Expos Again Extra Trouble for Padres

Thanks to an Expo extra inning in which the baseball never left the infield, the Padres on Sunday lost their second consecutive 10-inning game to Montreal, 4-3.

The Padres, now a season-high 6 1/2 games behind first-place Cincinnati, were without two-thirds of their starting outfield. They finished the weekend by dropping three of four to Montreal.

Time for a winning streak.

Right?

“We’re not looking to do something like that,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said. “Then you lock yourself in for trouble. Teams that set goals of winning eight of 10 . . .

“If you’re shooting for a streak like that, you’re in trouble.”

Oh.

Well. While Riddoch prefers the one-day-at-a-time method, the sinking Padres, who have lost two games in the standings in two days, had better do something .

They are losing players, games and weekends.

And extra innings. It was their fifth consecutive extra-inning loss.

Cincinnati, which swept a four-game series from Pittsburgh this weekend, shows no signs of slowing down. With the Padres at home this week, isn’t it important for them to have a good week so they are in decent shape at the All-Star break?

“I won’t say it’s crucial-crucial,” Fred McGriff said. “But we have to play well.

“We’re a little over the halfway point. I don’t think the Reds are going to go 81-0. They’re the best team ever if they go 81-0.”

About the only Padre, in fact, who calls this a crucial week is General Manager Joe McIlvaine.

“This is an important week,” McIlvaine said. “We’ve got to hold our own. Cincinnati is not going to roll over.

“If our starting pitchers give us what they can, we’ll be all right.”

McGriff hit his fourth home run in four days, his 18th of the season, and Gary Sheffield hit his 17th homer of the season, but the Padres still were not all right on Sunday.

The Expos sent five batters to the plate in the 10th, and the farthest the ball traveled was shortstop.

With one out, Tim Scott, who had just been recalled from triple-A Las Vegas late Saturday, walked Moises Alou.

Scott (1-1) had walked only three batters in 28 innings in Las Vegas but, here, he was working with no margin for error. Alou stole second before Gary Carter hit a ground ball to shortstop Tony Fernandez. Fernandez scooped it up and threw to third, but the throw was high and Alou was safe.

Up stepped Delino DeShields. The Padres, expecting a suicide squeeze, pitched out on a 0-and-1 count. Nothing yet.

DeShields then worked the count to 2 and 1 before dropping a perfect bunt that rolled between shortstop and the pitcher’s mound. Alou scored, and the Padres were left to stare blankly into their lockers.

“We just played a game where everything we did turned the wrong way and everything they did turned to gold,” Riddoch said.

The Expos trailed, 2-0 and 3-2, but managed to execute when they had to.

The Padres? In their half of the 10th, Oscar Azocar missed a bunt sign and Tony Fernandez was thrown out stealing second after a leadoff single.

So much for a comeback.

The Padres knew from the beginning that it would be a rough day.

Center fielder Darrin Jackson was scratched from the lineup before the game because of a sore shoulder, suffered when he crashed into the wall making a catch Saturday night.

Kevin Ward, who suffered back spasms Saturday, was also out. And Tony Gwynn has been out since Friday after injuring his back Thursday.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Sheffield had to leave after the ninth because he sprained the middle finger of his left hand while sliding into third in the eighth.

And the Padres had only three healthy position players on the bench.

Still, starter Bruce Hurst pitched nearly well enough to win. He did not allow an Expo past first base until Tim Wallach’s one-out, seventh-inning homer. From the time Carter singled in the second until Wallach’s homer, Hurst retired 16 of 18 Expo batters. He allowed only two singles in the first six innings.

Hurst yielded only three runs and seven hits in eight innings, but ran into trouble with Wallach once more--when he walked him to lead off the ninth.

At that point, with the Padres leading, 3-2, Riddoch called for Mike Maddux. Archi Cianfrocco greeted him with a single and the next batter, Spike Owen, drove in Tim Wallach from third with a sacrifice fly to center.

It was Maddux’s first blown save in five opportunities.

Hurst said he felt fine entering the ninth but, after walking Wallach, admitted being tired.

Riddoch, pointing to an unstable bullpen, defended his decision to let Hurst start the ninth.

“When you get the opportunity to stay with your best pitcher with the way we’ve been going out of the bullpen and he says he feels good, you go with that,” Riddoch said.

When asked about the struggling bullpen, Hurst got testy.

“I’m not going to criticize our bullpen,” Hurst said. “They’ve battled hard. They didn’t walk (Wallach to lead off the ninth), I walked him.

“It seems to be in vogue around here to sit back and point fingers instead of offer pats on the back.

“We’ve got that play (the criticism) down good. We can criticize with the best of them.

“If I figure out baseball, I’d bottle it and sell it and find an island and sit in the sun all day.”

If things don’t turn around soon for the Padres, Hurst and his mates will be able to sit in the sun all day beginning, oh, about the second week in October.

Padre Attendance

Sunday: 18,840

1992 (43 dates): 997,462

1991 (43 dates): 1,107,323

Decrease: 10,986

1992 average: 23,196