Padres’ Defense Falls Apart in 9-6 Loss to Cardinals

SAN DIEGO â€”  It was 15 minutes after the choke. And about 21 of the 25 San Diego Padres were clustered inside their training room, a place where ankles are taped, but, more important, a location where interviews can’t be taped. “Players only,â€� it says on a sign. So it’s a convenient place to hide, to sulk.

And as they sat there, sorry for themselves and their Thursday afternoon catastrophe, Jerry Royster, a utility infielder and psychologist, stood on a table. Around his neck was wrapped an ace bandage. The end of it was attached to the ceiling.

An effigy.

Exactly 15 minutes after the choke, Jerry Royster was choking himself.

“That was to keep everything in perspective, to keep us loose,� Royster said. “And I got quite a few laughs.�

And so, while the St. Louis Cardinals were cackling down the corridor, the Padres tried to cackle, too. Actually, what they had done Thursday was hilarious. Years from now, they’ll think back and agree.

They had led the Cardinals 6-0 after five innings, yet lost 9-6 after St. Louis scored five runs in the top of the ninth. They committed three errors that inning. They turned a routine single into three runs. They turned chants of “Gooooooose� into “booooooos.�

“To heck with it,� Royster said. “We can’t harp on it.�

But they will, of course.

After the choke, Dick Williams closed his press conference before it opened.

“I have no comment to make, gentlemen,� he said. “You saw it. You write it.�

Outfielder Al Bumbry, who had committed one of those ninth-inning errors, sat alone with his head down.

And he sat.

And sat.

Thirty minutes later, he took a shower. Alone.

Starter Eric Show, who said he should never have been taken out in the seventh inning, really should have been the winning pitcher. He had left with the score 6-1, but when Jack Clark homered off of Craig Lefferts, it was 6-4.

Still, as the ninth inning began, he still figured to get a win. Wasn’t Goose Gossage pitching? So Show was up in the trainer’s room icing his arm, listening to the game on the radio, thinking it’d be all right to have an 8-7 record.

“They tell me I had to see it to believe it,� Show said.

It started with a Steve Braun double down the first-base line. Gossage shook his head. Then, Vince Coleman, who had four hits and a steal, singled to right, scoring Braun. It was 6-5.

Willie McGee, who had robbed Graig Nettles of a home run earlier in the day, grounded out slowly to the shortstop, but Coleman took third. Then, Tommy Herr lined a ball to left field that should have been caught. But Carmelo Martinez, going back, back, back nonchalantly, dropped it on the warning track. Error No. 1.

So Coleman tied the game, and Herr stood on second.

Next, Clark walked, then pinch-hitter Mike Jorgensen struck out. With two outs, Terry Pendleton hit a routine single up the middle. As Herr scored to put the Cardinals ahead, Bumbry, replacing the benched Kevin McReynolds, threw the ball past shortstop Garry Templeton. Error No. 2 on Bumbry.

“I threw the ball in, and Tempy had the choice of coming in to catch it in the air or taking it on the hop,� Bumbry said. “He took it on the hop, and it didn’t come up. That’s all.�

But that wasn’t all.

The ball rolled into the infield. Clark was coming in to score. Gossage and Nettles grappled for the ball. Gossage got it. He whipped it to catcher Terry Kennedy.

Whooosh. Clark slid in safely, and the ball bounded into the Padre dugout. Error No. 3 on Kennedy. And where was Pendleton? He was midway between second and third. Suddenly, he was across the plate. In essence, it was a three-run homer.

“I’ll take it,� Pendleton said.

The Padres suddenly have lost five straight and are going backward. They trail the Dodgers by 3 1/2 games.

Gossage, who had last pitched five days ago, was still sitting in the trainer’s room 70 minutes after the game.

He cackled.

“It always gets darker before it gets lighter,� he said. “We’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel.�

Was he rusty?

“I felt great. No alibis. I threw it. They hit it.�

Just so it’s known, one minute after the game, Gossage went to the dugout and broke a bat. In the trainer’s room, there were crushed beer cans everywhere.

After all, it had been 6-0.

Truthfully, it had been. Nettles had hit his 11th homer of the season and third in two weeks in the second inning, making it 1-0. In the fourth, McGee robbed him of yet another homer, reaching over the right-center-field fence to catch it.

In the fifth inning, they scored five more runs, helped by, believe it or don’t, an Ozzie Smith error.

Templeton, who batted sixth in the order for the first time all year as Williams attempted to shake things up, had singled to left and was running on a 2-and-2 pitch to Martinez. Martinez swung, hitting a perfect double-play ball. But Smith ran to his left and the ball bounced over his glove. Tim Flannery singled, scoring Templeton, and Show’s bunt, which Pendleton allowed to roll, never reached foul territory. The bases were loaded.

Bumbry forced Martinez at the plate on a ground ball, but then Tony Gwynn popped to shallow left. Smith ran back and the ball bounced off his glove, although they ruled it a hit. Two runs in. Later, Kennedy had a two-run double.

The fans, bringing back so many memories, yelled “Ozzie . . . Ozzie.�

“I don’t worry about that,� Smith said. “You just concentrate and catch the next ball hit to you.�

This game had it all.

Padre Notes Pitcher Eric Show on himself: “Anybody that’s watched me pitch closely all year knows that this is the best I’ve pitched with the Padres. Despite the bad games I’ve had, I’ve been more consistent and am throwing better than any other year. The results are just out of my hands.� On why he shouldn’t have come out in the seventh inning Thursday: “I wasn’t tired at all . . . I don’t know why he (Manager Dick Williams) took me out. How many balls were hit hard today? Three maybe?� On his luck: “I’ve never been a real lucky pitcher. That’s just the way it goes for some people. I’m not crying about it because in the general scheme of things, I am lucky to be playing this game. But on the baseball field, I am not lucky. If anyone wants to challenge that, I’d ask them to watch my games this year.� . . . Willie McGee on his catch in right-center that robbed Graig Nettles of a homer: “With this wall here, you don’t have to worry about being aggressive because it’s soft.�