Baffled Padres Don’t Have a Clue Against Cardinals’ Pitchers

SAN DIEGO —  Tony Gwynn, normally among the last to leave the Padre clubhouse each night, might have been the first Friday.

He wasted no time, showering, dressing, and grabbing the car keys, almost in one fluid motion.

He just had to leave, he explained, for if he remained a minute longer, there could be an ugly scene.

“Right now, I’m about at the point of a mini-snap,” he said. “I’m going to go home, and I might start breaking things.”

Gwynn started to walk out, stopped and yelled out to no one in particular, “Who invented this game, anyway?”

It was becoming quite apparent that it’s a game the Padres have difficulty excelling in after they were thoroughly dominated once again by the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-0.

The Padres have lost eight of their 10 games against the Cardinals this season by a combined score of 47-28, and are becoming known as the elixir to any pitcher’s problems.

You remember Jose DeLeon, the guy who has been troubled by a messy divorce and had not won since June 9, losing six consecutive decisions? Well, there he was in front of 19,241 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, throwing a three-hitter over seven innings before letting fellow pitcher Ken Dayley have a little fun, too.

The Padre offense consisted of three hits and two walks. The only leadoff hitter to get on base the entire game was Jack Clark in the seventh, when he walked. Chris James’ two-out infield single in the fourth was the Padres’ last hit of the game.

“This was a big boost for me,” said DeLeon (9-9). “I had lost my confidence. I was wondering when I would win again. It seems like forever since I won.

“But tonight was different. I felt real good. I felt like I could throw any pitch. Hopefully, this is the beginning for me.”

No one had the guts to tell DeLeon the bad news: The Cardinals don’t play the Padres again this season after Sunday.

The Padre offense, which scored 26 runs in two games against the Pittsburgh Pirates, are having a terrible time just finding a way to get a hit against the Cardinals, let alone a run. They have a grand total of eight hits and one run in 18 innings this series.

“We need a spark,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said. “Then we need a flame. And when we get those things, we need some guys to carry the kerosene and pour it on the flames.

“Maybe we can bring that Garcia guy back.”

Miguel Garcia is the Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher who surrendered nine hits and eight runs Tuesday against the Padres, and unless he’s traded, the Padres won’t have the benefit of seeing him again.

It’s hardly good news for the Padre pitching staff, with Dennis Rasmussen (4-7) the latest to suffer the consequences. He allowed nine hits and five runs in eight innings, but as he said afterwards, “One run was enough on this night.”

It was a game in which the Padres’ No. 3-9 hitters went one for 22 with six strikeouts, and despite everyone participating equally in the collapse, no one appears more frustrated than Gwynn.

He went zero for four, with his batting average dropping to .343, its lowest level since June 16. Gwynn is hitting .233 since the All-Star break. Most frustrating, he said, is that there’s no relief in sight.

In fact, long before the opening pitch Friday, he had a feeling just what kind of night this would be. After swinging a bat with two weighted donuts during batting practice, Gwynn was ready to step in the cage. He knocked the bat against the ground, and one of the weights dropped to the ground. He slammed it again against the ground, but the other weight refused to drop. And again. And again.

Gwynn, too mad to be embarrassed, stormed toward the dugout, getting out of view of the fans. He bounced the bat twice against the ground. Finally, the donut trickled off.

He stepped back into the batting cage, fouled off two pitches and hit a weak grounder with another, came back out and said, “If these fans weren’t around, I’d break this thing.”

Instead, he picked it up, and threw it against the wall near the dugout.

“I’ve got to do something,” Gwynn said. “I’m not hitting the ball worth a nickel. I’m getting so mad now where I can’t even talk. I’ve watched so much video, my eyes hurt, but what am I going to do?

“I’m just getting very, very tired of this, I can tell you that.”

Perhaps so are the fans who, with the exception of Jose Oquendo’s single in the first inning, which extended his hitting streak to 19 games--the longest in the major leagues this season--saw little drama in the first four innings.

The Cardinals failed to advance a runner past first base, and the Padres’ only threat ended meekly in the first.

Shortstop Garry Templeton hit a one-out double to the right-field corner, leaving Gwynn and cleanup hitter Jack Clark to drive him in. Well, Gwynn flied out to left, and Clark fouled out to catcher Tony Pena, and the Padres still were looking for their first run.

Rasmussen, meanwhile, was cruising along until the fifth. He had allowed only two harmless singles, retiring 10 of the past 11 batters he faced. He even struck out the side in the third inning.

But, alas, along came the fifth.

Terry Pendleton led off with a sharp single to center. Ozzie Smith followed with a single into left, advancing Pendleton to third. Milt Thompson drove them both home with a triple into the left-center gap and scored himself when Tony Pena slapped a single past the Padres’ drawn-in infield.

And just like that, the Cardinals had a 3-0 lead, and Rasmussen still hadn’t recorded an out.

He prevented further damage, though, when DeLeon sacrificed Pena to second, and got Willie McGee to fly out and Oquendo to ground out.

The way DeLeon was pitching, though, what did it matter?

“He was almost untouchable tonight,” Gwynn said. “He was messing around with a knuckleball. I swear, I’ve never seen him throw anything like that. It moved from side to side, back and forth, every which way.

“I knew if I didn’t swing at the first fastball I saw every time I was up, I was going to have trouble just putting the bat on the ball.

“That’s not the type of guy you want to face when you’re struggling.”

Of course, unless your name’s Miguel Garcia, the Padres aren’t exactly looking forward to seeing any pitcher.

Padre Notes

Padre pitcher Dave Leiper, who was forced to leave the game in the fifth inning Thursday with a rapid pulse beat, underwent a series of tests Friday morning at the Scripps Clinic. He was given the OK to pitch a round of batting practice and monitored again by electrodes attached to his body. “I’ll be OK,” Leiper said, “it was just a little scary, that’s all.” His fears are quite understandable considering he had a mild heart attack in the off-season that required hospitalization. “They say I have some kind of defect in my heart that messes up my system,” he said. “I couldn’t catch my breath yesterday, and then I started feeling faint. It happened the last two times I pitched. When they diagnosed the problem last time, they gave me medication to use. I started using it, but then I didn’t think I needed it anymore. I guess I was wrong.”

Cardinal outfielder Vince Coleman, who has stolen a major-league record 47 bases, could be stuck on that number for a while. He was benched for the second consecutive game, mired in a four-for-35 (.114 slump). . . . Miro Weinberger, 19, a sophomore at Yale University, is in the middle of his summer vacation in which he plans to visit every major league ballpark. Driving from his home in Woodstock, Vt., Weinberger opened his tour in Montreal and since has ventured to Toronto, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit, Wrigley Field in Chicago, Milwaukee, Comiskey Park in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Anaheim. He’ll stay in town for a couple of days, then be on the road again to Texas. “I got to talk to Vin Scully in Los Angeles, and it was a thrill talking to Bruce Hurst today, since I grew up watching him,” Weinberger said, “but I’ve got to say the biggest thrill of my trip was the girl I met in Napa Valley.”

Of the 11 grand slams in the National League this season, 10 have been by players in the National League West. Padre left fielder Chris James is the only player to hit one for an NL East team. He did it for the Phillies and since being traded has hit one for the Padres. . . . Padre catcher Benito Santiago said he has been invited to return to Japan for a week in November and be an instructor at a baseball clinic for a week. . . . The Padres’ 11-game home stand will continue with a 7:05 game tonight against the Cardinals. Greg Harris (3-4) and Ted Power (3-4) are the scheduled starters. Bruce Hurst (8-7) and Ken Hill (5-6) are the probables for Sunday’s series finale.