Braves Give Show Break He Needs; Padres Win, 4-1

SAN DIEGO — Eric Show was beginning to wonder when he would get a break.

Show pitched well throughout the month of July but was rewarded with only one victory in five starts. His record dropped to 7-10, even though he had the second-best earned run average among the Padres’ five starters--a creditable 3.62.

But help finally arrived for him Tuesday night. He was matched against his favorite patsies, the woebegone Atlanta Braves, and turned his sudden stroke of fortune into a 4-1 victory in front of 11,298 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Show pitched his career-high sixth complete game of the season, holding the Braves to six hits and running their latest losing streak to eight games. He got off to his usual bad start, yielding the Braves’ only run in the first inning, but put his game together quickly and got better as he went along.

With the victory, Show ran his lifetime record against the Braves to 13-3, including 2-1 this season, and trimmed his ERA to 3.46. His next-best record is 12-6 against the San Francisco Giants, which shows that he doesn’t just pick on the weaklings of the National League.

Even last year, when Show’s record of 8-16 was the worst of his career, he beat the Braves three times--a career high--in four decisions.

As bad as the Braves are, though, Show said he considered them anything but a series of easy outs. He pointed out that their lineup includes Gerald Perry, the league’s leading hitter, and Dale Murphy, a two-time most valuable player who has hit 329 home runs.

“I’m just glad I kept the ball out of their power zones tonight,” Show said. “Fortunately, I made good pitches to Dale (who hit four consecutive ground balls). He’s capable of hitting the ball 9 miles every time up.”

Show’s teammates quickly gave him the two runs he needed against rookie John Smoltz, scoring one each in the first and third innings. They added home runs by Stan Jefferson off Smoltz in the sixth and John Kruk off Paul Assenmacher in the seventh, and the one by Jefferson will be talked about for a long time.

If third base umpire Randy Marsh had agreed with just about everybody else in the ballpark, Jefferson would have had only a double instead of a home run.

Jefferson hit a looping fly that appeared to land squarely on the left-field foul line. At least chalk went flying as the ball landed, and that gave most witnesses the impression that it was fair. But Marsh called it foul, and the booing that greeted his decision would have done justice to a full house.

Undaunted, Jefferson returned to the plate and hit Smoltz’s next pitch over the right-field wall for his first home run as a Padre since last Oct. 3. The crowd reacted as though the Padres had won the pennant.

Jefferson, who now has played seven games in center field since being recalled from Las Vegas, had no opinion on Marsh’s cry of “foul.” This was understandable, since he was running at the time.

‘ “I didn’t have any idea where the ball went,” Jefferson said. “I just wanted to get to second before (Dion) James could make a play. On the home run, I hit a fastball inside. Matter of fact, that was the same pitch I hit on the foul ball. I just reacted a little differently.”

Padre Manager Jack McKeon said, “I’ll take the home run any time. I didn’t argue because I knew the next pitch was going out of the park.”

McKeon added that Marsh told third base coach Sandy Alomar that the ball hit chalk dust outside the line.

The Padres had 11 baserunners against Smoltz in the first four innings, yet managed just two runs.

The Braves, meanwhile, cashed in on their only chance, picking up a run in the first on Ron Gant’s double, Ken Oberkfell’s infield out and Perry’s sacrifice fly. In contrast with the Padres, they didn’t leave a man on base in the first five innings.

After Marsh helped Jefferson’s would-be double balloon into the home run, Kruk made it 4-1 with his homer in the seventh. Show breezed through the last two innings without incident.

Ironically, Kruk started only because Smoltz is a right-hander, and hit his home run off a lefty.

“It’s been a while since I’ve even seen one,” Kruk said.

Show was proudest of the fact that he went all the way.

“I think I’m in pretty good shape,” he said.

Padre Notes

John Kruk started at first base for the Padres for the first time since June 27, but Manager Jack McKeon said the move carried no particular significance. “I wanted to give Keith Moreland a night off and get as many left-handers in the lineup as possible,” McKeon said. Tim Flannery and Marvell Wynne were other left-handed hitters added to the batting order, Flannery replacing Randy Ready at third base and Wynne taking over Kruk’s usual duties in left. Kruk and Moreland had swapped positions after they started the season at first base and in left field. The change paid off in improved overall defense, and McKeon has no intention of going back to the original alignment.

Long before the start of Monday’s game, a 6-3 Padre victory over Atlanta, there was action in the Brave bullpen. During the Padres’ early batting practice, a skunk wandered out from behind the right-field fence and, when pursued by several Padre employees, backed into the bullpen corner and sprayed the walls and bench. The skunk was finally captured with a long pole and a fishing net by the visiting clubhouse aide, Bruce Wick, who was not sprayed. “But I feel sorry for the Braves’ relief pitchers,” Wick said. “They’re going to die.” It was the second time in a week that a skunk was discovered in the field area. But skunks are just one part of the wildlife to be found at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Workers have seen everything from wild cats to mice to a raccoon. Blame it on the nearby San Diego River, a short parking-lot stroll away. . . . Chris Brown missed his sixth game in a row Tuesday with a sore right hand, which was plunked by a fastball from Houston’s Dave Smith July 27. Brown, who always seems to be getting in the way of fastballs and is tied with Randy Ready for the team lead in hit-by-pitches with three, agrees that he often doesn’t use the “correct” way of avoiding a pitch--throwing your back foot out and ducking toward home plate. “But when you look to pull the ball like I do, and you step into it, and they are all throwing you inside anyway, it’s hard to get out of the way the ‘correct’ way,” Brown said.