 04/05/2002 11:23 pm ET
Tomko pitches well in Padres' loss
By Chris Shuttlesworth / MLB.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Brett Tomko left the Padres clubhouse as reporters were crushed around Alan Embree, the latest supporting actor in the unbelievable saga of Barry Bonds. On any other day, Tomko, two days shy of his 29th birthday, might have been the story, holding the Giants to a single run and retiring Bonds twice.
But one pitch from Embree (0-1) in the 10th inning erased the stout pitching that had come before, as Bonds smacked a game-winning, two-run homer to give the Giants a dramatic 3-1 victory and a 4-0 start to the season.
While Tomko, who was suffering from the flu, wasn't around to dissect his forgotten performance in his San Diego debut, his skipper certainly remembered how Tomko pitched -- and how he swung the bat, singling in the Padres' only run in the fourth.
"Tomko did a great job," said manager Bruce Bochy. "That's what you're looking for from your starter. We couldn't get some runs. Brett Tomko had quite a game -- knocked in the only run and pitched very well."
Acquired in December from Seattle along with Tom Lampkin and Ramon Vazquez for Alex Arias, Ben Davis and Wascar Serrano, Tomko was facing a National League club for the first time since October 1999, when he pitched for the Cincinnati Reds. That was also the year he made his first Opening Day start -- against San Francisco at Candlestick Park.
That time, he coughed up six runs on eight hits in only 3 2/3 innings. Friday, after putting up with a pregame Opening Day ceremony that ran 15 minutes past the scheduled start time, Tomko snuffed a Giants offense that entered the game having scored 24 runs in the first three games, with the lone dent being Reggie Sanders' leadoff homer in the second.
"Considering the way I felt the last couple of days, that was pretty good," Tomko said. "Once I got out there and started sweating, it wasn't so bad."
He did have a huge scare in the first when Bonds crushed a ball to the absolute deepest part of the ballpark. But Mark Kotsay made the catch with his back to the wall just to the left of the 421 mark in right-center.
"That first ball he hit, I couldn't believe that ball stayed in the ballpark," Bochy said. "Thank goodness it stayed in the biggest part of the park. He hit that real well, and the wind was blowing in, so we got a break there.
"I was shocked when Kotsay came down with it. The way he hit that ball, it had to be the biggest part of the park exactly. That's the only way it would've stayed in the park."
But although Tomko did his part, the Padres' bats did not. While the Friars could manage only one run, Bochy felt his squad performed better at the plate than during two shutout losses at the hands of Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling to start the season. Indeed, they threatened to break through in the first inning when two walks and a single loaded the bases for Sean Burroughs, who launched a rocket toward the left-field corner.
That was where Bonds committed his first heroic act of the day, chasing down the line drive and reaching out to make a running catch and end the inning.
"We just couldn't get something to fall there," Bochy said. "The first inning was huge -- bases loaded, Burroughs hit that ball well, and Bonds made a nice play on him. That was a good ballgame. We played hard; we swung the bats decent. We just didn't have a lot to show for it."
Said the 37-year-old Bonds of his catch: "Lucky, wasn't it? Me at my age, that's lucky. Had it all the way!"
A little less luck for Bonds, and Tomko might have been the story Friday. Instead, he's merely a note in the box score.
"I thought he did a great job," Bochy said. "That's a great effort by him. He gave us a chance to win."
JOINING THE LIST: Alan Embree was Barry Bonds' teammate for 2 1/2 years. Now he's just one of 343 pitchers who've allowed a long ball to the single-season home run king.
As Bonds looks less and less human as the days go by, pitchers seem to be less upset by becoming one of his victims. While Embree certainly didn't enjoy losing the game for his new team, he also wasn't hanging his head over what Bonds did.
"Obviously, you gotta be careful to Barry," Embree said. "It's easy to hit too much of the plate. He's going to hammer it. I felt comfortable with the pitch that I threw, and it caught too much of the plate and Barry got it.
"It shouldn't have been a strike. It should have been a more aggressive pitch than where it was."
Manager Bruce Bochy agreed, noting that there wasn't any thought of walking Bonds, not with Rich Aurilia already on first after getting hit by Steve Reed and with Reggie Sanders on deck.
"He got a good ball to hit there," Bochy said. "I'm sure that's not where Embree wanted to put that pitch. But still, he's just not missing anything. You make a mistake and he's not missing it."
WELCOME: Catcher Javier Cardona, called up to replace the injured Wiki Gonzalez, went 1-for-4 in his Padres debut. Acquired March 23 from the Tigers, the 26-year-old Cardona earned the thumbs-up from starting pitcher Brett Tomko, who didn't have his change-up working Friday.
"Javier Cardona did a great job of setting up hitters," Tomko said. "He called pitches up and down, in and out. That's what you have to do when you don't have one of your best pitches, when you're throwing only fastballs."
Gonzalez had the fractured left hook of hamate bone removed Thursday. The 27-year-old is expected to miss six to eight weeks.
Chris Shuttlesworth is an editorial producer for MLB.com and can be reached at sitecontent@giants.mlb.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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