Padres Don’t Get Enough : Split With Giants Leaves Them 5 Out

SAN FRANCISCO â€”  In the cold, damp air Sunday evening, the Padres walked away from Candlestick Park with ambivalent feelings about the pennant race, the San Francisco Giants and especially themselves.

They knew they had made an impression on these Giants, winning two of three games in this series, including a split Sunday of their doubleheader, losing the first game, 5-3, and winning the second, 6-1.

They know that they are a superior team to the one that staggered along for the first four months of this season before going on a 21-6 spurt since Aug. 20.

They also know that they’re still in trouble, deep trouble. Just 12 games remain, and they still are five games behind the Giants, tied with the Houston Astros for second place.

“I think for the first time,� right fielder Tony Gwynn said, “it hit us.

“We can’t control our fate anymore. Before, we knew if we had won every game, our fate would have been in our own hands.

“We can’t say that anymore. As soon as we lost that first game (of the doubleheader), we needed help. And that hurts.

“You know, this never should have happened. We should have learned our lesson last year. We never should have been in this mess in the first place.

“But it’s happened again.�

The Padres wanted so badly to come into Candlestick for a three-game sweep. They so badly wanted to shut up their critics. They so badly wanted to prove to everyone in this town that they were wrong about them.

They were enraged when they read a column in a San Francisco paper that read, in part: “The San Diego Padres are a joke. After a miserable start last season, the Padres surged late in the season, causing many people to pick them this season. Again, they got off slowly, again they put on a big push late in the season. But as soon as they realize they’re in the race, they’ll collapse.�

They cut out the column and put it on the clubhouse wall and reacted angrily when told that a few Giants were saying, “the only way we can lose this thing is if we catch the plague.�

“Tell them the plague is in town,� Padre bullpen stopper Mark Davis said, “and we are it.�

The Padres wanted so badly to leap within three games of the Giants, putting so much pressure on the Giants that they would gag down the stretch.

“That’s why we wanted to win that first game so badly today,� Gwynn said, “because there would have been all kinds of pressure on them. And when you have pressure, you start making mistakes.�

Instead, the Padres blew their opportunity by losing the first game and allowing the Giants to be quite satisfied with their split and five-game cushion.

“We feel very good that we’re five games up instead of three,� Giant Manager Roger Craig said. “I think now, it’ll be tough for them. Anything can happen, but the schedule’s in our favor.

“They’re just running out of time.�

Giant outfielder Pat Sheridan, who drove in the winning run and made a game-saving catch in Game 1, said: “The way we feel now, it’s like we’re destined to win this thing. We’re more confident than we’ve been all season.

“The one game, more than any other, that made us feel that way was the Cincinnati game a couple of weeks ago (Sept. 4). It was the first game of a seven-game road trip. We were down 8-0, and we knew that the Padres had won. When we came back and won that one, we knew it was meant to be.

“We felt like the ’84 Tigers all over again, you know, when everything goes your way.

“The way we feel now, there’s no way we can lose this thing.�

The Padres easily won the second game when Bruce Hurst pitched a five-hit complete game; he has now allowed just seven hits in his past 18 innings. But it was after the opener that the Padres were kicking themselves for wasting first baseman Jack Clark’s dazzling power display.

Clark went four for four, hitting a home run, two doubles and a single. But unfortunately for the Padres, after Clark’s homer in the first, the bases were empty every time he came to the plate.

He did everything in his power to single-handedly beat the Giants--and later hit a bases-empty homer in the second game--but when starter Calvin Schiraldi left the opener after two innings with a strained right forearm, the Giants teed off on the Padre bullpen.

Mark Grant came out with a 2-0 lead in the third inning but quickly gave up three runs in three innings, including a home run by Kevin Mitchell. The Padres tied the game in the sixth on Benito Santiago’s sacrifice fly in the sixth, which could have been at least a double if not for Sheridan’s diving catch against the fence. But the Giants took the lead again in the bottom of the sixth, 4-3, on Sheridan’s run-scoring single off reliever Greg Harris.

And any hopes the Padres entertained of winning were dashed by Mitchell, who hit a solo homer in the seventh off reliever Pat Clements.

Ah, yes, Mitchell. The man who was born in San Diego, raised in San Diego and played baseball in San Diego.

Well, he plays for the Giants now, and without him and his 45 homers and 120 RBIs, the Padres and Astros would be battling for first instead of second.

Just how tense was Mitchell before this critical doubleheader?

Consider this: He was sleeping in the trainer’s room during the 1 hour 25-minute rain delay before the first pitch, skipping indoor batting practice completely.

“Man, I was just tired,� Mitchell said, shrugging sheepishly. “I just went in there, took my cuts, and hit them out.

“Now, we can just take care of our business and not worry about anyone else. It’s like we didn’t even lose today. They came in here talking sweep, and they couldn’t do it. There’s no way we’re going to let anyone sweep us.�

Indeed, not a single team has swept the Giants in any series, home or road, this season. They’ve played consistently well since June, which is why they’re going into the final two weeks with a comfortable lead.

“You could parallel us to the Blue Jays,� McKeon said, “that’s how good we’ve been playing. The only difference is that we’re chasing a team that’s been consistent for 4 1/2 months instead of the Orioles, who you knew would eventually fade.

“It’s frustrating, but what are you going to do. We just have to look for help, and hopefully, it’ll come.�

Padre Notes

Bip Roberts, Padre third baseman-outfielder, was given clearance by Dr. Cliff Colwell of the Padre medical staff to join the team today in Cincinnati. Roberts, just as suspected by the Padre doctors, had gastroenteritis. But Roberts is also diagnosed as having a muscle tear in his left rib cage. The reason for the scare, which led to Roberts’ hospitalization Friday night, was that he had a sudden shortness of breath while sitting in the dugout in the fifth inning. “That (gastroenteritis), coupled with the muscle tear in his rib cage,� Padre General Manager Tony Siegle said, “made the two of them into something that scared him very much, and Bip hyperventilated.� Roberts spent Friday night in San Francisco General Hospital, was released Saturday and underwent further testing Sunday at Scripps Clinic, which revealed a bacterium. “He just got very, very frightened,� Siegle said. “Thank God he’s OK.� . . . Calvin Schiraldi said he hurt his arm in the second inning when throwing a forkball on the second pitch to Pat Sheridan. He had his arm massaged in between innings, but when he warmed up before the third, he was unable to continue. “I knew something was wrong right away,� Schiraldi said, “but I thought it was a cramp or something. It didn’t feel too bad when I was throwing my fastball, but I couldn’t throw through with my slider. I thought it was best I came out. We had too much to gain for me to mess it up for us.� . . . The under card featured the batting race between Tony Gwynn and Will Clark. Gwynn went two for nine in the doubleheader while Clark went two for seven. They part company with Gwynn owning the lead, .339 to .338.