Padres Lose to Reds in 10, 5-4

SAN DIEGO —  Scenario of a season:

Down South --The Padres trail the Cincinnati Reds 4-0 in the bottom of the ninth Thursday afternoon. They’re lifeless. They’re done. Most fans think so, too, because they’re leaving. Steve Garvey’s sacrifice fly makes it 4-1, but there are two outs.

Wait. Graig Nettles doubles, and a run scores. Wait. Carmelo Martinez hits one to left center, and another run scores when the center fielder loses it in the sun. Wait. Kevin McReynolds singles to left, tying the game and prompting Manager Dick Williams to--oh my--shake McReynolds’ hand.

But the Padres still lose, 5-4, as rookie reliever Gene Walter yields a run in the top of the 10th and San Diego puts runners on first and second and then strands them.

Up North --The Dodgers, down a run and facing Bruce Sutter in the eighth inning, get a pinch-hit home run from, of all people, Terry Whitfield and win.

Consequently, the Padres head further south in the standings, where they trail the Dodgers by nine games with 48 to go.

Will things get any worse? Can they?

“It was a great comeback, but we’ve got to win that game there,” said Jerry Royster, the Padre resident scoreboard watcher. “When you’re eight games out and as good as they (the Dodgers) are playing, you’ve got to win that game there.”

Instead, the Reds, who also seem to think they’re in a pennant race, won the game here. They, too, remain nine games behind the Dodgers, but it’s all very disappointing to Red player-manager Pete Rose, who thought someone has to establish second place before even thinking about first place.

The series with the Padres, he said, would’ve been the time to do it.

The teams split four games. So nobody did it.

“What can I do about it?” Rose said. “But everything will take care of its self. The Dodgers are a good ballclub, but they’ll come back (to earth). It’ll be interesting before Oct. 1 comes.”

Nonetheless, it’s more interesting how the Padres lose games these days. On Thursday, under a lovely sun, Eddie Milner opened the game with a bloop single to center, which McReynolds couldn’t catch up too. The fans sitting under that lovely sun booed him.

After Rose, who went hitless for the day, flew out, Dave Parker hit his fourth home run of the season against the Padres.

And it was memorable. Starter Eric Show hung a slider, and Parker timed it deftly, the ball going 22 rows up in the right-field seats. It actually seemed to have a chance of hitting the right-field scoreboard, something that hadn’t ever been done. It reminded some of Robert Redford’s homer in “The Natural,” the one that hit the outfield lights.

The fans oooohed and ahhhhhed at Parker’s blast, and then sat for seven more innings before another run would cross the plate.

In the Red eighth, Ron Oester’s grounder to second was booted by Tim Flannery. After Cincinnati starter Andy McGaffigan bunted him to second, Eddie Milner tripled down the right-field line, hitting the chalk and scoring Oester. Rose walked and tried stealing second. No Padre was covering the bag. So catcher Terry Kennedy hesitated, and when he finally threw, Milner had come down and scored from third.

Then, the Padres’ ninth-inning rally. McGaffigan, who had been magnificent through eight innings, walked leadoff man Garry Templeton, who then took second on Tony Gwynn’s single. Reliever Ted Power entered, and it was he who yielded the two doubles and McReynolds’ single.

Naturally, McReynolds, who had been taken out of lineup recently with a heel injury and then left out when Miguel Dilone was brought up from the minors, was mobbed by reporters afterward. Tuesday, he had said Williams was benching him just to show who was boss. He also called Williams a “front-runner.”

Back in the lineup Wednesday, he was 0 for 3. But, on Thursday, he had three hits, and after that third one, Williams approached him in the dugout and shook his hand.

Was he surprised?

“I don’t know if I am or not,” McReynolds said. “I think it was a good gesture on his part. Maybe, it’s a step in the right direction as far as cleaning the air, or however you want to phrase it . . . .If he was trying to hold me out for that reason (to get him hitting again out of anger), maybe he could come and say something to me like he never did.

“I felt he should say something, and apparently he had a different view. But I don’t regret it (his front-runner statment). It was something I had to say, and I said it. I was willing to deal with the consequences. Hopefuly, it’s something that’ll be beneficial to the team down the stretch. Maybe, it’ll turn my season around, because if I can help myself, I can help the team do well.”

It should be known that McReynolds did use a lighter bat Thursday. It has a smaller barrel, and, when he swung it in the batting cage, teammates were saying how it sounded cracked.

“But he hit the home run in the playoffs (last year) with a cracked bat, so maybe he likes cracked bats,” Tony Gwynn said.

Walter gave up a cracked-bat infield single to Oester in the 10th, and after Oester was advanced to third, he scored on Tony Perez’ pinch-hit single off Roy Lee Jackson. In the bottom of the 10th, Templeton and Gwynn singled, but Garvey could not bunt them over to second and third. He grounded into a double play, and then Kennedy struck out to end it.

Scenario of a season.

Padre Notes With his three hits, Kevin McReynolds improved his batting average from .226 to .232. . . .In one more week, the Padres are expected to announce the status of reliever Goose Gossage, who underwent arthroscopic surgery Aug. 1. The other day, Gossage was throwing pitches to trainer Dick Dent in a hallway adjacent to the Padre clubhouse.