Rodriguez is Looking for Work : Baseball: Padre reliever hasn’t been getting the call as often as he’d like.

SAN DIEGO — The walk into uncertainty is normally about 400-and-some-odd feet for Rich Rodriguez.

He takes this walk before every game. When the Padres are at home, the route is always the same.

He leaves the Padre dugout, scoots past home plate, makes a slight turn to his right toward left field, wanders past the visitors’ dugout, down the third-base line, past the photographers’ well and the field-level seats until he enters that open area deep in the left-field corner.

It is here, deep inside the Padre bullpen, in a place where emotions are tossed around like paper cups in the wind, that Rodriguez wonders whether tonight will be the night that he finally gets to pitch again.

He is frustrated. He has pitched only twice since May 31.

He is happy. The Padres are only 1 1/2 games out of first place in the NL West.

He is anxious. It was after Randy Myers helped blow the game on June 2 in Chicago that Manager Greg Riddoch said the Padres would use a bullpen by committee, rather than rely on Myers.

But during this spell, when the bullpen phone rings, it has rarely been for Rodriguez.

“It’s an adjustment that’s been very difficult so far,” Rodriguez said. “First of all, not being able to pitch (as frequently as) I have in the past two years is very difficult.

“And also, trying to be a contributor to the team’s success is tough. The last few years, when I’ve pitched in quite a few games, I’ve gotten used to that role.”

Rodriguez and Mike Maddux each worked in 64 games last season, which led the Padres. In 1990, while splitting time between the Padres and their triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas, Rodriguez appeared in 59 games. And in 1987, while with the Mets’ single-A farm team in Lynchburg, Va., he led the Carolina League with 69 appearances.

“When I was first brought up to the big leagues (in 1990), I felt like an everyday player because I pitched in so many games,” Rodriguez said. “Now, I feel like a starter.”

Still, Rodriguez, 29, is on a pace to pitch 58 times this season. It’s just that his pace has slowed considerably over the past couple of weeks.

After going six days without pitching, he was summoned Sunday, when he faced five batters in the fifth against Atlanta. Two days later, he worked 1 1/3 innings against Houston. Those are his only appearances in 11 days.

“Staying ready is the hardest part,” Rodriguez said. “Mentally, it’s a strain enough to stay ready during the season, let alone staying mentally ready when you’re not pitching.”

Rodriguez’s in-season mini-vacation is purely for situational reasons, say Riddoch and Mike Roarke, Padre pitching coach.

“Look at the complete games we’ve had during the past couple of weeks,” Riddoch said. The answer is two, both thrown by Bruce Hurst.

“Look at matchups,” Riddoch continued. “There are a variety of things that go into these decisions. Most times, it doesn’t have anything to do with whether a guy is going good or bad.”

Roarke added that the presence of a healthy Pat Clements--who worked in only 12 games last year--has contributed to the lack of work for Rodriguez.

“Sometimes that happens. It seems like a guy is not getting much work but, if you look it up, he’s been in a lot of games and it just doesn’t seem like a lot, you know?” Roarke said.

Rodriguez, who is 3-1 with a 1.88 ERA this season, spent the past two summers mainly as set-up man. Now, with Clements, his role has changed a bit.

“Now I find myself as a middle-long man,” he said. “It’s a hard adjustment. It’s a slower life in the pen now.

“Once we get past the sixth inning, you’re pretty much done.

“I like getting into the games and being a part of the action--it’s something I’ve grown accustomed to. All of a sudden they take it away from me, and I don’t even know how to act.”

He knows it is something to which he will adjust. After all, his problems could be much worse. An ERA of under 2.00 will keep him in the good graces of his employers.

He has become comfortable enough in the majors that he gave the go-ahead to start construction on a custom-built, 3,000-square-foot house in Knoxville, Tenn. Originally from El Monte, Rodriguez attended the University of Tennessee, and a Knoxville friend of his designed the house for Rodriguez, his wife Lisa, and their six-year-old daughter Danielle. It is scheduled to be finished in August.

“The cost of living is so much better out there,” Rodriguez said. “Life is simpler, the moral values are high, it’s a good place to raise a family.”

Rodriguez is also pleased that his major league career has put him in position to work with children. For the past three winters, he has taken a week and toured schools in East Los Angeles. Another friend of his is a community relations officer in Knoxville, and Rodriguez has him set up speaking engagements from first grade through the high schools.

He speaks on a variety of subjects--from stay-in-school lectures to dealing with peer pressure and problems kids have at home.

“The biggest plus to being a major league player is not only making a good living, but being able to be a positive force in the community with kids,” he said.

He knows it is a long season, and he knows he has done well so far in 1992 despite going through his own personal June gloom.

“I feel really good about myself so far this first half,” he said.

It’s just that, lately, he has been getting in more work before the games than during them. He arrives early, runs in the outfield, runs the Stairmaster, and throws in the bullpen. It keeps his heart in shape and his mind focused.

“The pregame intensity is not there,” he said. “During the games, it is. But as far as thinking about the game that day. . . . I could go three or four days without pitching and get pretty relaxed.

“It’s kind of a country club atmosphere. It seems like the days slow down and the nights slow down. You find yourself thinking about other things--your family, what’s on TV, things like that.

“When you get home at night, your blood isn’t pumping.”

So the nights are a little darker and the hours go by a little slower. But as long as the Padres continue to do well, Rodriguez says, he will assume the role and all will be fine.

He would just like those casual walks to and from the bullpen to turn into purposeful struts. Certainty is a whole lot easier to handle.