Padres Blow 7-0 Lead, Lose to Cubs, 12-8 : Chicago’s Eight-Run Eighth Helps San Diego Go 0 for Wrigley Field

You lose 55 baseball games before July 8, and it affects you.

One day you find yourself with a big lead, so you slow down, tighten up on the wheel and never see the guy behind you until he runs you into the ditch.

After 2 1/2 innings Wednesday afternoon at Wrigley Field, the Padres led the Cubs, 7-0.

After nine, the Padres had lost, 12-8.

Afterward, they were asked if this was the summer’s worst fall.

Dumb question.

One month ago, they blew an 11-2 lead in Atlanta, losing, 13-12.

“You would think they would learn,” Padre Manager Larry Bowa said slowly. “I mean, after Atlanta, you’d think they would realize that the game is not over until there are 27 outs. . . . “

Wednesday, the Padres were able to get through 21 before the lead was in danger.

Entering the eighth inning, they led, 8-4. Reliever Mark Davis, having retired five straight, was strong.

Contrasted with Tuesday’s bench-clearing battle royal, the afternoon had been a cookout. Before the game, each team had officially been warned about brush-back pitches. Everyone had behaved marvelously.

Then it happened, as it can only happen at Wrigley Field, even with the wind blowing in . A runaway inning. An inning that hit for the cycle. An inning that took 20 minutes and consumed nearly half the Padres’ pitching staff.

An inning that made an unlikely slugging hero of Jim Sundberg, whose pinch-hit grand slam tied the game.

Only the Padres’ pride was hurt Wednesday.

In the eighth, the Cubs scored eight times on three singles, a double, a triple, a grand slam and three walks.

Observed Cub pitcher Steve Trout: “It goes along with the advice I give anyone pitching in this ballpark: Don’t.”

Said Bowa: “You can’t blame the ballpark for everything. We didn’t do the job.”

Thus the Padres leave this town having not done the job here once this season. They have lost all six games in Chicago. They have fallen to 3-6 on this trip and 8-32 against the National League East, having won only 4 of 24 games played in Eastern parks.

“Here, they’ve just killed us,” Bowa said.

The eighth started with Davis, who suddenly appeared to tire, allowing a leadoff single to left to Keith Moreland and a four-pitch walk to Jody Davis.

On came reliever Lance McCullers, whose inability to throw anything but the hard stuff eventually lost the game. He started off with the worst walk possible, to reserve Manny Trillo on a 3-and-2 pitch, to load the bases.

“McCullers’ fastball was good, but his slider was bad,” Trillo said. “He gets me at the full count, I say, he’s got to come in there, and he tried with a breaking pitch, but couldn’t.”

From the bench, Sundberg saw this. When he stepped up to pinch-hit for Brian Dayett, he was waiting. And not for long.

McCullers went back to the old, reliable fastball, and his first pitch went over the left-field wall for a pinch-hit grand slam.

If Sundberg was circling the bases tentatively, amid cheers from 31,278, it was because it was only his fourth homer this season. He has only 11 RBIs. Playing backup to Jody Davis, an All-Star catcher, Sundberg has appeared in just 30 games, fewest of any Cub position player who has been there all season.

“I had been watching McCullers struggle, and I knew he had to come to me,” Sundberg said. “It was a fastball, and even with the wind blowing in, I got enough of it to get it out.”

Three pitches later, Dave Martinez hit a grounder into the second-base gap that Tim Flannery caught but could not throw in time. Martinez was moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Paul Noce. Leon Durham was intentionally walked, and McCullers was replaced by Keith Comstock.

“Lance has been really inconsistent, and it’s hurt us a lot,” said Bowa of his second-year pitcher who has a 4.84 ERA, allowing 63 hits in 61 innings. In his current role as a set-up man for Goose Gossage, McCullers has not been giving Gossage a chance.

“He thinks he’s a power pitcher, and he’s not a power pitcher at all,” Bowa said. “I keep trying to tell him to use all his pitches--his fastball, changeup, slider. Lee Smith (of the Cubs) throws as hard as anybody, and he uses sliders.”

Pinch-hitter Bob Dernier greeted Comstock’s second pitch with a single into the gap in left-center, scoring Martinez with the game-winner.

One out later, Gossage took over, but his fifth pitch was hit by Moreland into another left-field gap, scoring Durham. By this time, Dernier had moved to third and scored when there was a cross-up between catcher Benito Santiago and Gossage, resulting in a passed ball that rolled to the backstop.

Jody Davis finished things off with an RBI triple past Tony Gwynn in right. If Carmelo Martinez had bobbled that grounder at first base any longer--he barely threw to Gossage in time to retire Trillo--they might still be playing.

“There are no leads in this park, period,” Padre Chris Brown repeated again and again. “No leads at all. In my mind, today was the final test.”

Brown had been one of the early Padre heroes with a two-run homer in the second, his first since being traded from the San Francisco Giants last weekend. Ed Whitson had been the early pitching star, working on three days’ rest to finish 5 innings and leaving with an 8-4 lead.

“I have no problems with Whit,” Bowa said. “It was what happened afterward. I just think some of our guys weren’t going out there on the mound with the intensity that they should.”