PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK / BOB NIGHTENGALE : Mixing Up Slider, Fastball Looks Like Right Combination for Myers

Reliever Randy Myers doesn’t want to become overly excited about one inning.

But after Myers struck out the side in the ninth inning Friday in the Padres’ 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, the Padres believe they have found the missing ingredient in Myers’ arsenal.

It’s the slider.

Myers, who had an 11.12 ERA in his last six outings and a 5.76 ERA for the season, simply mixed his slider with his fastball. The early results are encouraging.

It was the first time since May 9 that Myers had pitched a 1-2-3 inning in a meaningful situation and the first time this season that he struck out the side.

“I’m not going to say what I’ve done,” Myers said, “but there’s no question I felt much more comfortable. Mike (Roarke, pitching coach) and I made some adjustments, and so far, they’ve worked.

“We’ll give it a couple of appearances, and see if we’ve corrected it or not. You can’t judge anyone on one appearance and see if it’s corrected.”

Besides, Myers said, he didn’t believe things were going as badly as they appeared. He still has 13 saves, one shy of league leader Lee Smith of the Cardinals. And despite the horrid six-game stretch, he still managed three saves and one victory.

“It may not have been pretty, but I still got the job done, didn’t I?” Myers said. “Listen, if I have a three-run lead and I’m out there, I pitch a little differently than when I have to absolutely have to get the guy out.

“I know I’ve been giving up a lot of hits, but at least I was keeping the ball in the ballpark.”

Myers, who has allowed 42 runners in 26 innings this season, had about a 1 1/2-hour meeting Friday night discussing ways to diminish the frequency of hits. He met with the Padre coaching staff and suggested positioning the outfielders differently, Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said.

“He had some ideas about how they should be positioned when he pitches,” Riddoch said. “Although we’re not dismissing them, we’re not going to make wholesale changes, either.”

Said Myers: “It’s not something I want to get into right now. They have their ideas, I have mine.”

Besides, there are more important things to worry about now, such as where Padre teammate Fred McGriff is going to buy dinner. McGriff promised Myers on Friday that if he pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning, dinner was on him.

So where are they going?

“I’ll take him to Rally’s,” Myers said. “I’ve already hurt their business enough as it is.”

Indeed. Rally’s has a promotion this season in which every ticket-holder at Padre home games receives a free burger for every one-run Padre victory. Myers has inherited seven multiple-run leads this season and turned six of them into one-run victories.

The ex-Padre Player of the Week Award goes to the Wizard of Oz, shortstop Ozzie Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals. Smith got the 2,000th hit of his career this week, becoming only the 15th active player to achieve the milestone.

Smith, traded away 10 years ago by the Padres for Garry Templeton, is an 11-time All-Star and 12-time Gold Glove winner. The debate now is whether he’ll finish his career in a Cardinal uniform.

“They told me I was too old at the age of 37,” Smith said, “so I can’t figure they’re going to want to sign me at the age of 38.”

Said Dal Maxvill, Cardinal general manager: “Other people have said that the 1992 season would be his last here, but we’ve never said anything like that. When we broke off negotiations last November, we said we’d re-evaulate, and 1993 has not been ruled out.”

Interestingly, of Smith’s 2,000 hits, he has 20 homers--two from the left side and 18 from the right side. Yet he has 1,335 hits batting left-handed and 665 from the right side.

Reliever Larry Andersen made his first appearance Friday night at Class A High Desert on his rehabilitation assignment and pitched an inning without pain. Andersen started the game and allowed one hit and two unearned runs with two strikeouts.

“He said he feels great,” Riddoch said. “He’ll pitch two innings (today), and then we’ll make an evaluation how close he is to coming back.”

It was Andersen’s first appearance in Class A since 1973, when he pitched for Reno.