Dodgers Take the Bounce Out of Padres’ Step : Baseball: Morgan’s pitching, Murray’s homer off Gwynn’s glove help L.A. win, 4-0.

That’s the way the ball bounces?

Tony Gwynn sat in front of his locker after the Padres’ 4-0 loss Friday night to the Los Angeles Dodgers and couldn’t believe it.

In fact, he had to see the videotape of Eddie Murray’s first-inning home run for himself before he knew exactly what had happened.

One batter earlier, Darryl Strawberry had tripled. It was a ball that somehow got between Gwynn in right and Shawn Abner in center. Abner sprinted over, slid, seemed to be in front of the ball . . . and suddenly, the ball was rolling toward the wall.

But there were still two out when Murray approached the plate. And four batters into the game, it seemed a little early for a turning point.

But Murray turned on Ed Whitson’s first pitch, and the ball sailed high and deep down the right-field line. Gwynn drifted back, back . . . he stretched and reached, he jumped and grabbed.

The ball hit the orange paint at the top of the fence and bounced downward. Gwynn’s glove was going upward. The two met, and the ball was pushed back over the fence.

Gwynn immediately pointed foul. Terry Tata, first-base umpire, wasted no time in raising his right hand and making a circle.

Home run.

The Padres trailed, 2-0, and the rest of the night belonged to Mike Morgan, the Dodger starter. Morgan hadn’t pitched a complete game since last July 30 and hadn’t had a shutout since last July 14. No matter. He went the distance, induced 17 ground-ball outs and allowed only one Padre to advance as far as third base.

“Outstanding,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said. “He changed speeds, threw his sinking fastball and kept them off balance.”

Morgan silenced a team that came into the game batting .287--first in the National League and second in the majors.

Those numbers weren’t so important Friday. The only things that mattered were Morgan, Murray, the baseball and Gwynn’s glove.

“I thought it was a fly ball,” Whitson said. “I thought it was going foul. All of a sudden, it started tailing back in.”

Said Gwynn: “The ball has been carrying ever since we got back (Monday). When he hit it, I thought it was a fly ball. I broke sideways, got to the wall and had to jump.

“It was one of those weird plays. I thought I should have caught the ball. I was fooled by the swing and fooled by the ball. I didn’t take the right angle at it--I went straight at it rather than angling toward it.”

He didn’t even know it hit his glove until he saw a replay in the Padre clubhouse.

“It was one of those crazy games,” said Gwynn, who iced a sore left rib-cage after the game but said it had no effect on his ill-timed jump. “The ball didn’t bounce our way tonight.”

The Padres should have known something like that would happen sooner or later against the Dodgers, whom they had beaten four consecutive times.

And then there was the Murray-Whitson match. By the time the evening was finished, Murray--who added a single to the homer--was batting .429 lifetime against Whitson. He has 12 hits--and four homers--in 28 at bats against Whitson.

Murray might not have had the line of the night in the box score--Padre first baseman Fred McGriff was four for four--but he had the best line on the field. When Gwynn reached base on an error in the fourth, the Dodger first baseman looked at Gwynn and spoke.

“If you had any leaping ability, you’d have caught that ball,” he joked.

Whitson and Gwynn aren’t the only ones who will be attempting to forget this one as quickly as possible.

Padre batters couldn’t solve Morgan (1-1), who yielded just seven hits. And for the first time this season, shortstop Tony Fernandez (0 for 4) went hitless. His 10-game streak had been the longest in the majors this season. Bip Roberts’ eight-game hitting streak also ended.

It was the second time this week the Padres were shut out--Cincinnati defeated them, 1-0, Tuesday. And, like Whitson said, you can’t win if you can’t score.

For a pitcher who entered the game holding opponents to a meager .128 batting average--third in the National League and fifth in the majors--Whitson wasn’t particularly baffling to the Dodgers. He went eight innings, allowing three earned runs and eight hits. He struck out two and walked none.

He allowed a homer to Juan Samuel in the sixth and an unearned run in the eighth. It certainly wasn’t a bad outing. Some would say he maybe even deserved more than fate allowed.

But all he could do in the end was shake his head and cringe at the thought of Murray’s homer.

“You know you’re in deep (trouble) when that happens,” he said. “You don’t see that but once every 100 years.”