Padres Discover Way to Defeat Philadelphia

SAN DIEGO — The ball was slicing down the right-field line. Tim Teufel and Benito Santiago were off from second and third with the crack of the bat. The batter started toward first.

“Drop in,” Scott Coolbaugh said to himself. “Drop in.”

It was as much prayer as plea.

As Coolbaugh rounded first, he saw first-base umpire Bruce Froemming point toward the stands.

Foul? No, Froemming was twisting like a pretzel as he tried to get out of the way of the awkward, lazy fly ball that was floating into shallow right field.

Fair. It landed either on the chalk or an inch inside of the chalk, depending on whom you asked. Or, it landed outside of the chalk, as Philadelphia Manager Jim Fregosi quickly tried to tell Froemming.

Drop in? Yes. Coolbaugh was standing on second, and Teufel and Santiago had scored. The Padres finally had taken the lead in an eventual 5-2 victory over the Phillies in front of 18,053 in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

And it was difficult to determine whether Coolbaugh’s double pumped more life into him or his team.

Coolbaugh, who was given the third base job to win shortly after he was recalled from triple-A Las Vegas in May, started just his second game in two weeks Sunday. His batting average was a miserable .215. He hadn’t had a hit in his past 16 at bats, his last coming July 3.

And there his name was in the starting lineup.

“Personally, I felt like it was a do-or-die situation for me,” said Coolbaugh, who got an opportunity when Manager Greg Riddoch decided to rest Bip Roberts. “I think everybody had confidence in me that I can play, but in my own mind, I had gotten to doubt it a little.”

Doubts creeping into an athlete’s mind are like termites finding a spot they like in a house.

It isn’t long until the rotting begins.

Which is what had been happening to the Padres, losers of 15 of their past 21 games going into Sunday. And through the first six innings, Sunday faded into Saturday, and then disappeared into Friday. Who could tell the difference in the three days? The Padres couldn’t hit and they couldn’t score.

They had been shut out three times in 10 games. From the third inning Friday until the seventh Sunday, they racked up 22 consecutive scoreless innings. They batted a lousy, combined .097 (six for 62) Friday and Saturday.

They were threatening to get swept by the Phillies at home for the first time since May, 1987.

Their summer could be better, in other words.

And by the time the seventh inning rolled around Sunday, they trailed, 2-0, thanks to Dave Hollins’ two-run homer in the fourth.

“We were saying, ‘Are we going to do this again?’ ” Tony Gwynn said.

But with Terry Mulholland (9-9) on the mound in the seventh, Benito Santiago singled Jerald Clark to second. Tim Teufel followed with a double to left, allowing Clark to score and Santiago to take third.

Then Coolbaugh doubled, making it 3-2.

“I thought it was going to be foul,” he said. “But it’s just one of those things. It snuck in.”

Coolbaugh’s locker is next to Gwynn’s and, with Gwynn in a slump of his own (three for 32 before an eighth-inning triple), the two have been talking.

“Scotty and I have been talking about what we’ve been doing wrong,” Gwynn said. “Basically what we’re doing, though, is talking about negatives.”

No matter, Coolbaugh said.

“It helps to talk to him because he has had so much success,” Coolbaugh said. “He tells you he’s doing the same things wrong that I’m doing, and it doesn’t make you feel alone in the world. It helped out. And today, it showed.”

Coolbaugh also doubled in the third, and struck out in the fifth.

The Padres scored two more in the eighth--Gwynn scored on Steve Searcy’s balk after the triple and Fred McGriff followed with his 18th home run. With Bruce Hurst (11-5) on the mound, Coolbaugh’s two RBIs to put the Padres ahead were all they needed.

Hurst went the distance for the fourth time this year, holding the Phillies to five hits--Hurst’s fewest allowed in a complete game this year. The 11 victories match Hurst’s total from last season.

“I made some decent pitches,” Hurst said. “The ball that Hollins hit was maybe as good a pitch as I made all day. It was a great piece of hitting . . .

“It was down and away. He went out and slapped it out of the ballpark.”

Otherwise, Hurst did exactly what the Padres needed. He kept the Phillie offense from cranking up.

Meanwhile, the four hits the Padres got in the seventh inning? They were the most in an inning by the Padres since they got four in the second inning July 5 at San Francisco.

And this was the 22nd time this season the Padres have come from behind to win a game. Five of their past seven victories have been comebacks.

Not that there was any pressure on Hurst or anything.

“You always want to pitch good when you lose a couple,” Hurst said. “Your idea is to put up as many zeroes as you can and see if you can win with one or two runs.”

Sunday, he needed three and got five.

Finally, the numbers added up right for the Padres.