m tired of watching other teams celebrate against us,” Santiago said. “It gets old.”

Hurst (11-9) shut down the heart of the Reds’ lineup in the bottom of the ninth, preventing the ball from even being hit out of the infield, and the Reds went back to the clubhouse, answering questions why they continue to prolong the agony.

Said Piniella: “I don’t care if people here have been waiting 11 years or 30 years. The schedule says 162 games, and until a team is mathematically eliminated, you don’t clinch.

“We’re in a great position. We expect to win. But let’s win first, before we start doing anything else.”

“It was nice one to win,” the Padres’ Bip Roberts said, “especially what they did against us in San Diego. But we want to be competitive. We don’t want to let anyone back into it.

“If they earn it, they earn it. But we’re not just going to give it to them, and watch them celebrate in front of our faces.”

The Padre victory, their first in nine games, also left the Reds wondering what they were going to do with themselves the rest of the night.

Their original plan was to knock off the Padres, dash back in the clubhouse, and sit around watching the Dodger-Giant game on ESPN-TV. But once after the Reds lost, themselves, not a soul bothered to stick around.

“I think it screwed up a lot of people’s plans around here,” first baseman Todd Benzinger said.

Padre Notes

Bob Gebhard, one of the finalists for the vacancy as Padre general manager, is in Cincinnati watching the team for the fourth consecutive game, but he said the trip was planned six weeks ago and that he’s in Cincinnati only to scout the Padres for the Minnesota Twins. Gebhard, vice president/player personnel of the Twins, said that he has been interviewed by Padre Chairman Tom Werner and Russell Goldsmith, vice chairman. “I’m just waiting like everyone else,” he said. “I really don’t know what kind of chance I have.” Gebhard, 46, is one of five candidates who have been interviewed for the Padre opening, created last week when Jack McKeon was fired. The others: Dan Duquette, assistant general manager of the Montreal Expos; Gordon Ash, assistant general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays; Roger Jongewaard, vice president/scouting and player development of the Seattle Mariners, and Walt Jocketty, director of baseball administration of the Oakland Athletics. The Padres will make a decision by Oct. 15, one owner said Friday, but he declined to identify the leading candidate. . . . Jack Clark’s ejection Wednesday, when he threw first base toward the stands at Candlestick Park, is being reviewed by the National League office. Clark also is scheduled to meet with Manager Greg Riddoch about the incident and explain why he left the clubhouse before the end of the game. At least someone is finding humor in the episode. Jack Buck, CBS-TV announcer, is planning to present a trophy to Clark before today’s game for longest base-toss. Clark beat Reds Manager Lou Piniella. Wasn’t Piniella’s throw a little longer? “Maybe,” Buck said, “but Lou had to throw it twice, too.” . . . Clark spent the day in Cleveland Thursday, monitoring the progress of a trailer that’s being made for his racing team. He also missed the team party Thursday night. . . . Awards voted by the Padre players and presented at the party: Bip Roberts, most valuable player; Ed Whitson, pitcher of the year; Rich Rodriquez, rookie of the year; Joe Carter, best dressed player, and Calvin Schiraldi, worst dressed player.