Padres Do It Again

The San Diego Padres, in less than half of the 1997 season, have been forced to use the disabled list 17 times for 15 players.

However, they have also come across a panacea for their ills.

All they need to do is think blue.

They did it again Friday night and defeated the Dodgers, 7-5, before an announced crowd of 39,011 at Dodger Stadium. It was the Padres’ ninth consecutive victory over the Dodgers over a two-year span and their seventh in a row at Dodger Stadium.

San Diego Manager Bruce Bochy was at a loss to explain the domination.

Asked if his team might play with greater intensity against the Dodgers because of the Southern California rivalry, he said: “I hope not. That would be telling us we don’t get up enough for the other teams.

“We’re trying to catch three teams, not just the Dodgers. We have to beat everybody.”

With this latest win, the Padres dropped the Dodgers seven games behind San Francisco in the National League West.

Chan Ho Park took the loss as San Diego collected 12 hits, with Tony Gwynn delivering the killer again. Gwynn, who had an inside-the-park grand slam Thursday night, drilled a three-run double in the eighth inning of this one, as Todd Worrell and Scott Radinsky were unable to keep the Dodger deficit at 4-2.

The extra margin enabled the Padres to survive a Dodger rally that produced one run in the eighth and two more in the ninth--all knocked in by Mike Piazza--before Trevor Hoffman struck out Raul Mondesi with two on to end the game.

Todd Zeile and Piazza homered for the Dodgers, but Joey Hamilton yielded only two runs in seven innings to improve his career record against the Dodgers to 5-1. He added insult by driving in two runs with a solo homer and a squeeze bunt.

With Brett Butler sidelined by neck and shoulder stiffness suffered in Thursday night’s game, Dodger Manager Bill Russell posted his 52nd different lineup, leading off with Wilton Guerrero and using Roger Cedeno in the second spot. Russell, in what has become a recording, also talked of his team’s need to put a winning streak together, particularly in the last 10 games before the all-star break.

“We need to get it going before the break, then we’ve got that four-game series here with the Giants [right after the break],” Russell said.

“It could be the biggest series of the year, but before that, we’ve got to get things in order. We’ve got to put a streak together. We need to win 10 in a row, and it’s going to happen.

“The way the three guys in the middle have begun to hit recently, we’ve begun to score more runs. We just haven’t been able to put the pitching and hitting together.”

The struggle continued as the Dodgers wasted a series of threats against Hamilton and his successors, despite six hits by the guys in the middle--Piazza, who homered and singled twice; Eric Karros, who doubled twice, and Mondesi, who singled.

Zeile’s 16th homer gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead in the fourth, but the Padres came back with three in the sixth and put it away on Gwynn’s three-run double in the eighth.

Park (5-5) had pitched into the seventh inning in six consecutive starts, but he failed to survive the sixth this time. After striking out the side in the second, he yielded his 14th homer to Hamilton in the third.

A pair of leadoff walks got Park in trouble in the sixth, when he also made a throwing error and gave up a pair of hits before Hamilton squeezed in the third run of the inning against Darren Dreifort.

The score was 4-2 going into the eighth when Worrell gave up a double to John Flaherty and walked two, turning over a one-out, bases-loaded crisis to Radinsky. The left-hander got Steve Finley to pop up, but Gwynn followed with his double to right-center, giving the Padres a 7-2 lead and Gwynn 61 runs batted in.

It appeared safe, but the Padres were forced to use three more pitchers before Hoffman struck out Mondesi to extend the San Diego streak.