Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One: Gwynn on a Roll

SAN DIEGO —  Tony Gwynn, always the perfectionist, was talking about the at-bat that got away. Those are frequent occurrences in a game in which even the best hitters do well to succeed once in three tries.

But Gwynn answers to a different standard.

Forget about two earlier hits, including a third-inning double that scored Robby Alomar with the winning run in the Padres’ 2-1 victory over the New York Mets Thursday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Forget about the five-game streak in which he is 10 for 19, raising his average to .326, highest since May 7 (.328).

Forget about him leading the National League in hits (63), multi-hit games (21) and stolen bases (19), and his share of the league lead in triples (five).

Forget all of that, because Gwynn sounds as if he forgets it as soon as the game is over.

Ask him about his latest hot streak--how he has done so despite a thumb injured two weeks ago in St. Louis--and almost his first words concern a meaningless eighth-inning groundout to relief pitcher Roger McDowell.

“I know he is a sinkerball pitcher; he won’t throw a strike,” Gwynn said. “Yet I swing at (the first pitch) anyway. There is always that one at-bat a game that makes you feel like you have got a long way to go.”

Gwynn is right if he is talking about catching San Francisco’s Will Clark for the league batting lead. Clark is way out in front with a .361 average. And while his zero-for-four game against Montreal Thursday, combined with Gwynn’s two for four against the Mets, made up 12 points and moved Gwynn into third behind Cincinnati’s Barry Larkin (.327) and ahead of Atlanta’s Lonnie Smith (.324).

“I’m hitting the ball better, making better contact, but I don’t want to get too exited because it’s too early,” he said. “I am starting to do things I know I should be doing, like hitting the ball the other way, hitting it down the third-base line. That (double) was the first time all year I’ve done that. Usually when I do that, it is a good sign for me.”

The double came after Alomar singled to center in the third. Gwynn knocked starter Ron Darling’s pitch down the left-field line. The ball bounced against the edge of the seats just in front of the Padre bullpen and came to rest.

For a moment, Gwynn said, he thought it would be a ground-rule double, but when he saw left fielder Kevin McReynolds charge into the bullpen after the ball, he decided to go for a triple. McReynolds recovered quickly, cutting back around the corner of the stands, fielding the ball cleanly and throwing to third, where Gwynn was an easy out.

“When I got halfway to third, I realized how short a throw it was, and I knew I was going to be out,” Gwynn said. “All I can say is I am going to be aggressive. I’m not going to worry about mistakes I make when I’m being aggressive.”

The attitude has carried over into other facets of Gwynn’s base running. His first-inning steal gave him 19, one ahead of Vince Coleman of St. Louis. Gwynn, whose career-high is 56 in 1987, is on pace to steal 64 bases.

“I’ve always been a base-stealer that likes to have a lot of things in his favor before I went--the count, the guy hitting, the possible pitch,” Gwynn said. “This year I feel when I get a jump, I’ll go. If I get thrown out, I get thrown out.”