Padres Fall to Giants : Early Offense Wasted as 3-Run Lead Evaporates

SAN DIEGO — Good things were happening.

For just the second time this season, four Padre runners had scored by the end of the second inning. Extra-base hits were being collected by the Padres like so many baseball cards.

Then came the Giant seventh.

Greg Harris was on the mound and the Padres were sailing with a three-run lead. Four runs and five hits later, the Padres were reeling.

The Giants added another run in the eighth and got away with an 8-7 victory in front of 21,721 in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

As has happened so often this season, the Padres dropped this one by getting no relief. No middle relief.

Rasmussen, who had allowed only two earned runs in his last 16 innings, departed in the fifth, having allowed three runs and six hits. Harris (3-3) closed out the fifth without trouble and battled through the sixth unscathed despite allowing two walks and a single.

Then came the Giant seventh.

Catcher Bill Bathe led off with a single. He scored two batters later when Robby Thompson tripled under the bench in the Padre bullpen in left field.

Harris then walked Will Clark, and Kevin Mitchell hit a towering fly to center, sending Thompson home.

Then came three consecutive singles. Pat Sheridan’s single to center put Clark at second with two out.

Up stepped Ernie Riles, a .280 hitter who sent a dying grounder into shallow center field. Alomar reached it, but dropped it when he went looked up and saw Clark rounding third. He picked it up and threw home, but Clark slid by Santiago’s tag. Santiago and McKeon were both unhappy with the call, but this was quickly turning into a night for lost chances.

The trouble still wasn’t over. Donell Nixon, batting for Goose Gossage, the winner, singled to center, scoring Sheridan. Riles took third and Nixon second on the throw home.

Uribe struck out to finish things, but the damage was deep: four runs, five hits, and the Padres were on their way to another loss.

“The kid generally does it,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said of Harris. “I have confidence in him. It just didn’t work out. We didn’t want to use (Mark) Davis until the eighth.”

The Padres had five extra-base hits, matching their high for the season. Garry Templeton went three for four with a double and a triple. Both Rasmussen and Shawn Abner doubled, Benito Santiago tripled.

Templeton, though, has the hot bat. Over the past five games, he’s 10 for 20 (.500). Over the past 15 games, he’s hitting .385 (22 for 57).

His eighth-inning triple scored Tony Gwynn to make it 8-7, but it wasn’t enough, because Steve Bedrosian came in to get Santiago and slam the door.

It took four batters in the first inning for the Padres to end the Giants’ 21-inning scoreless streak. Mike LaCoss, after 26 relief appearances, made his first start of the season and had trouble locating the plate. He threw eight consecutive balls to start the first, putting Abner on second base and Roberto Alomar on first.

Gwynn bunted them up a base, and Jack Clark followed by driving single into right field, scoring both Abner and Alomar.

An inning later, Templeton sliced a leadoff single to center and moved to second on Luis Salazar’s single to left. With one out, Rasmussen sent a twisting line drive into left field that froze Mitchell. By the time he recovered, all he could do was wave at the ball as it went over his head. He deflected it, chased it down and threw to cutoff man Uribe.

Templeton and Salazar, meanwhile, were dashing toward home. Templeton made it easily--Rasmussen’s first RBI of the year--but Salazar arrived at home approximately the same time the ball did. Trouble was, he didn’t touch home.

For some reason, Salazar didn’t slide. And with Kirt Manwaring standing in front of the plate, no way was he going to score standing up. He was tagged out easily.

Later, in the sixth, Santiago was caught easily at home when Salazar missed a suicide squeeze bunt attempt.

“We didn’t execute,” McKeon said. “Salazar didn’t slide, that’s a run. He missed a squeeze, that’s another run. Robby (Alomar) juggled the ball, and the guy scores from second on an infield hit. That’s three runs right there.”

Clark continued Rasmussen’s first-inning troubles by depositing a pitch over the right field fence with two out and none on in the first. Rasmussen has now given up 19 runs on 31 hits during his 15 first innings this season. His opponents have scored in the first on 12 occasions.

Padre Notes

One of baseball’s most amazing comeback stories continued Friday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium when former Padre Dave Dravecky threw batting practice to his Giant teammates. Dravecky, who underwent surgery Oct. 7 to remove a cancerous tumor from a muscle in his upper left (pitching) arm, is on his first trip of the season and plans to pitch batting practice every other day. “The doctor turned him over to us,” San Francisco Manager Roger Craig said. “We can do whatever we want with him.” Dravecky pitched batting practice on Wednesday for the first time since feeling fatigue in his shoulder after working batting practice one day in May. Friday, he threw only fastballs for about 16 minutes. “He’s throwing great,” Craig said. “Probably 80% of what he throws in a game.” Said Dravecky: “I felt pretty good, but tired.” Dravecky said he hopes to make it back this season. “I don’t know, though,” he said. “Nobody has ever gone through this. I’m very happy to at least be able to do this (throw batting practice) at this point in time. I want to come back, but I don’t want to have a negative effect on the field. I don’t want to jeopardize the team’s success. If it means not coming back until next year, I’ll have to wait. I’m dealing with today and letting tomorrow take care of itself.”

Catcher Benito Santiago passed out cigars and sported a new diamond earring in his left ear before Friday’s game. Santiago’s wife, Blanca, gave birth to the couple’s second child Thursday afternoon, a 21-inch, 10 1/2-pound boy named Benito Jr. “I promised my wife if our second baby was a boy, I’d wear start wearing the earring again,” Santiago said. “I used to wear one years ago.” Santiago was a late scratch in Wednesday’s lineup when Blanca went into labor. The couple also has a 3-year old daughter, Benny Beth. . . . Tim Flannery took early batting practice Friday for the second time since being put on the 15-day disabled list last week with a partially torn muscle in his forearm. “I’m well,” Flannery said. “It feels fine.” He is not eligible to return to the roster until Tuesday. . . . Andy Benes made his first appearance in two weeks for Wichita (double-A) and pitched without pain, but allowed seven hits and seven runs in 2 1/3 innings. Benes, who was on the seven-day disabled list with tendinitis in his right shoulder, threw 65 pitches.