Padres, Dodgers Proving Nothing : Their Offenses Sputter to a 2-2 Tie Through 12 Innings

Padres vs. the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. Not so long ago, the stars would come out at night for this series. Fans would debate Garvey vs. Guerrero at first, Nettles vs. Madlock at third, Williams vs. Lasorda in the dugout.

No more. It’s two weeks before the All-Star break, and instead of a glamorous showdown of No. 1 contender meeting the defending world champion on its home turf for the first time, it has turned into a barroom scrap of two teams staggering to stave off elimination. Tuesday night, they staggered into the 13th inning tied, 2-2.

And you can be assured that no one was debating the relative merits of Bip Roberts vs. Jeff Hamilton.

“Hell, who thought it’d turn out like this?” Padres Manager Jack McKeon said. And that was beforehand.

The game was a microcosm of why the the crowd of 37,385 was watching the two worst run-scoring offenses in the land.

There were 26 strikeouts, 15 by the Padre offense, through the first 11 1/2 innings of their 2-2 game.

There were two extra-base hits.

And, of course, there were the Padres, who stole this show of offensive ineptitude. After scoring two runs in the fifth on Roberto Alomar’s two-run single, the Padres’ next hit did not come until 17 batters later, when Luis Salazar doubled with two out in the 10th. That was only the second ball hit by the Padres that even went out of the infield during that stretch.

Really, there’s no need to look further than the first baseman of each team--Jack Clark of the Padres, Eddie Murray of the Dodgers--to find the roots of these teams’ offensive woes.

Clark, escaping the wrath of New York, and Murray, fleeing the impoverished land of the Orioles, were supposed to be resurrecting their baseball talents, remember? Clark was going to have an MVP-type season, the Padres told everyone, and if you didn’t believe them, you could watch ‘em all on TV in late October. The Dodgers had a sneaky suspicion the Padres might be right, so they rescued Murray from Baltimore and told the Padres that they’d have to get by them first.

Funny how this game works.

Clark, who entered the night hitting .213 with nine homers and 39 RBIs--oh yeah, and 85 strikeouts--struck out three more times and had two singles and a walk, which led to Flannery’s run-scoring single.

Murray, hitting .236 with seven homers and 41 RBIs coming in, went one for six with three strikeouts and a broken-bat double.

Who would have imagined that a fellow by the name of Mickey Tettleton would have four more homers than Clark and Murray combined?

“I don’t know what you call it, a slump or whatever,” Clark said, “but it’s like a nightmare that won’t go away. If we were in first place, maybe you could have a little more patience. You could tell the guys, ‘Thanks for holding me up, I’ll be there for you in the second half.’

“But this? This? I don’t know how to deal with it. Last year was my toughest year in baseball, but I could deal with it. This, I have no idea.

“I’m fighting myself every day. I don’t know whether my swing will come back now, or whether I’ll be totally screwed up for the year.

“I’ve got pride, lots of pride. But I have a real hard time finding it warranted for me to get a paycheck. I have a real hard time finding it warranted for me to be in the lineup.

“I keep thinking I’ll come around, hoping that I’m just around the corner. But to tell you the truth, I don’t even feel close. Sometimes, I feel like I don’t even know what I’m doing.”

His teammates must have had the same kind of feeling Tuesday, with just five of their outs reaching the outfield.

They were up to their usual tricks again, managing to hit just one ball out of the infield in the first three innings and blowing a scoring opportunity in the fourth when Garry Templeton flied out with two runners on.

Remember now, this production was coming off someone who had not pitched in a big-league game since the third game of the World Series on Oct. 18 and who had reconstructive surgery on his left elbow nine days later.

Understandably, the Dodgers’ John Tudor began to tire in the fifth, and the Padres finally took advantage. They opened the inning with consecutive singles by Mark Parent and Shawn Abner, moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt by Bruce Hurst and loaded the bases on Bip Roberts’ walk.

Roberto Alomar, the man who drew McKeon’s wrath Saturday night when he failed to cover first on a bunt and was threatened with an all-expenses trip to Las Vegas, appeared to pull another boner when he swung at the first pitch instead of waiting to see if Tudor could solve his control problems.

“People don’t realize it, but there’s a lot of luck in this game, too,” McKeon said.

Whatever, it paid off for Alomar as he slapped a single to right, scoring Parent and Abner. Ricky Horton relieved Tudor after he had thrown 69 pitches and promptly induced Tony Gwynn to ground into a double play, ending their offensive bonanza.

The Dodgers came right back in the fifth inning with three singles, and with one out, all that stood between a tie game was a single to the outfield by Mario Duncan, who was batting a cool .500 (seven for 14) with three RBIs as a pinch-hitter this season.

Hurst struck him out on three pitches.

Next up was Mario Duncan. Three pitches later, he hit a chopper to Clark, who bobbled the ball, but recovered in time to toss it to Hurst covering the bag.

Hurst, though, was unable to escape unscathed in the sixth and seventh innings when he gave up leadoff singles, each coming back to haunt him. Mickey Hatcher drove in Kirk Gibson for the first run in the sixth, and Alfredo Griffin tied the game in the seventh by driving in Jose Gonzales.

Hurst pitched a one-two-three eighth inning and foiled a Dodger rally in the ninth but was left with the only satisfaction of not being the losing pitcher.

Padre Notes

Padre Manager Jack McKeon benched catcher Benito Santiago for the second consecutive game Tuesday, starting Mark Parent instead. “Benny won’t like it,” McKeon said, “but that’s tough. It’s not a one-man team. He’s still going to catch his 125 games. He (Parent) caught a good game Sunday, the team played inspired, we won, so I’ll stay that way. Who knows, maybe I’ll start him again tomorrow, too?” . . . Parent, who has started consecutive games on just one other occasion this season (four in a row from May 6-May 10) simply shrugged his shoulders and said, “Hmm, Benny must be in the doghouse again.” . . . Santiago, who recognizes that Parent’s two-run homer Sunday surely must have had something to do with him being on the bench, said: “I’m getting used to it by now.” . . . McKeon and Cardinals Manager Whitey Herzog have been chosen by the National League as coaches in the 1989 All-Star game, joining Dodger Manager Tommy Lasorda and his staff. . . . The Gwynn brothers, Tony of the Padres and Chris of the Dodgers, exchanged the lineup cards at home. . . . The Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds are discussing a trade that would send pitcher Tim Leary to the Reds for outfielder Kal Daniels. Daniels is hitting .231 with one homer and six RBIs in 29 games after undergoing arthroscopic surgery this year; Leary is 6-5 with a 3.12 ERA. . . . Dodger General Manager Fred Claire has never made a trade with an NL West team, but Cook already has made three, sending Dennis Rasmussen to the Padres, Buddy Bell to Houston and Jeff Treadway to Atlanta. . . . Padre third baseman Bip Roberts failed for the first time in three starts, and just the fourth time in his past 12 starts, to lead off the game with a hit, grounding to shortstop. . . . Alfredo Griffin was in the Dodger lineup as the leadoff hitter for the first time since Sept. 26, 1988. . . . Dodger outfielder Mike Marshall, on the 21-day disabled list with lower back problems, took batting practice for the first time since May 31. He said that he expects to be playing again within a week. . . . The second game of the three-game series is scheduled at 7:35 tonight with Ed Whitson (9-5) and Mike Morgan (5-6) as the probable starters. Dennis Rasmussen (2-5) is scheduled Thursday against Fernando Valenzuela (4-5) who has won four consecutive starts after being winless for 51 weeks.