Padres Have Better Unit

By ROSS NEWHAN

Oct. 5, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN DIEGO —

Outpitching Randy Johnson for the second time in four games while delivering a succession of clutch hits for the first time, the San Diego Padres whipped the Houston Astros, 6-1, Sunday to reach the National League Championship Series.

West and East will now meet, starting Wednesday in Atlanta, when the Padres and Braves open the best-of-seven series.

“If the Padres pitch against Atlanta the way they did against us, they’re headed to the World Series,” Houston Manager Larry Dierker said after Sterling Hitchcock, Dan Miceli and Trevor Hoffman picked up where Kevin Brown left off.

The Astros had the league’s most productive offense, ranking first in runs and second in team batting, but they collected only three hits with their fate on the line Sunday, were limited to one run three times in the best-of-five division series, batted .182 overall and had those dreaded Killer Bs turned to Fleas for the second straight October.

The Padres, who were 9-15 in September and had played 16 straight games without scoring more than four runs, batted only .216, but a roaring crowd of 64,898 at Qualcomm Stadium Sunday saw them put it away with a rare explosion in the eighth inning after leading only 2-1.

As Houston relief ace Billy Wagner, the flame-throwing left-hander, watched from the bullpen, the Padres got a two-run, pinch-hit double by left-handed-hitting John Vander Wal and a two-run homer by left-handed hitting Wally Joyner--both off right-hander Jay Powell--to send San Diego’s clubhouse staff scurrying for champagne.

“We know we have a long way to go, but it doesn’t get any better than this,” Manager Bruce Bochy said.

This is the first time since 1984 that the Padres have advanced to the NLCS, and the ensuing toasts may have been loudest and longest for Jim Leyritz, who enhanced his improbable October saga by hammering a second-inning homer Sunday to dent Johnson’s invincibility and give Hitchcock a quick lead.

The 422-foot blast on a 93-mph fastball was Leyritz’s third homer of the series and sixth in 15 postseason games.

The Padres acquired the versatile Leyritz from the Boston Red Sox in mid-June, one of the many key deals by General Manager Kevin Towers, who smiled Sunday and said, “He’s already earned the $1 million we paid him this year. I don’t know how you put a value on what he’s done in the postseason alone. It’s huge.”

So was the performance by left-hander Hitchcock, who struck out 11 and allowed only three hits in a six-inning duel with the vaunted Johnson.

“I knew I had to be on with Randy out there,” Hitchcock said. “I had been pretty amped up for several days, thinking I was going to pitch Game 3 [which Brown started Saturday night on three days rest], but I had an unusual feeling of peace and calm today.”

Taking advantage of the late afternoon shadows (the game started at 4:50), Hitchcock said he threw a lot more breaking balls than usual, a 74-mph curve and an 83-mph forkball making the Astros appear foolish.

Of his team’s offensive ineptitude in the series, Dierker said: “It’s hard for me to admit we were beaten by them, but we were. This was the most prolific offense in the league and in three of the games we got only one run. Part of it was Kevin Brown [who started two games the Padres won by 2-1 scores]. Part of it was the way they pitched and part of it was the fact we were just swinging the bats well.”

Dierker added that baseball shouldn’t be played in twilight and he thought that contributed to Hitchcock’s success.

“I know he had a big strikeout game [15 against Montreal on Aug. 29], but I don’t consider him a strikeout pitcher, especially against our lineup of right-handed hitters,” Dierker said. “I had trouble picking up the ball sitting in the dugout, so I know our hitters did, but give the Padres credit. They made the pitches and got the hits. We didn’t.”

The Killer Bs--Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio and Derek Bell--were a combined six for 41 after going two for 37 in the Atlanta sweep last year. Moises Alou batted .188.

When Miceli, who came in to strike out Bill Spiers with two out and the bases loaded in the seventh inning Saturday night, returned in the seventh inning Sunday to strike out Brad Ausmus with one out and the bases loaded--another key opportunity missed--Dierker was forced to lift Johnson for pinch-hitter Carl Everett, who popped up, ending the threat.

“If we tie it there, I leave Randy in,” Dierker said.

In what may have been his final start as the Astros’ hired gun considering that he’s eligible for free agency, Johnson pitched well enough to win (eight strikeouts, three hits and one earned run in six innings) but suffered his fifth straight postseason loss and his second of the series.

Leyritz’s homer was the only earned run he allowed. Greg Vaughn’s double that Alou lost in the twilight and an ensuing throwing error by third baseman Sean Berry gave the Padres a 2-1 lead in the sixth, creating a deficit that prompted Dierker to lift Johnson in the seventh.

Tony Gwynn’s double ignited the four-run eighth, when the left-handed Vander Wal and Joyner may have been happy not to see Wagner, a non-move of which Dierker said: “It looked like if we had a chance to tie it up, and I was going to have to hit for the pitcher again. Maybe I should have brought in [Wagner] sooner since we were facing elimination. Left-handers hit about .160 against Powell this year, but they hit him a little better than that tonight.”

Said Gwynn: “We’ve been pressing, trying to string hits together. I think Vander Wal’s double opened the door. I hope we can look back on it and say that was the hit that got the monkey off our back.”

The one certainty, Padre pitching coach Dave Stewart said, “is that the Astros have to take their caps off to us. We knew we had work to do and we did it. We pitched to their weaknesses without aborting our strengths. I can’t ask them to do anything more--except to do it again against Atlanta.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Playoffs

AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

NEW YORK vs. CLEVELAND

All Games on Channel 4

Tuesday: at New York, 5 p.m.

Wednesday: at New York, 1 p.m.

Friday: at Cleveland, 5 p.m.

Saturday: at Cleveland, 4 p.m.

Sunday: at Cleveland, 1 p.m.*

Oct. 13: at New York, 5 p.m.*

Oct. 14: at New York, 5 p.m.*