Parker Homer Beats Padres : Fourth Time Is Charm for Slugger After Three Strikeouts

SAN DIEGO — Thursday, Dave Parker was either striking out or hitting one out.

Fortunately for the Cincinnati Reds, the one he hit out broke an eighth-inning tie and lifted the Reds over the Padres, 3-2, at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Unfortunately for the Padres and losing pitcher Andy Hawkins, nobody cares about the three times Parker struck out.

Hawkins made Parker look pretty awkward on the three strikeouts, although Parker is one of the few players who can entertain a crowd by simply swinging and missing.

“After I got punched out the third time,” Parker said, “I said, ‘Pete (Rose, his manager), I’ve done forgot how to hit. Put somebody in there who can hit.’

“I tried quitting on him, and he just laughed at me. It turned out real well, though.”

The home run--on his fourth at-bat--came on a slider low and inside. When Parker stepped to the plate, he said to himself: “Lord, let me make contact.” And he did, as he golfed the low pitch to right field, a line drive that Padre outfielder Tony Gwynn thought he could catch.

But the ball kept rising and ended up about 350 feet from home plate.

Hawkins couldn’t believe it.

“Threw him my best pitch of the day,” said Hawkins (0-2).

The first two strikeouts came on fastballs, high and inside.

“Hardest I’ve seen him throw in a couple years,” Parker said.

The third strikeout came on a slider, low and inside. On the fourth at-bat, Hawkins got the count to 2-2 and figured he’d fool Parker with a breaking pitch.

“He had to be thinking fastball,” Hawkins said.

You know the rest.

Anyway, Manager Larry Bowa wasn’t too pleased about it all, because the Padres had had a chance to win three straight games for the first time this year. Hawkins gave him eight good innings, which is all Bowa was hoping for.

But the offense--which averages 2.6 runs per game--had to manufacture one of its runs, and the other came on a fourth-inning home run from Gwynn, who wishes everyone would stop considering him a power hitter.

“I don’t know why people keep making me into that (a home run hitter),” he said. “I’m not. I’m Punch and Judy (hitter).”

At the most important stage of the game, Red reliever Ron Robinson took the punch out of the Padres--namely, pinch-hitter John Kruk.

In the eighth, just after Parker’s home run, Steve Garvey had a pinch-single off starter Tom Browning. Marvell Wynne ran for Garvey, and second baseman Joey Cora then sacrificed, moving Wynne to second.

After Randy Ready popped out. Left-handed reliever Rob Murphy was brought in to face Gwynn, and he walked him on four pitches. Robinson, a right-hander, was brought in to face first baseman Carmelo Martinez, so Bowa had Kruk pinch-hit.

Robinson was throwing only fastballs, but he threw a 2-2 slow curve that caught Kruk off guard. He just stood there, watched it and took strike three--the biggest strike out of the day, bigger than Parker’s first three.

For the Padres, runs are very hard to come by these days. The third inning was a good example. Shortstop Garry Templeton hit a ball up the middle that eluded second baseman Ron Oester, and Templeton stretched it into a double when center fielder Tracy Jones didn’t hustle in to field the ball. Hawkins then sacrificed Templeton to third, and Cora subsequently sacrificed Templeton home on a suicide squeeze.

“It’s hard to win when you’re scoring just two runs,” Bowa said.

Meanwhile, Parker was having fun in the Cincinnati clubhouse. He said he never had struck out four times in one game, so he made sure he made contact in that last at-bat.

“But I wasn’t expecting a home run,” he said.

Speaking of his home runs, they’re pretty entertaining as well. Gwynn said Parker and San Francisco’s Jeffrey Leonard have the best home run trots in the league. Parker, on his trot, usually takes a wide turn before touching first base and then he’s moving his fingers up and down, as if he’s leading an orchestra.

“It’s almost like he’s dancing,” Gwynn said.

Padre Notes Manager Larry Bowa started Randy Ready in left field Thursday. Ready went 0 for 4. . . . Utility infielder Tim Flannery is 1 for 14 this year (.071), but he says he has hit most every ball hard. Thursday, for instance, he made the last out of the game on a line drive that went right at left fielder Kal Daniels. “I usually get a lot of luck,” Flannery said. . . . Right fielder Tony Gwynn--who’s batting .354--says he hasn’t swung the bat well since he was 5 for 5 against the Dodgers last Thursday. He said: “People always say ‘You’re hitting .340, why are you complaining?’ But I want to be consistent, and right now I’m not.”