Padres Defeat Gross at Concentration : Baseball: Interruption by umpire drives Dodger pitcher to distraction as Padres have seven-run fourth, win 10-5.

Maybe the Padres would have gotten to him anyway. Maybe they would have knocked him out Thursday afternoon exactly as they did last week. After all, the Padres were facing Kevin Gross, not Sandy Koufax.

No one will know what would have happened if second base umpire Terry Tata hadn’t stopped the game in the fourth inning, interrupted the Dodger starter to tell him to stop defacing the baseballs he was pitching.

But one look at the tunnel leading to the Dodger dugout, one glance at the broken light fixture outside the clubhouse and one look at the scoreboard revealed the havoc the interruption created.

The Padres, in one of the most explosive innings in franchise history, scored seven runs and sent Gross into a rage, turning a two-run deficit into a 10-5 victory over the Dodgers in front of 26,331 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

How did Gross take the defeat?

The light fixture outside the visiting clubhouse is dangling from the ceiling. Apparently, it could not withstand the force of a chair being hurled against it.

The way the day started for the Padres, their fans had reason to be disgruntled. They booed Padre starter Eric Nolte after he allowed three runs in the first inning. They yelled at Padre first baseman Fred McGriff, who struck out in the second inning. They even cursed the sun for hiding behind the clouds.

You know they were in a rotten mood when no one bothered to inflate a beach ball to bounce around the stands.

Along came the fourth inning. By the time it ended, you’d have thought the Padres clinched the National League West.

“We really needed something like that,” Padre infielder Marty Barrett said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time.”

How lavish was the Padres’ seven-run fourth inning?

Consider this:

* They scored more runs in the inning than their previous 33 innings combined.

* Their three extra-base hits in the inning equaled their total output of the previous 44 innings.

* All seven of their runs were scored with two outs.

* And they fell only two runs shy of equaling the franchise record of nine runs in an inning, set May 3, 1969, in their inaugural season against the Cincinnati Reds.

“It was wild,” said Padre catcher Tom Lampkin, who went two for four in his first start of the season. “It was like we knew we were going to hit. We just knew it. And once we got on that roll, we kept rolling, and no one wanted to stop it.”

Garry Templeton, starting at third base, opened the inning with a single to left. Center fielder Darrin Jackson flied to right, which turned out to be the only out he made all day. Lampkin then singled to right. Nolte tried to advance the runners into scoring position, but popped a bunt in front of the mound, allowing Gross to get Templeton at third for the second out.

Two outs, runners on first and second, and with the Dodgers leading 3-1, it hardly seemed to be a precarious situation for Gross. Next batter: Bip Roberts.

Ball 1.

Strike 1.

Gross, about to concentrate on his next pitch, heard someone yelling behind him. It was Tata. He wanted to see the ball.

Gross, it turns out, was defacing the baseball by using his fingernails to raise the seam, allowing him to get a better grip. It was no big deal, and it certainly wasn’t as flagrant as four years ago when he was suspended 10 days for using sandpaper to scuff balls. Tata simply wanted him to stop.

“I just told him it’s illegal,” Tata said, “Don’t do that anymore.”

Said Roberts: “I think if anything, that broke his concentration right there. He definitely had it on his mind. It interrupted his concentration, and he wasn’t able to recover.”

Once Gross and Tata chatted, with Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda joining in the conversation, Gross never was the same. The next three pitches to Roberts were balls, loading the bases.

Still, Gross was able to get ahead in the count, 0-2, on Tony Fernandez, needing only one pitch to escape. He decided to throw a slider out of the strike zone, hoping Fernandez would flail away.

Instead, the slider sat right over the plate. Fernandez swung and drilled it in the left-center gap between Kal Daniels and Brett Butler. It hit the edge of the warning track, bouncing over the wall for a two-run, ground-rule double.

Right fielder Tony Gwynn hit the next pitch into the right-center gap, scoring Roberts and Fernandez for a 5-3 lead.

That was all that Lasorda could stomach, and he brought in right-handed reliever Mike Hartley. He intentionally walked left-handed hitter McGriff and decided to take his chances with right-handed hitter Jerald Clark, who was in an 0-for-16 slump.

“They put him on a for a reason, I knew that,” Clark said. “They wanted to pitch to me. And certainly, if they walked Freddie, they were going to come after me.”

Hartley’s first pitch to Clark was a fastball on the outside part of the plate. He whipped his neck around barely in time to see the line drive carry over the left-field wall, bouncing around halfway up the lower section of seats for a three-run home run.

“I never watched it,” Clark said, “I didn’t know it was going out. Of course, I haven’t watched any of my homers since double-A ball. I remember hitting one down there, thinking it was going out, and then watched it hit the top of the wall and come back. I got a single.

“So, you see, I don’t do that anymore.”

When the Padres’ inning ended with Templeton flying to center, the fans delivered a rousing ovation at about the same time Gross was trashing the stadium.

“It just made me mad,” Gross said of Tata’s interruption. “There was no reason to bring it up at that point. It was ridiculous.

“I’ve been doing it every inning of the game. He’s the first ump that told me I couldn’t do it.”

The Padres had their seventh victory in 10 games this season to equal the second-best start in franchise history.

“You could see how hacked Gross and Lasorda were after that happened,” said Nolte (2-0), who allowed 10 hits and four runs in 5 2/3 innings for the victory. “But, hey, it took a lot of pressure off me. I’ll take it.

“Let’s keep it rolling.”