At 53-28, the Padres Are Merely Applying Polish

Two-thirds of the way through this showdown of divisional leaders, it’s safe to draw one conclusion.

Not about the Angels--they can’t use Tim Salmon and his aching foot at designated hitter when they play in National League ballparks and their entire offense has tailed off to the point that they came within six outs of being no-hit by San Diego’s Sterling Hitchcock on Saturday. Things should get better when they escape interleague play.

It’s the Padres who have proven themselves beyond a doubt. Go ahead and write them in as the NL West winners right now. They’re legit.

They own the best record in the National League, 53-28, after their 5-1 victory over the Angels at Qualcomm Stadium. Their pitching staff has the fourth-best earned-run average in the league. And their offense will only get better.

Ken Caminiti, who sat out 21 games because of a strained left quadriceps, ought to have 20 more home runs in his bat now that he’s back in the lineup. Tony Gwynn can probably pump up his batting average 30 more percentage points. He’s batting .337, which would be fine except it’s almost 60 points behind his pace last season. At this rate, it would mark the first time he hit below .353 since 1992.

There’s nothing like listening to Tony Gwynn talk about hitting, hearing the total approach and quest for perfection that makes him the best hitter in the game.

The other day he got excited over a fly-ball out, because it was the first time in a while he had managed to hit a changeup to left field.

“I felt like high-fiving everybody on my way back to the dugout,” he said.

Here’s Gwynn, using game at-bats to work on his swing. That’s the luxury of playing on a team with Kevin Brown as the ace and Dave Stewart as the pitching coach. The Padres have given up more than three runs only four times in their past 17 games.

“You want to get consistent, you want to do things right when you get up there, but you don’t feel that urgency to do it right now because the pitching’s been so good,” Gwynn said.

Besides, Greg Vaughn has been doing enough hitting for everyone. The home run he hit to center field Saturday was his 26th of the season. He also has driven in 66 runs.

Appropriately, the man at the heart of the batting order was standing in the middle of the clubhouse after Saturday’s game.

Vaughn looked quite comfortable there as he talked about the importance of his pregame hitting sessions with Gwynn, and the importance of music.

“We just get here early, we go upstairs, turn the music on,” Vaughn said. “My music.”

It seems Gwynn’s preferences run too mellow.

“He’s a jazz man,” Vaughn said. “He’s a big-time jazz man.

“Jazz? It relaxes me, but I’m looking for a different attitude when I go on the field, you know what I mean? I’m looking for my neighborhood attitude.”

That means the CD player has discs from Snoop Doggy Dogg, Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, whose lyrics can sometimes get, uh, edgy.

“I’ve got to listen to it here, because at home I’ve got kids,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn’s nickname is Hootie, because he bears a resemblance to Hootie and the Blowfish lead singer Darius Rucker. But he doesn’t consider himself a fan.

“Again, wrong attitude,” Vaughn said.

With these Padres it’s all about attitude. That’s what Stewart’s new role as pitching coach has provided, more than any mechanical suggestions.

“You look around the major leagues, and pretty much every pitcher belongs here and can get people out,” Hitchcock said. “It’s what you’ve got between your ears that’s going to make you stay here. I think that is really the main thing that Stew has been able to bring to us.”

Maybe there’s a greater sense of urgency around here. The Padres are playing for much more than a pennant. Their future in San Diego could very well ride on this season. They’re trying to work out a public-private financing agreement with the city for a new stadium.

The cover of the media guide is a blatant ploy to tug on heartstrings by showing pictures of the players interacting with children in the community.

The players are providing more incentive for the city to keep the Padres around. They aren’t fools; they know there’s no better climate in the country for an outdoor sport than San Diego. So they’re playing like a team worth keeping.

They still have their flaws. Saturday, for instance, Hitchcock couldn’t lay down a good bunt with none out and two men on in the bottom of the seventh inning. As a result, the runner on second was thrown out and Hitchcock wound up spending 20 minutes on the basepaths, including waiting through an Angel pitching change. Instead of thinking about the upcoming batters he would face, he had to concentrate on the number of outs and the baserunning situation. As a result, Phil Nevin broke up the no-hitter in the eighth when he took Hitchcock’s first pitch over the left-field wall.

“That’ll teach him to get the bunt down a little bit better,” Padre Manager Bruce Bochy said.

Critiquing the bunting of a guy who just threw seven innings of no-hit ball? That sounds like the worries of a first-place manager.