This Time, Thurmond Does It Right, Helps Padres Sink Braves, 4-1

SAN DIEGO —  The Padres won a game Sunday because the pitcher’s wife stopped rubbing his feet and switched sides with him in the bed, allowing him to get up on the right side.

They also won because the same pitcher had two hits, drove in all four runs and had perfect command of his slider. At least, his manager thought he had command of his slider. It turned out to be a sinker.

Somehow, in the midst of the confusion about what he was throwing, Mark Thurmond pitched a three-hitter as the Padres defeated the Atlanta Braves, 4-1, before a crowd of 20,472 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Thurmond made a case for baseball being a game of inches--both of his hits were just out of reach of Atlanta fielders. Beyond that point, however, there was no consensus on what really happened, or why, as the Padres gained a split of the four-game series.

Thurmond certainly has been no mystery to hitters in recent outings. He had lost his three previous decisions, including an appearance against Montreal in which he allowed six runs and didn’t get anyone out.

In his most recent start, against the Mets in New York last Tuesday, he pitched 4 innings, surrendering eight hits and three runs. He was not the pitcher of record in that game.

Padre Manager Steve Boros was concerned because Thurmond had apparently lost confidence in his slider and didn’t use it in New York.

“Without the slider, right-handed hitters will lean over the plate and just swing away,” Boros said. “His other weapons don’t work when he doesn’t have command of his slider. He needs to get it inside to set up his fastball and changeup away.

“I have to give a lot of credit to (pitching coach) Galen Cisco for working with Mark on the slider.”

Boros convinced a contingent of writers, but apparently Thurmond had fooled him as much, or more, as the Atlanta batters.

The first indication that something didn’t quite add up came when Cisco declined to accept any praise for coaching Thurmond’s slider back into prominence.

Cisco attributed Thurmond’s improvement to slowing down his motion, keeping the ball down and changing speeds.

“Mark had been trying to hump up and muscle it,” Cisco said, describing a negative effect he noticed after Thurmond pitched a one-hitter against St. Louis on April 30.

“But that’s not his style. He’s a control pitcher. He got out of the groove for a while, but his last outing in New York helped with his confidence.”

On that last point, Thurmond agreed. In fact, he devoted more attention to addressing the mental side of his work than his mechanics or selection of pitches.

“You go down the tubes if you don’t believe in yourself,” Thurmond said. “If you lose hope, you lose everything. This is my fourth year, and I’ve seen a lot of guys go through slumps. I’m getting back on track again.”

Thurmond isn’t superstitious, but he no longer permits his wife to rub his feet, as she did before the one-hitter against the Cardinals. That practice ceased when things went awry in five subsequent outings.

He isn’t superstitious, but he had his wife sleep on the left side of the bed Saturday night, reversing their normal positions.

Somehow, it all made his slider more effective, at least, from Boros’ vantage point.

“Actually, I didn’t throw many sliders,” Thurmond said. “I was throwing mostly sinkers and cut fastballs.

“I can’t really explain what happened today. The balls were going at our guys today. Maybe it was because it was June 8 and not some other day.”

Scientific, it wasn’t.

Thurmond probably was glad he didn’t have to face himself. He delivered two hits and four RBIs, raising his average to .300, and giving him six runs batted in for the year. The last Padre pitcher to get four RBIs in a game was Tim Lollar, who did it against Montreal on May 15, 1984.

Thurmond doubled in his first two runs in the second off Atlanta starter and loser Joe Johnson.

His slicing line drive to left-center field got past Dale Murphy and rolled to the wall, scoring Marvel Wynne and Garry Templeton.

“It was a hanging slider and I saw the spin on it pretty good,” Thurmond said. “I thought Dale was going to catch it, but it was just out of his reach and it crawled out to the fence.”

Thurmond got through the Atlanta lineup one time without permitting a hit.

The first hit and the first run came in the fourth inning when Rafael Ramirez pulled a 1-1 pitch into the left-field bleachers, his fourth homer of the year, making it 2-1.

“The pitch was high and inside; it wasn’t even a strike,” Thurmond said of his only mistake of the day.

He drove in two more runs in the sixth.

After Terry Kennedy singled with one out, John Kruk doubled to left, moving Kennedy to third. Templeton was walked intentionally, momentarily loading the bases.

When Thurmond failed to make contact on a squeeze attempt, Kruk was thrown out trying to take third, with Templeton advancing to second on the play.

Boros credited his counterpart, Atlanta Manager Chuck Tanner, with a daring move by calling for a pitchout on the attempted squeeze. “Not many managers would do that,” Boros said.

The dangerous Thurmond then delivered a ground single to center, with Kennedy and Templeton scoring.

“I hit a fastball through the hole and just found the right spot,” Thurmond said.

They always find the right spot on June 8 when you get up on the right side of the bed and your manager doesn’t have a clue what you’re throwing.

Padres Notes

First-base umpire Charlie Williams heard his first real cheer of the series when he called Atlanta’s Billy Sample out on a close play in the sixth inning. Earlier, a plane towing a banner that read “Impeach Ump Williams” had drawn applause. . . . The Padre Old-Timers defeated the Equitable Timers, 2-0, in a four-inning game. Dave Campbell, the familiar radio and television commentator for the Padres, was generously credited with a single in his lone at-bat. The official scorer later changed the ruling to an error on Campbell’s grounder to third. Kurt Bevacqua was called out of the stands in street clothes as a pinch-hitter. He reached base on an error. . . . Saturday night’s crowd of 54,732, the largest in Padre history, was followed by a Sunday gathering of 20,472.