Cardinals a Padre Nemesis, but Now Lankford Is Missing

A day-off workout? A playoff workout. Tony Gwynn slips on a jacket, picks up a bat and beams. Couldn’t be happier.

“Everyone else is playing golf today,” he says. “We’re back here ready to go work. I can’t tell you how good that feels.”

Gwynn is returning to postseason play for the first time since 1984. His San Diego Padres are here as National League West champions, riding the crest of that three-game sweep on the Dodgers’ turf.

A best-of-five playoff series against the Central champion St. Louis Cardinals begins today with Joey Hamilton (15-9) opposing Todd Stottlemyre (14-11) and a team that won eight of 12 from the Padres during the regular season.

“They thrashed us,” Gwynn said. “And it seemed like the only games we won came on some last-minute heroics.”

Different time, different setting.

Said Padre pitching coach Dan Warthen, “This is actually the first time we’ve played them when we’re playing well.”

Well enough to have won 25 of their last 37 games. And one other thing: The Padres now catch the Cardinals without Ray Lankford, an offensive catalyst and the premier middle man in one of baseball’s premier outfields.

Willie McGee, 37 and a .303 hitter in his Cardinal reincarnation, will be in center today--Ron Gant to his left and Brian Jordan to his right.

The left-handed Lankford tore his left rotator cuff diving for a fly ball in the 10th inning of Friday’s meaningless game with Cincinnati.

He couldn’t raise his arm Saturday or Sunday, but got it up to shoulder level Monday. He is expected to remain on the playoff roster, but is unlikely to play before Game 3 on Saturday in San Diego--if then.

“That definitely hurts them,” said Hamilton, the Padre pitcher. “It doesn’t change my approach, but it makes a difference in their lineup.

“I’m not taking anything away from McGee, but Lankford can hurt you in a lot of ways. He can take you out of the park and he can lay it down. He can go from first to third [on a single] and he can steal.

“He’s a guy you don’t like to have on base ahead of Gant and Jordan and [John] Mabry.”

Lankford is a .275 hitter with 21 homers, 86 runs batted in and 35 stolen bases, the primary speed on a team that likes to run. “A double threat,” said Gwynn.

Without Lankford, the task is a tad easier for Hamilton and catcher Brian Johnson at a time when John Flaherty, San Diego’s regular catcher, remains out because of a sprained ankle.

Lankford’s absence also leaves Mabry as the only non-switch-hitting left-hander in the St. Louis lineup, influencing the Padres to use their only left-hander, Fernando Valenzuela, in relief, although he may start Game 5, if the series goes that far.

“It’s nice to have that kind of experience out there,” Warthen said. “He’s a guy who can throw every day. I expect we might see a lot of him.”

Lankford’s injury, by putting the versatile McGee in the lineup, further weakens an already weak St. Louis bench that has produced only one pinch-hit homer this year--and that by Gant, normally a starter.

Said St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa, “It’s good to have a guy like Willie in a situation like this. I have no problem putting him out there, but it does take a little bit from the bench because he can do so many things.”

La Russa has taken some heat in St. Louis for having Lankford still in the lineup in the 10th inning of a meaningless game, but he said, “The only way to keep a player in shape for the playoffs is by playing them.”

Ten innings may seem excessive, but La Russa can point to six division titles as evidence that he knows what he is doing.

He won the sixth in this first year in a new league with a team that lost 61 games last year and underwent a considerable make-over.

Stottlemyre accompanied La Russa from Oakland and will be trying to reverse his 0-3 postseason form.

He faces a team on a roll, a team not surprised to be here, Gwynn said.

“Others may be, but we’re not. We’ve been talking about that all day. I mean, we knew in spring training we had a good club.

“We didn’t know how good and we couldn’t foresee some of the moves, but we knew we had a chance to win.

“These last few days, I think we’ve showed people what we’re about.”

And now, while others golf, Gwynn and the Padres get to tee it up in a different way.