Padres More Than Ready to Take Care of Astros Again, 4-0

SAN DIEGO —  Late Saturday night, when the arguing had stopped and the uniform was on its way to the laundry room, Padre third baseman Randy Ready was asked about his speed.

“Average,” he said.

He paused.

“Make that, aggressive average.”

The Padres will take it, just as they took their second straight victory over the Houston Astros Saturday night, 4-0, on one Randy Ready wonderfully dirt-stained, sore-handed, controversial trip around the bases.

In front of an intimate 11,891 at chilly San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, the Padres flashed with good starting pitching and blow-them-away relief and another diving catch by that new second baseman named Roberto Alomar.

But they won on fortitude, in the person of Ready and his fourth-inning, self-made run that broke a scoreless tie and eventually the Astros’ will.

“We’ve had our faces rubbed in a lot of stuff. We’re just trying to get some of it back,” Manager Larry Bowa said after his team crept within three games of .500 (6-9). “We’re not thinking ‘I,’ we are thinking ‘team.’ And good things are happening.”

The best of those things occurred in last night’s fourth inning against Astro starter Danny Darwin, who had retired nine consecutive batters after allowing back-to-back first-inning singles by Tony Gwynn and Alomar (a bunt). At the same time, Padre starter Ed Whitson had also allowed just two hits, so the score was tied and the game was about 15 minutes old. Ready, hitting .222 and in a 1-for-11 slump, led off the fourth with a shot to left that bounded for the corner. Instead of slowing up and stopping at first, particularly since the left fielder is the Astros’ fastest man, Billy Hatcher, Ready turned and headed for second.

“A ball down the line like that, you’ve got to go for second,” Ready said. “You’ve got to think ‘two’ all the way because not a lot of guys are going to get that ball.”

Hatcher got it. He threw to second baseman Bill Doran. The ball arrived just as Ready did. Ready dove head-first into the base. Doran laid down the tag. Safe, according to umpire Gerry Davis.

While Doran argued loudly, Ready dusted himself off and shook his head, as if some plays are even hard for the guys who make them to believe.

“I knew I was safe,” Ready said later. “I got my hand right on the bag just underneath the tag. I know because my hand was hurting for a while. Smacked it right into the bag before he got me.”

One out later, Benito Santiago hit another shot to left. This one would only be a single, but Ready didn’t know that. He saw Sandy Alomar waving him home from third, so he turned the corner and just kept running.

The throw came in from Hatcher to catcher Alan Ashby. Ready slid. Ashby tagged. Safe, according to umpire Bruce Froemming. One-to-nothing, Padres.

This time Ashby argued, and Astro Manager Hal Lanier sprinted out of the dugout to join him. By that time, Ready was in the safety of the dugout.

He couldn’t have been part of the argument anyway. He never saw the play.

“I kept going around third because I was being waved around, and you’ve always got to think about running unless he holds you up,” Ready said. “I got down near home and saw Ashby set up and just tried to slide around him. I know I got home plate. And I didn’t feel the tag.”

Lanier and Ashby, who rarely argues, disagreed.

“Ready’s leg almost took Ashby’s mitt off,” Lanier complained. He later added, “I don’t know how somebody can go from second to home on a ball hit that hard.”

Said Ashby: “I had to grab my mitt afterward to keep it from falling off.”

Regardless, the Padres led, and Darwin was forced from the game for a pinch-hitter three innings later. Three Padre runs off reliever Larry Andersen in the eighth only served to cinch it.

“That play (at home) changed a lot of things,” Lanier said. “That play really hurt.”

Particularly since Whitson continued what he called, “the best start of my career,” by allowing just 4 hits in 6 shutout innings. He was forced out of the game in the seventh with a nagging nerve problem that caused numbness in his finger, but he said it was only a problem because he hasn’t pitched in a week.

“I’ll be fine, once we get back on a regular routine, without all of these rain-outs,” Whitson said.

Good thing for the Padres, because in his last two starts, Whitson has allowed 1 run on 8 hits in 13 innings. He is 2-0 with a 2.13 ERA. Last April, Whitson was 3-2 with a 4.94 ERA.

After Whitson departed in the seventh with a runner on second and one out, he was barely missed. Reliever Lance McCullers retired pinch-hitter Craig Reynolds on a 1-and-2, changeup-filled strikeout that made Reynolds look bad, and then after walking pinch-hitter Terry Puhl, retired Gerald Young on a fly out.

McCullers set them down 1-2-3 in the eighth before giving up the mound to Mark Davis in the ninth, who increased his scoreless innings string to 13 innings with a 1-2-3 ninth.

“Davis is unbelievable,” Pat Dobson, pitching coach, said.

“What a groove,” Bowa said. “He is throwing that curveball at will.”

The Padres, who have won eight consecutive games against the Astros here, were also helped by Roberto Alomar. Though he made his first big league error with a wild throw on a double play, he saved a run in the second with a diving stop of a Dennis Walling grounder nearly behind first base.

“I think he saved three runs tonight,” Bowa said.

“I saw that play,” Whitson said of Alomar’s diving stop, “and thought, ‘Please, hit the ball over to that side again.’ ”

Padre Notes

Injured first baseman John Kruk hit off a tee again Saturday, and his strained right shoulder was still in pain. Considering he hasn’t played since April 18, Kruk could be placed on the disabled list and return before the end of the current 12-game homestand, but Manager Larry Bowa said there are no plans for that yet. Bowa said he hopes Kruk can return by next Tuesday for the opening of the three-game series with St. Louis. “Right now that’s what we are looking at,” Bowa said. . . . A little digging by Padre administrative assistant Mil Chipp has revealed that not only did Jimmy Jones set the club record for pitchers Friday with five putouts, he also tied a National League record held by many men, and last equaled in 1978 by an Astro pitcher--Mark Lemongello. . . . The trip to triple-A Las Vegas has seemed to do Shane Mack good. The last man sent down this spring has rebounded with at least one hit in each of Las Vegas’ first 12 games for a .415 average (17 for 41) with 2 homers and 10 RBIs. Pitcher Greg Harris, another late-spring demotion, is trying to prove he should have stayed in the majors. He has a perfect 0.00 ERA in 12 innings at Vegas, with only 8 allowed hits. Just to top things off--if you can stand to hear this--another Alomar is making noise. Sandy Alomar Jr., Roberto’s older brother and the organization’s top catching prospect, is hitting .368 with a game-winning, ninth-inning homer Saturday afternoon at Edmonton. Pay attention, this may be the man who one day turns Benito Santiago into an outfielder.