Red Bell Rings a Death Knell for Padres, 6-5

CINCINNATI — The bell tolls for the Padres, who in four days here never figured how to get Buddy Bell out.

Sadly--after Monday’s 6-5 loss to the Reds--some players finally conceded defeat. Can’t they come back? Can’t this be the Miracle in Mission?

Listen to Tony Gwynn: “What are we? Twelve games out? Realistically, we can hope for third place, second place. No, realistically, I’d say third place. I don’t think we’ll finish last, but realistically, I think Houston’s a little out of reach now.”

Monday’s game looked out of reach until the Padres went haywire in the ninth inning. Trailing pitcher John Denny, 6-0, Dane Iorg singled, Gwynn homered, Steve Garvey singled, Graig Nettles singled, Terry Kennedy doubled, Kevin McReynolds doubled and Jerry Royster walked and it all came down to pinch-hitter Garry Templeton with two outs.

The score was 6-5 with runners on first and second.

He struck out, the bat flying out of his hands on strike three--nearly decapitating half the players in the Padre dugout. Slowly, the team walked for the clubhouse, but Manager Steve Boros saw a bright side and said: “I’m glad we came back. There was life in the clubhouse, and it sure makes the plane ride home easier to take.”

At home, maybe the opposition won’t hit so many home runs. In this 12-game trip (San Diego went 4-8), enemy batters hit 21 homers, 16 in the last six days. In the Cincinnati series alone, the Reds hit 10 homers, and Bell hit half of them.

Monday, he did it again. Bo Diaz’s sixth-inning homer off Dave LaPoint (0-1) had put the Reds ahead, 3-0, and then reliever Gene Walter--who had undergone minor surgery Sunday for an ingrown nail on the middle finger of his left hand--faced Bell with two men on in the seventh.

He threw a slider right over the plate, and Bell put it up over the left-field fence--ultimately, the difference in the game.

Afterward, Walter’s fingernail was still puffy, brown and ugly. But he claimed there was no pain and that “it had nothing to do with what I did out there, I don’t think.”

Gwynn said: “Three runs right there, and we’re out of the game. You’ve got to concentrate (as a pitcher) in that situation. You really have to be careful with him. But he laid a fastball in there (really, a slider).”

By the way, Bell--along with Padre rookie John Kruk--was named Monday as National League co-Player of the Week. Bell went 8 for 23 (.348) last week with four homers and nine RBIs. Earlier, he wasn’t playing worth a nickel, so he said: “I worked a lot when I was having problems. . . . I just worked hard at it.”

Kruk, meanwhile, worked hard to walk from the shower room to his locker. In the ninth inning, he stepped in a hole near the plate on his way to first base and turned his ankle.

“Man, I had a blow out,” he said. “I stepped in Tony’s (Gwynn) hole. He digs in right in front of where I do and I stepped in there. I’ll get him.”

He also became the first player from Keyser, W.Va., to win player-of-the-week honors and also the first Padre this year to do so.

“A great honor,” he said, “but I’d like to trade it in for seven wins this week.”

LaPoint would have settled for just one win--on Monday. It was his first start as a Padre, and he was hoping to pitch like a maniac so Boros would have to put him in the rotation.

His first inning was maniacal, all right. The first batter--Kal Daniels--bounced a lazy grounder back to LaPoint, who went to field it but dropped it. Bell struck out, but then Dave Parker looped a ball to right that got blown at least 20 feet by the nasty wind and fell in between second baseman Tim Flannery and right fielder Gwynn. Next, Eric Davis chopped a slow roller toward third, too slow for Nettles to make a play.

Not one ball was hit hard, yet the bases were loaded with one out. LaPoint sighed and struck out Diaz. Tony Perez popped up, and LaPoint made a fist and ran off.

“I thought right when that happened, it’d be a lift for the team,” he said.

Instead, the Reds lifted off in the fifth when rookie Barry Larkin led off with a single to center.

“That’s the one ball I’d like to take back,” said LaPoint, who will now go back to the bullpen. “When he got on, I started worrying about the men on base.”

Ron Oester followed with a double to left-center, and Larkin--who ran the 270 feet from first to home in about 11 seconds--scoring easily. Larkin was just called up from Denver, and it only showed how much depth the Reds have in their farm system. Young players already here are Davis, Daniels, Eddie Milner, Kurt Stillwell and now Larkin. The future isn’t now, but it’s later. Anyway, Denny knocked in Oester to make it 2-0.

Denny’s 6-0 lead looked invincible as he took a three-hitter into the ninth.

“But we fell short, which is typical of our season,” Gwynn said.

Padre Notes Kevin McReynolds (jammed shoulder) again couldn’t start Monday and is doubtful for tonight’s game with Montreal. . . . Tony Gwynn had three more hits Monday, his average up to .336. He temporarily moves ahead of San Francisco’s Chris Brown (.334) in the race for the batting title. . . . John Kruk, who began the day at .356, went 0 for 4, his average down to .348.