Cora Gets a Lesson, Team a Loss : Padres Fall to Angels in an Exhibition, 8-3; Bowa Calls a Meeting

YUMA, Ariz. â€”  “Get Joey in here!â€� Padre Manager Larry Bowa said. “Get him in here!â€�

Joey Cora reluctantly entered Bowa’s Temple of Doom (the manager’s office) and was read the riot act. During Saturday’s 8-3 exhibition loss to the Angels, Cora missed a take sign. He swung away when he wasn’t supposed to and bounced into a double play.

Cora wasn’t the only one. Third baseman Kevin Mitchell swung away on a 3-and-0 pitch with the take sign on. He doubled off the center-field wall, but Bowa wasn’t appeased.

“During the season, that’ll cost him,� Bowa said, adding that he didn’t care “if he hit it over the wall. But that’s what spring training is for, I guess.�

To make sure it doesn’t happen again, Bowa has planned a team meeting for this morning.

“I’ll get my point across one way or another,� he said. “They might not like it, but I’ll get it across.�

Bowa will start Cora at second base in today’s exhibition game, anyway. Cora, 21, is trying to beat out Tim Flannery for the starting job, and Cora has been doing pretty well so far. He has two stolen bases.

“But he’s got to move runners,� Bowa said. “That’s got to be his game (Cora is only 5-feet 8-inches). If he doesn’t, he won’t play. I know he’s trying hard and all. He’s excited. But he’s always been a smart player, and that’s what impressed me about him. Now he’s made a couple mistakes. That’s not him.�

Cora, asked about his meeting with Bowa, conceded that he messed up. “I heard all about it and more. The coaches are pretty hard on me because they want me to do better.

“I haven’t been concentrating the last two days. . . . Maybe I’m trying too hard to make the team. I’m trying to do too much.�

Bowa says he will not tolerate mental mistakes. At Las Vegas last season, he fined his players about $50 for missed signs. He says he’ll do it again this season, but it will cost the big leaguers more. Last year, the fines totaled about $2,500, and the team had quite a party with the money at the end of the season.

“Now I’m giving guys the benefit of the doubt (on mental mistakes) because it’s only been two games,� he said. “But I won’t sit and watch this for long. . . . I don’t want guys to get settled in (with losing). You develop bad habits that way.�

Ballard Smith, Padre president, was sitting in the front row Saturday, and some fans began chanting: “Sign Tim Raines! Sign Tim Raines!�

“It’s going to be a long spring,� Smith said.

Later, Smith said that just because the Cubs signed Andre Dawson, a free-agent outfielder, doesn’t mean the rest of the free agents, such as Raines, will be signed, too.

“First of all, we don’t have interest in Raines,� Smith said. “It’s a closed door. People say Dawson’s signing might open the door and things will start happening, but I don’t know. That seems to suggest something (like collusion) is going on.

“Listen, we made offers to two free agents (Raines and Bob Horner) because we thought they could help us. What is everyone else doing? I don’t know. I haven’t talked to anyone. But I don’t think anything will open up. I don’t think one has anything to do with the other.�

The Cubs included incentive clauses in Dawson’s contract. He will get $150,000 if he stays off the disabled list through midseason, and he will get $50,000 if he makes the All-Star team.

Asked if he would give Raines some incentive clauses, Smith said, “Maybe if we start at $500,000 (as the Cubs did with Dawson), we can have some incentive clauses.

“But at $1.1 million (what the Padres offered Raines), I don’t think so. Quite frankly, guys making $1.1 million ought to make the All-Star team, in my mind. That’s almost a gimme. Or it should be a gimme.�

When Smith got up to leave, the fans started on him again. “Sign Tim Raines! Sign Tim Raines!�

Smith just smiled.

The Padres led, 3-2, before the Angels scored four runs off reliever Tom Gorman in the fifth inning. Gorman, a non-roster player invited to camp, pitched in eight games for Philadelphia last year and was 0-1 with a 7.71 ERA.

“When you don’t have an above-average fastball, you’ve got to pitch ahead,� Bowa said. Gorman constantly was falling behind hitters.

Shortstop Garry Templeton, right fielder Tony Gwynn and catcher Benito Santiago had one RBI apiece Saturday. Santiago’s was a line-drive double to left that bounced off the wall.

Reliever Goose Gossage pitched his first inning of the spring, and he set the Angels down in order. Usually, Gossage seems to forget it’s spring training and tries throwing 100 m.p.h. on every pitch, but he said he was able to hold back.

“Usually, you feel real strong, and I had to fight from doing too much,� Gossage said.

Padre Notes Storm Davis, the Padre starting pitcher Saturday, gave up two runs and three hits in three innings. . . . Outfielder Stan Jefferson, who has an injured hand, was used as a pinch-runner in Saturday’s “B� game, a 4-2 Padre victory, and he stole third on a head-first slide. He may be ready to play full-time Monday.