TONY DEJAK / Associated Press
My aching head! Greg Maddux mops his brow after giving up an RBI single to Franklin Gutierrez in the sixth inning, which stretched Cleveland's lead to 5-3. Gutierrez was a thorn in Maddux's side, having reached in the third on a rare error by the pitcher. |
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CLEVELAND – Greg Maddux hit a batter, a first this year. He threw a wild pitch, a first this year. He threw more than 100 pitches, only the second time he's done that in two years with the Padres.
He committed an error.
Swear.
Yeah, he did that, too. Threw wide to first after fielding a grounder.
There are many other pitchers, maybe even a C.C. Sabathia, who would take the kind of game Maddux threw in yesterday's 7-3 loss to the Cleveland Indians. As noted by manager Bud Black, Maddux came in with a decent ERA (3.33) and lowered it in a six-inning stint. But it decidedly was not a typical outing for the four-time Cy Young Award winner in his duel with Sabathia.
At the same time, the game did include what's becoming a too-typical occurrence for the Padres – the injury to another outfielder. With Brian Giles taking a day off to rest a sore shoulder and Scott Hairston sidelined by a hyperextended elbow – and celebrated call-up Chase Headley in street clothes, awaiting activation – the Padres lost the services of Paul McAnulty. He came off the field in the first inning with a lower-back strain, declared a “day-to-day” injury.
Also happening again was a painful outing by reliever Cla Meredith, pounded hard for the second time by the Indians, this time including Grady Sizemore's third homer in the three-game series that Cleveland won. Taking over a 5-3 game from Maddux in the seventh, Meredith gave up two runs, three hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning.
“I'm in a rut, still making some errors that are hurting us,” Meredith said. “My sinkers are up in the zone, pitches that are supposed to be down and getting me ground balls. I'm just missing my location. I can't have the ball up in the zone like that. I don't have that type of velocity to get away with it.”
Meredith took a deep breath.
“I've just hit a point where you have to step back and you have to be honest with yourself and you say, hey, something's happening here and it's not just bad luck,” Meredith said. “You can't be too proud to reach out for help. That's the point I've reached.”
Maddux has reached a point where every error he makes – and he's got two this year, raising his total to only 13 since the start of this millennium – is a shocker.
“Hitting a guy happens. Wild pitches happen. That's baseball, man,” said Maddux, possessor of 17 Gold Gloves. “But that kind of throw shouldn't happen. You can't give the other team extra chances.”
For the record, Maddux said he never had a grip on the baseball and would have double-pumped if Franklin Gutierrez wasn't beating such a fast path to first. Also for the record, while Gutierrez did spark a three-run rally by reaching base in the third inning, the Padres came back to make it an even game soon after.
But Maddux was matched against one of the game's true super-horses, and Sabathia left the Padres scratching and clawing once the Indians had regained the lead. He struck out 10 – the 14th time he has whiffed double-digits in his career – and faced one batter over the minimum between the tying hit and his departure after eight.
“The other pitcher's really good, too good a pitcher to give him extra outs,” Maddux said. “I like watching him pitch. Incredible stuff.”
Although Headley was on hand after his call-up from Triple-A Portland, the Padres chose not to activate him for a game in which even a green outfielder might have come in handy, as it turned out. Starting in right, McAnulty hurt himself when reaching for a Jamey Carroll double that zoomed over his head in the first inning.
A Maddux wild pitch put Carroll on third and set up a most peculiar play, or misplay. With one out and Ben Francisco on first, Ryan Garko hoisted a high fly to right field, where Edgar Gonzalez had taken McAnulty's place. Inexplicably, Francisco headed for second and even rounded the bag when the ball settled into Gonzalez's glove for the second out. Unaware that Francisco was a dead duck, Gonzalez aimed a throw home with the idea of getting Carroll at the plate or hitting the cutoff, brother Adrian Gonzalez, who snared the ball and touched first for the double play.
Adrian Gonzalez also was the intended recipient of Maddux's way-wide throw on Gutierrez's grounder, a misfire that prompted Maddux to appear ready to slam his glove into the ground, but he pulled back. Calming himself and the Cleveland threat, Maddux got two outs, but then he hit Carroll with a pitch and saw his next pitch lifted out of the park by Francisco for three runs.
“The home run doesn't bother me; he earned it,” Maddux said. “But the way the two guys before got on, that bothers me.”
The Padres picked away at Sabathia in the fourth, tying the score. Kevin Kouzmanoff singled, Tony Clark and Justin Huber hit back-to-back doubles, Khalil Greene had an infield single and Michael Barrett hit a sacrifice fly. Half an inning later, though, the Tribe was ahead for good on Gutierrez's RBI single.
From here, the Padres hit two of the more hallowed stops in baseball. They play the Chicago Cubs in today's Hall of Fame exhibition game, then begin a three-game series tomorrow at Yankee Stadium.
Chris Jenkins: (619) 293-1267; chris.jenkins@uniontrib.com
