Moreland’s Hit Does the Job; Padres Finally Beat Cubs, 4-2

SAN DIEGO —  It hasn’t been the best of seasons for Keith Moreland, and 10 minutes after the first pitch Friday, it looked as if it wasn’t going to be the best of games.

Moreland and the Padres were facing the team that traded him here last winter, the Cubs. The team that had found an All-Star third baseman--Vance Law--to replace him. The team that had produced a bunch of giddy kids to make people forget about him.

The Cubs have been one of baseball’s hottest teams. Moreland has been one of the Padres’ coldest players.

Then 10 minutes into the game, with the Cubs’ Shawon Dunston on first, Rafael Palmeiro flies out to left fielder John Kruk, Dunston is caught standing on second base, and Kruk throws to first to complete the double play . . . and Moreland drops the ball. Dunston is safe. A run later scores because of it.

Nice start.

But as Moreland would later say, starts don’t mean anything.

Six innings later, Moreland hit a two-out, two-run single that would eventually give the Padres a 4-2 victory and actually make the unsmiling veteran smile.

Was he happy because it was the first Padre victory over the Cubs in six tries this year, Moreland’s first chance for a sip of revenge?

“Means nothing,” he said. “I want to beat these guys like I want to beat the Cardinals or Pirates.”

Perhaps he was happy because he wanted to show the Cubs what they lost, make them kick themselves or something?

“No vendetta here, nope,” he said. “I got a lot of friends over there. I wish them well.”

Then what?

“I’ve got three home runs at the All-Star break. I’ve had a garbage first half,” Moreland said. “I’ve not been swinging the bat like I’m capable. I’ve hit, what, .200 with men in scoring position?”

Actually it was .257 entering Friday, with a total of 25 runners driven home in 70 chances with runners in scoring position.

“You’ve got to move runners over, you’ve got to get guys in from third base, and all my career I’ve done that pretty well,” Moreland said. “But not this year.”

In front of a paid crowd of 19,071 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium Friday, he did all of those things.

After RBI singles by Marvell Wynne and Tony Gwynn gave the Padres and starter Dennis Rasmussen a 2-1 lead in the fifth, they mounted another threat with Gwynn’s two-out single in the seventh. Kruk followed with a double, moving Gwynn to third.

With first base open, the Cubs and just-entered reliever Calvin Schiraldi decided to pitch to Moreland instead of walking him to get to Chris Brown, who is struggling even more.

“I don’t blame them for pitching to me,” Moreland said, not needing to note that he had struck out in the fifth inning with runners on second and third to end another rally. “I would pitch to me.”

Three pitches later, the Cubs paid for it. Moreland poked the ball into left field to score Kruk and Gwynn, runs the Padres needed an inning later when Palmeiro tripled and Andre Dawson drove him home with a fly.

“This time I just hit the ball where they weren’t,” Moreland said. “I’ve got to keep coming to the park and working hard every day, and I’ve got to think I’ll come out of this. This is only the first half. They don’t count up stats until the end of the year.”

Gwynn, who has also had a tough first half, said Moreland was being too hard on himself.

“Man hasn’t had a lot of opportunities. We haven’t been getting on base much ahead of him,” Gwynn said. “Nobody expected him to hit a bunch of homers (Moreland had 27 last year but has averaged just 14 over his eight-year career). We thought he would drive in some runs, though, and he’ll do that as soon as two or three of us start getting on base ahead of him.”

Just the way it happened when the Padres took the lead in the fifth on what could easily have been mistaken as a mirage by a club ranked 11th in the league in hitting. In one five-batter stretch, the Padres put together four consecutive hits.

Benito Santiago started it with a one-out shot to left-field corner that bounced around the fence for a ground-rule double. After Rasmussen bunted him to second with two strikes, Wynne singled him home. Then Roberto Alomar doubled Wynne to third, and Gwynn singled Wynne home.

All of which was enough for Rasmussen, who hasn’t seemed to throw hard or really do anything since he arrived here from Cincinnati June 8 . . . except win. He scattered 10 hits among his two allowed runs. It was his third complete game in six starts since joining the club; during that time, he has gone 5-0 with a 2.89 ERA.

Rasmussen pitched just OK when things were calm but made up for it under fire.

Take the Cubs first, after Dunston was safe at first after Moreland’s mistake. Dawson then doubled Dunston to third, and Ryne Sandberg scored Dunston by singling to center, moving Dawson to third. Now Rasmussen was really in trouble.

But what happened? He pitched around Law, who was trying to bunt, and caught Dawson trying to sneak home on a suicide squeeze. He then struck out Law to end the inning only one run down.

Now take the Cubs’ sixth, when with one out Dawson singled to left, and Sandberg moved him to third with a single to right. Trouble? Not Rasmussen. He caught Sandberg leaning too far off first and picked him off via Moreland and shortstop Garry Templeton, who ran down and tagged the embarrassed Sandberg between the bases. Law then flied out to end the inning.

“One thing I’ve found here--everybody pitches relaxed,” Rasmussen said. “No matter who’s up, or who’s on base, or what the score is. You know you aren’t going to hear about a bad pitch or get yanked for a bad pitch. It’s easier to pitch that way.”

Padre Notes

A couple of last words about All-Star voting: Benito Santiago’s complaints aside, the real local voting enigma occurred in the outfield, where a certain familiar name finished 35th out of 36 candidates. The question is not why this guy would receive so few votes, but why he would receive so many. What in the world would induce 61,154 people to vote for triple-A center fielder Stanley Jefferson? . . . The last Padre to start in the game was Tony Gwynn in 1986. By not being selected this season, Gwynn is getting his first midseason break in five years. “I’m taking the family somewhere,” Gwynn said with a smile. Where? “I don’t know,” said Gwynn. “Anywhere.”

With the return of Goose Gossage to San Diego Friday, albeit as a Cub reliever, you may wonder how he has been doing. Not great. He just came off the 15-day disabled list, on which he was placed June 16 with a sore neck. In his seven outings before that, he allowed four runs on eight hits in 7 innings, and his earned-run average rose from 2.93 to 3.57. This was after he fouled up several early-season games and was dropped as the sole stopper. Overall, he has blown 5 of 14 save opportunities, including two in one series against the New York Mets just before he was placed on the disabled list. He has fallen so much that last Sunday in Los Angeles, the Cubs needed to get one out for a 2-1 win, and instead of Gossage, Cub Manager Don Zimmer went to another right-hander, Les Lancaster. In 23 innings, Gossage has allowed 25 hits with 21 strikeouts and seven walks. Opponents have the second-highest batting average against him of all Cub pitchers--.284. Nonetheless, Gossage still leads the Cubs with nine saves.

Rick Sutcliffe on the Cubs’ young talent: “I’ve never seen this much young talent come up at one time. The only reason you don’t hear about a rebuilding program around here is that we’re winning. Maddux (Greg, age 22), Moyer (Jamie, 25) and Lancaster (26) took their lumps last season, but now they’re good pitchers almost overnight. With all the good young position players we’ve got, I know good things are ahead.” Speaking of ages, the Cubs’ All-Star outfielder, Rafael Palmeiro, is 23; All-Star shortstop Shawon Dunston is 25, and future All-Star first baseman Mark Grace is 24. . . . Now for Zimmer: “One of the big reasons we’re winning is that there’s a new attitude on this club. I understand that last year it was every man for himself. Now these guys are playing together, and they stick together off the field, too. Recently there was a golf outing on an off-day, and 21 of the 24 guys showed up. To me, that means a lot.”