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Posted: Tuesday July 06, 1999 02:58 PM

A Run for The Money  

A 14-game win streak puts the downtrodden Padres right back in the pennant race

By Stephen Cannella and Jeff Pearlman

Standing sentry in the lobby of the Padres' team hotel in Denver last weekend was a sign that read PLEASE RESPECT OUR GUESTS' WISHES. NO REQUESTS FOR AUTOGRAPHS. It was a polite touch, but the sign was probably superfluous: Few people would have recognized the San Diego players even if they had strolled through the lobby in uniform, clacking their spikes and dribbling tobacco juice on the tile floor. The lineup that manager Bruce Bochy trotted out for the first game of a four-game series against the Rockies last Friday included three players who started the year with less than a season's worth of major league games under their belt; only two players with All-Star Game appearances (one each); and just one player ranked among the National League top 10 in any offensive category, shortstop Damian Jackson, who was seventh in the National League with 20 stolen bases.

It's no coincidence that San Diego is 15-2 since Sanders came off the DL. Chuck Solomon

"There's some talent on this team," says rightfielder Tony Gwynn, whose march to 3,000 hits stalled at 2,982 on June 24 when he was placed on the disabled list for the second time this season (strained left calf). "It's just not talent your average fan knows about."

Three weeks ago it would have been easy to dismiss that statement as blind optimism from someone who has spent 18 years with the club. There's nothing like a huge winning streak, however, to bolster a man's credibility. On June 18, San Diego was 25-38 and mired in last place, 13 1/2 games behind the then National League West-leading Diamondbacks. Thanks to a franchise-record 14 straight wins -- a run that ended when the Rockies swept them in a doubleheader last Saturday -- the defending National League champion Padres were at .500 at week's end, just five games behind the first-place Giants and threatening to join a pennant race they were never supposed to be in.

"I wish I could pinpoint one thing, but it's not one guy or one aspect," says outfielder Reggie Sanders, when asked to explain the resurgence.

"Some things are unexplainable" is righthanded closer Trevor Hoffman's take. There's a mystical quality to the sudden awakening of a team that had been somnolent since Opening Day and that, despite its recent tear, still ranked next-to-last in the league in hitting (.260 through Sunday) and 13th in scoring (4.53 runs per game).

San Diego's run, fueled by solid pitching and defense and an aggressive and speedy offense, has made for a wildly uneven season. Before the streak the pitching staff had a 4.29 ERA; during the 14-0 run it had a sparkling 2.58 mark and held opponents to a .217 average. In their first 64 games the Padres batted .246 and scored 3.8 runs per game; while on the tear they hit .302 and averaged 7.1 runs.

If the improbable streak -- the longest in the National League since the Giants won 14 straight in 1965 -- reminded frenzied crowds at Qualcomm Stadium of the Padres' highly successful 1998 season, the players sparking it certainly did not. In an off-season payroll cutback that came after San Diego voters approved funding for a new ballpark, general manager Kevin Towers traded slugger Greg Vaughn and his 50 home runs to the Reds for Sanders and Jackson, and watched helplessly as three key players -- ace righthander Kevin Brown, third baseman Ken Caminiti and centerfielder Steve Finley -- went the free-agent route to the Dodgers, Astros and Diamondbacks, respectively. The defections appeared to leave the team with about as much chance of making a playoff push as spring invitee Garth Brooks had of developing into a 30-30 man. "I have to admit," says third base coach Tim Flannery, "there were times coming out of spring training that I'd look at this ball club and say, 'Jeez, this is going to be a long year.'"

The roster was gutted further by a rash of injuries. Catcher Carlos Hernandez tore his left Achilles tendon during the last week of spring training. Third baseman George Arias missed a month with a sprained right thumb. Catcher Jim Leyritz broke his left hand on June 23. Shortstop Chris Gomez drifted in and out of the lineup with a strained knee and went on the DL last month. First baseman Wally Joyner missed six weeks with a chip fracture in his left shoulder. Sanders (strained rib cage muscle) and the newly anointed staff ace, righthander Andy Ashby (lower back strain), each spent two weeks on the disabled list. Most prominently, Gwynn's injury had caused him to miss 34 games through Sunday. The scourge left Bochy with a lineup of Triple A call-ups and other unknown quantities who had no experience playing every day. "We had to have early workouts to work on bunt plays and fundamentals, like they do in the minors," says Flannery, "because a lot of the guys we had weren't with us in spring training."

In Jackson, Sanders, second baseman-leadoff hitter Quilvio Veras and outfielders Eric Owens and Ruben Rivera, the one offensive asset Bochy's team clearly possessed was speed on the base paths -- a weapon he lacked with last year's power-hitting club -- and from the start he encouraged his charges to run, run, run. "If these guys feel they can steal a base, I want them to take it," he says. The initial result: overaggressiveness, which led to mistakes and torpedoed the team's already-struggling offense. Says Flannery, "We actually had to hold these guys back a little bit because we were running like crazy."

Under the tutelage of first base coach Davey Lopes (who stole 557 bases in a 16-year big league career), the young horses became more effective. In an 8-7 victory over Colorado at Qualcomm on June 28, the 10th win of the streak, the Padres swiped a franchise-record nine bases, including five by Jackson. Their boldness on the base paths also helped force four Rockies errors. During their 14-0 run the Padres stole 25 bases in 32 attempts, a 78% success rate, and through Sunday they were fourth in the league with 82 steals.

Team speed aside, San Diego's turnaround might best be attributed to a couple of tongue-lashings administered by Bochy and Hoffman. After a 6-2 loss to Cincinnati on May 23 that closed a lackluster 2-4 home stand, Bochy had a team meeting and let loose with a rare tirade, calling the team's play "pathetic" and "embarrassing." Says Gwynn, "It would have been easy for him to say, 'We're a young team, there's no reason to rant and rave.' But he waited and waited, and when the time was right, he came in here and let us have it."

"I had some things I wanted to get off my chest, about preparation and staying focused every day for nine innings," says Bochy. "We were having too many mental lapses and making mistakes a major league team shouldn't make."

Three weeks later, with the offense still sputtering, Hoffman called a players-only meeting. "We needed to remind people that there are certain things you earn only by playing well," says the closer, who, after blowing three of his first 12 save opportunities, had nailed 11 in a row, including eight during the 14-game streak. "We were acting like we were 20 games up, and we weren't."

Soon after that, the Padres took off. Jackson, who was hitting .233, hit .317 over the next 17 games. Rivera, the 25-year-old outfielder whose five-tool talent may finally be blossoming, hit six homers and through Sunday had a career-high 14. He also played flawless defense and made a game-saving, ninth inning catch to rob Eric Karros of a homer in a 4-3 win over the Dodgers on June 29. Owens, a former football player at Ferrum (Va.) College, whom Gwynn calls "the poster boy for this turnaround," had a 17-game hitting streak after going 3 for 5 in Sunday's 11-0 win over the Rockies.

It's also no coincidence that San Diego's run started when Sanders returned from the DL on June 18. Since then he had hit .403 with five homers and 15 RBIs through Sunday and provided punch to a mostly powerless lineup. "Reggie Sanders ignites them," says Colorado manager Jim Leyland. "You used to be able to throw a ball by him once in a while, but you can't do that anymore. His swing is so much better and shorter."

Sanders will soon get more support. Gwynn should come off the DL this week, and Leyritz should be back soon as well. Still, to make a charge at a postseason berth, the club must prove that its winning streak was no fluke. The day after the Padres completed their sweep of the Dodgers last week, Gwynn said, "I sat in the training room shaking my head because there's not a guy out there who believes this is going on. We thought we'd be competitive, but nobody expected this. Nobody."

Chuck Knoblauch's Woes:  
Throwing the Ball with E's

Steve Sax's most vivid memory of hell dates back 16 years to a June evening in San Diego. He had been the Dodgers' star of the future -- a speedy second baseman who could hit for average and steal bases. But virtually overnight he went from All-Star-in-waiting to psychological train wreck. Sax would field a grounder effortlessly, then launch the ball over first baseman Steve Garvey's head. Or skip it past Garvey's mitt. Finally, after an errant toss against the Padres flew a couple of feet out of Garvey's reach, Sax had reached his nadir. At inning's end he jogged into the Dodgers' dugout, slammed his glove to the floor and buried his head in his hands. "That was it -- the final straw," Sax recalls. "At that moment I thought my career was over."

Minutes later Sax experienced an epiphany. "I got mad," he says. "I said, F--- it, I'm a major league second baseman, and I've thrown the ball to first thousands of times. I did it then, I can do it now." Sax, who went on to lead National League second basemen in fielding percentage in '89, pauses. "That's what Chuck Knoblauch needs to do. He just needs to say, 'F--- it.'"

In a scenario eerily similar to Sax's -- highly touted player, big-market club, crumbling self-confidence -- Knoblauch, the Yankees' leadoff hitter and '97 Gold Glove second baseman, is living in his own personal hell. Through 79 games this season, he has committed a team-high 15 errors, eight of which were throwaways that -- high, low or wide -- eluded first baseman Tino Martinez. Much like Sax, Knoblauch has turned the 4-3 into the E-4. In an 8-2 loss to the Tigers last week, Knoblauch first failed to complete a double play by rifling the ball into the dirt, then pulled Martinez off the bag with a wide launch. "It's very frustrating, as frustrating a thing as I've experienced," Knoblauch told SI last week. "But the worst thing I can do is talk about it. I'm not much into talking about things. The more you talk about a problem, the more it stays on your mind. I just want it to go away."

Although Knoblauch's mind-boggling affliction has drawn much media attention recently, this is not the first time his defense has been lacking, according to a high-ranking Yankees official. When New York general manager Brian Cashman traded four minor leaguers and $3 million to get Knoblauch from the Twins in February 1998, Cashman figured he was acquiring one of the American League's best all-around second basemen. Early on, however, Yankees coaches saw that seven years of playing on artificial turf at the Metrodome had made Knoblauch a defensive player with limited range and a tendency toward lapses in concentration. "Grass is a different game," says Yankees third base coach Willie Randolph, a former All-Star second baseman. "Balls behave a lot differently."

Perhaps more important, Knoblauch seemed -- and still seems -- overwhelmed by the scrutiny that comes with playing in New York. Unlike many of his teammates, he has not been at ease in the spotlight, especially of late, in the midst of a divorce and the struggle that his father, Ray, is enduring with Alzheimer's disease. "You could see Chuck shy away from [the attention] early on," says the Yankees official. "He was never comfortable here. That's affected the way he's played. From Day One he hasn't been the guy he was in Minnesota. He's a little too cautious. Sometimes he plays timid." According to manager Joe Torre, nothing is physically wrong with Knoblauch. During infield practice his throws are perfect. His form, for the most part, is fine. Not so after the game starts.

"You go through hitting slumps, you go through defensive slumps," Knoblauch says. "That's all this is." Maybe. But while Torre has repeatedly stood by his man, the team's top prospect, Double A shortstop Alfonso Soriano, was batting .298 for the Norwich Navigators at week's end. With Derek Jeter likely to be a fixture at short for years to come, Soriano could be converted into a second baseman -- one who throws straight.

"I believe Chuck will get through this, just like I did," says Sax. "But, to be honest, you never know. There are guys like me, then there are guys like Mark Wohlers who never get over the misery. I hope Chuck is like me."

Hideo Nomo's Comeback:  
Fast, Cheap, and in Control

The first time he saw righthander Hideo Nomo throw in person this year, Brewers manager Phil Garner wasn't blown away. Nomo's split-fingered fastball was slow and flat. His curveball hung like a pinata. "He wasn't impressive at all," recalls Garner. "He really gave us no reason to sign him." So why did Milwaukee give him a contract? "Well," says Garner, "he was an arm, and he was cheap."

So much for scouting. In baseball's most serendipitous first-half discovery, Nomo, the former Dodgers sensation who was traded to the Mets last year and then released by New York and by the Cubs earlier this season, has established himself as the Brewers' ace, going 6-1 with a 4.28 ERA through Sunday. This from a pitcher who seemed doomed to wind up back in Japan, with DO NOT RETURN stamped on his forehead. "A lot of auditions take place in bullpens, and bullpen pitching means nothing," says Garner. "Hideo Nomo in a game is a hell of a lot different than the Nomo I saw in the bullpen."

With the Mets in spring training, Nomo was throwing his fastball, clocked in the mid-90s in his Dodgers heyday, no better than 85; New York cut him loose. The Cubs signed him and sent him to Triple A Iowa, where he went 1-1 with a 3.71 ERA in three starts. At that point, however, Nomo refused to continue pitching in the minors, as general manager Ed Lynch had requested, and walked away from the Cubs' $1 million contract offer. After Nomo flopped in a one-day tryout with the Indians, the Brewers gave him an audition. Garner saw so-so stuff and a tired arm, but recognized the risk as minimal. (The Mets bought out Nomo's contract and the Brewers will pay him only $200,000 this season.) On May 9 against the Giants, after one minor league outing for the Brewers, Nomo got his first start for Milwaukee and allowed only one run in 6 1/3 innings. Although his fastball wasn't the Nomo specialty of old, he was clocked at 89 mph, fast enough to complement a suddenly rejuvenated curveball. Nomo lost his next start, a six-inning, two-run decision to the Marlins, but he hasn't lost since.

"I'd like to take credit," says Brewers pitching coach Bill Campbell. "But it's not as if we found a mistake and changed it. We've done nothing. The only thing I can figure is that he's gotten used to throwing a little less hard. There's a big difference between 94 mph and 89, but not if you locate your pitches. He's been doing that."

The Brewers are realistic. Nomo is 30 years old and has thrown a lot of innings. (He threw 140 or more pitches in 61 of his starts during his five-year Japanese League career.) He will probably never again throw especially hard. That said, on a team suffering from a 5.19 ERA (third worst in the league), he has been the perfect balm. "I don't think anyone knows how much he has in his arm," says Campbell. "I guess there's a chance it won't last. But there's also a chance he's on his way back to the old Hideo Nomo -- but this time in Milwaukee."

Has there ever been a pitcher who threw as well as the Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson did in his last three starts and lost all three games? Over that span Johnson pitched three complete games, tied the major league three-game strikeout record (43) set by the Mets' Dwight Gooden in 1984 and allowed only four runs. He also received a combined three hits and no runs in offensive support from a team that averages 5.6 runs a game, second best in the National League.

Johnson's hard-luck stretch began on June 25, when Cardinals rookie Jose Jimenez no-hit Arizona. In that game Johnson struck out 14 and allowed five hits but lost 1-0. In the Big Unit's next start, against the Reds, journeyman Ron Villone shut out the Diamondbacks 2-0 on one hit; Johnson fanned 17 and gave up seven hits. Then, on Monday, Jimenez again victimized Arizona, throwing a two-hit shutout in a 1-0 win. Johnson permitted four hits while racking up 12 K's.

Said the Big Unit, moments before storming away from the press following Monday's defeat, "There's no satisfaction in getting strikeouts. That's all I have to say."

Slumped in front of his locker in the Cubs' clubhouse, Gary Gaetti looks as old as he seems to be feeling. His hair, once thick and brown, is now thinning. Mini folds of flab spill from his sides. Mostly, it is Gaetti's expression of late -- the resigned grimace of a man past his prime, of a man ready to call it a career.

Although he has yet to make up his mind, Gaetti, 40, is increasingly disenchanted with his role on the Cubs. The two-time All-Star, who hit 19 home runs last year, is more and more often stuck on the bench, watching the platoon of Manny Alexander and Tyler Houston eat up much of the playing time at third base. In 162 at bats, Gaetti is hitting .185 with six homers and 24 RBIs. "There are a lot of things in baseball I enjoy," he says. "But the struggles make it less enjoyable. I'm used to being productive. When I'm not, it hurts. Retirement has been crossing my mind. Maybe it's time to think about it."

Gaetti needs 43 home runs to reach 400 but says that milestone is out of reach. His bat, admittedly, has slowed. Last Thursday, in a 19-12 loss to Milwaukee, manager Jim Riggleman had Gaetti warming up in the bullpen, and then used him two days later to mop up the final inning of a 21-8 hammering by the Phillies. It seems as if Riggleman has little other practical use for the vet these days. "I told him, 'Just let me know what you decide,'" Riggleman says. "It's a huge decision." Gaetti goes back and forth -- stick it out or hang 'em up. "What I'd really like is at least one more hot streak," he says. "Just to enjoy it again." As the clock ticks away, that seems more and more unlikely.

The horrific ankle fracture suffered by the Pirates' Jason Kendall on Sunday probably means that John Wathan 's record for stolen bases by a catcher (36 for the Royals in 1982) will stand for at least another year. Kendall had 22 steals when he injured his right ankle stepping on first base, and it appears he'll miss the rest of the season....

Since going on the DL with a damaged tendon in his left hand on May 12, Pirates shortstop Pat Meares has served as the color commentator on a couple of the club's radio broadcasts, spent an afternoon sunbathing in the upper deck in Philadelphia and, recently participated in the between-innings Sausage Race at Milwaukee's County Stadium. Masquerading as a bratwurst, he defeated a hot dog, an Italian sausage and a kielbasa....

Five of the 11 members of the Giants' All-1980s team were unable to attend a ceremony in their honor on June 27 at 3-Com Park. Will Clark , Chili Davis and Matt Williams were playing for other teams, Jose Uribe is afraid to fly and Kevin Mitchell could not be found....

If Cardinals rightfielder Eric Davis is required to have surgery on his damaged left shoulder, rookie pitcher Jose Jimenez should serve as nurse. Davis believes the two diving catches he made to save Jimenez's June 25 no-hitter "took [the pain] over the edge. But I would do it all over." ...

After giving up six runs in one third of an inning against the Brewers on June 19, Reds pitcher Ron Villone won his next three starts, allowing only eight hits and two runs in 22 innings.

Issue date: July 12, 1999

 

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