Padres Stay to the Bitter End : Baseball: Triple play in first inning gives Padres something to think about during 9-2 loss to Phillies.

The Padres, right then and there, should have quit and gone home, forgetting that Sunday afternoon ever existed.

Instead, the Padres kept playing past the first inning, and by the time the game ended, with a 9-2 defeat to the Philadelphia Phillies, they were asking why they even had bothered.

“When you see something like that happen,” Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said, “you know it’s going to be one of those days.”

Sure, it was only the first inning. And yes, it was only a single play. But there was little doubt that the moment Phillie second baseman Randy Ready pulled off a triple play, it turned the game around, making it a long, miserable day for the Padres.

“There wasn’t a doubt in my mind,” Gwynn said.

The scenario, one that had everyone in both clubhouses talking, and a crowd of 39,332 as witnesses, unfolded like this:

The Padres, aware of Phillie starter Jason Grimsley’s propensity to be wild, went into the game being quite patient. Paul Faries led off the game with a walk. Tony Fernandez followed with another walk. This would be easier than they thought, the Padres were telling themselves.

“We had him on the ropes, we had him right there,” Gwynn said. “I thought we might even knock him out of the game.”

Gwynn, on a three-and-two pitch with the runners going, hit a line drive that appeared to be up the middle.

Uh-uh.

Ready, running over to cover second, speared the ball for the first out.

He took about two steps and stamped his foot on second for the second out.

And with Fernandez standing right next to him, 90 feet away from first base, Ready could have tagged Fernandez for an unassisted triple play, but instead threw to first baseman Ricky Jordan for the triple play.

It was the first triple play in the 21-year-history of Veterans Stadium, and the first by the Phillies in 3,664 games--May 4, 1968. It was the sixth triple play against the Padres, and the first since June 6, 1986.

Although it was quite a feat, Ready’s teammates spent the rest of the game ridiculing him, saying that he cost himself a chance at infamy by not completing the solo triple play. There have been only eight unassisted triple plays in baseball history, and one in the past 64 years. In fact, the only second baseman to ever complete an unassisted triple play was William Wambsganss of the Cleveland Indians in the 1920 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

“I asked him about that later in the game,” Gwynn said. “I said, ‘Spike, why didn’t you just tag him?’ Do you know what he said?

“ ‘Because I’m a team player. I wanted to get the whole team involved.’ That’s Randy Ready.”

And just like that, before the Phillies even stepped to the plate for the first time, the game turned.

“It was unbelievable,” Phillie Manager Jim Fregosi said. “We were sky high after that.”

And Padre starter Eric Nolte, abetted in their effort, turning his 28th birthday into the Padres’ worst defeat of the season.

By the time the Phillies were done with Nolte, they battered him for seven hits and eight earned runs in just 1 1/3 innings. It left him with a 3-1 record and 8.53 ERA, raising doubts just how long the Padres will leave him in the starting rotation.

“I knew I was in trouble from the first batter,” Nolte said. “Geez, I was on the mountaintop a couple of weeks ago, and now I’m in the valley. Man, what a lousy birthday.”

Although the Padres left their starting position players in the entire game, and even played the infield in during the sixth inning to prevent any further runs, the Padres never did threaten to make a game out of it.

The Padres soon found out that any pitcher can look awfully good with a lead like that, even Grimsley, who entered the game with a 0-3 record, allowing 28 baserunners and eight wild pitches in 18 1/3 innings.

“He was a completely different pitcher after that,” Gwynn said. “He was calm and relaxed, and threw all his pitches. The whole game was changed.

“What can I say, ‘Call me the rally killer.’ ”

Actually, it was just the beginning of a rather strange afternoon that seemed more fitting for a scene in the “Twilight Zone.”

In the second inning, with runners on first and second, Padre third baseman Marty Barrett attempted to lay down a bunt. Instead, Grimsley’s fastball bounced off the tip of Barrett’s bat, and smashed the bridge of his nose. The ball sailed into the air, allowing Grimsley to catch it, before the umpires realized that it first had bounced off Barrett’s nose.

“I didn’t even know what happened,” Barrett said, “I just saw all of the blood pouring out of my nose. That was the first time I’d ever seen something like that happen, or even heard of it.”

Miraculously, after Barrett was taken to the hospital, X-rays revealed that his nose was not broken. He has a gash on the bridge of his nose. He will be able to play today.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Riddoch said. “I thought that thing exploded. It was so swollen, I thought it was going to snap in half.”

Then, in the fifth inning, the Padres managed to hit into their second double play of the game when Shawn Abner hit a foul pop-up in front of the first-base dugout. Jordan made the catch, and then watched in disbelief as Jerald Clark tagged first, and faked as if he were going to second. Jordan threw to first, Clark slipped, and the odd double-play was recorded.

“We practice false breaks,” Riddoch said, “but not when you’re down (seven) runs.”

Yes, it was that kind of afternoon for the Padres, and in the words of Joe McIlvaine, Padre general manager, “A Murphy’s Law Day, when everything that can go wrong, did.”

The Padres also were a bit irritated that Ready, their former teammate, wasn’t able to turn the unassisted triple play. If they were going to be involved in one, they said, they wished it could have at least been one for the record books.

“Hey, what’s the big deal anyway?” said Phillie outfielder John Kruk, also a former Padre. “He caught a line drive. Jose Feliciano would have caught that ball.

“What a play, I just wish I was awake when it happened.”

It was that kind of day.