Gossage Holds Off the Braves : Reliever Downplays Tying Sutter for 2nd on All-Time Save List

ATLANTA —  It should have been special; there should have been fireworks. But for Goose Gossage, it was the way it has always been.

Wednesday night, Gossage pitched 1 innings. He gave up no hits. He struck out two. He saved the Padres’ 7-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

He walked off the mound, shook a few hands and walked through the clubhouse into the room where they serve up the ice. A pack was wrapped on his right elbow with an Ace bandage, Another pack was on his right shoulder.

The save was the 286th of Gossage’s 15-year career. It tied him with Bruce Sutter for second on the all-time list. Now there is only Rollie Fingers, 55 saves away, at 341.

And so what? Gossage walked back into the clubhouse with a beer, sat in front of his locker with his hat off and his hair a wet and tangled mess, and with all this ice. He stared at his celebrating teammates, and if he smiled, he hid it well. For 753 big league games, he has hidden it well.

Fifty-five saves between Gossage and the informal title of best relief pitcher in baseball history, and Gossage stared.

“I didn’t know about this until a couple of days ago,” he said. “I was on the phone and my son Jeff (age 9) says, ‘Hey Mom, Dad can catch Sutter.’ I just laughed hard.

“He’s getting into it, and that’s cute. But I don’t look at it like it’s a big deal. I look at it like it’s my job . . . and either I do my job or I don’t. There’s no yesterday in this game. There’s no tomorrow. Only what happens now.”

Simple, direct, a man whose philosophy is directly predicated on how he earns his living. Just as it had been earlier Wednesday night in front of 10,942 in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

Gossage entered with two out in the eighth, and the Padres worried about blowing another Jimmy Jones-pitched lead. They had taken a 6-0 edge after six innings only to have the Braves score two off Jones in the bottom of the sixth, and another off Lance McCullers in this eighth.

There were runners on first and third. The batter was Ozzie Virgil Jr., who, despite a recent slump, was still a player with 21 homers.

Fastball, strike. Fastball, strike. Slider, ball outside. Fastball, foul. Slider, hard and dipping, strike three, Virgil flailing, end of rally and eventually game.

“I got him on a real good slider that Galen (Cisco, the pitching coach) has been working with me on,” Gossage said. “In this game, you have to have an open mind. You have to listen to everything you are told, some things you keep, some things you discard. But the key to the game is being an athlete you can coach.”

And an athlete you can watch. Padre Manager Larry Bowa was happy about his team’s fourth victory in the eighth game of a nine-game trip. He was happy to see his club have a huge inning--Stanley Jefferson’s three-run homer paced a five-run second--and make it count. He was happy to see Jones, who still lasted only until the sixth, allow just six hits and two runs and not blow up. He was pleased to see John Kruk hit yet another homer, his 14th and third in two days, to help clinch it in the seventh. But quietly, he was probably the happiest for Gossage, who picked up his eighth save, improving his earned-run average to 2.62.

“You know, here’s a guy who never looks at the standings,” Bowa said. “He just takes it game by game, just wanting to win each game. I hope our kids are watching this guy.”

According to Tony Gwynn, they are.

“Everybody here has learned from him,” said Gwynn, who, like everyone else this season, has watched Gossage do such things as give up a game-winning homer and walk in a game-winning run, and always come back to succeed in the next game. “He doesn’t care about the win-loss record. He doesn’t worry about individual things. He has not changed a bit since he’s been here.

“There comes a time when you have to sacrifice the individual things to help a club win. Some guys are doing it this year because of Goose.”

Gossage, 36, doesn’t like to talk about how much longer he can be doing it. If these were his younger, harder-throwing days, he could catch Fingers in two years, tops. Now, well, Gossage will not even openly wonder.

“I don’t think about Fingers; that’s for other people to worry about,” he said. “Everybody talks about me staying here two or three more years. When I started out in this game, it was, ‘I want to stay here as long as today .’ For me it was never getting here, it was staying here.

“That’s what I’ve been taught, and that’s how I feel now. I just want to play the game as long and and as hard as I can. If I do my job, the stats will be there.”

Padre Notes

Disabled pitcher Storm Davis will be sent to Class-A Reno or Double-A Wichita Saturday on a rehabilitation option in hopes of making one start and returning to the Padre rotation by the end of the upcoming home stand. Davis felt strong Wednesday after throwing on the sideline Tuesday evening. He has been out since June 29 with torn cartilage in the left rib-cage area. . . . Chris Brown played well Wednesday in his second start since missing 10 games with a sore left wrist. He was 2 for 4 with two singles and a run scored. This included two fly outs deep to center and right field. This was after going 0 for 5 Tuesday with three strikeouts. “Those two outs might have been home runs if my wrist had not been so sore,” Brown said Wednesday. “Tonight wasn’t like last night. I was seeing the ball good. My wrist still hurts, but I have to play through it.”