Bounces Go Benito’s Way as Streak Reaches 24

Look out. For 23 games, Padre catcher Benito Santiago has been plain good. Tuesday night, he started getting lucky.

“You know what that means,” Tony Gwynn said after Santiago collected two unusual hits to extend his streak to a National League rookie record 24 games in a 5-3 loss to Cincinnati.

Next stop, Gwynn’s club record of 25 straight.

“With nights like tonight, I think he could turn this thing into a continuing saga,” Gwynn said. “He could take it to the end of the season.

“Can you imagine what that would be like, leaving everyone hanging until next spring?”

It would probably be something like Tuesday, when Santiago left not one but two infielders hanging in collecting the 34th and 35th hits of the streak.

After striking out in the second inning against Red starter Dennis Rasmussen--the third time in the last eight games that Santiago has started with a whiff--he made contact in the fourth.

He hit a grounder down the third-base line that was going foul but then hit the third base bag, bouncing high and to the left of third baseman Buddy Bell.Bell lunged and grabbed it before it hit the ground, but then could only turn toward first base as Santiago crossed it. “Even if Bell tries a throw, he doesn’t throw him out,” Padre Manager Larry Bowa said.

“I thought it was foul,” Santiago said. “I don’t know what happened to it. It was crazy.”

In the eighth, Santiago hit a slow chopper to the left of second baseman Dave Concepcion, who lunged and barehanded it but could not get Santiago at first.

“It was something tonight, huh?” said Santiago, who during the streak is hitting .361 (35 for 97). Overall he’s hitting .299. “I got some breaks, but then, I’ll take some breaks. That happens when you’re seeing the ball so good.”

“Darn right he’ll take it,” said Gwynn, who in two weeks will undoubtedly win his second National League batting title with an average near his current .370 mark. “You’ve got to have breaks to have a streak like that.

“Now, the only thing that hasn’t happened on this streak is an official scorer getting involved. That’s next.”

For now, the 22-year-old sure-to-be Rookie of the Year will be burdened only with official record keepers.

In reaching 24 games, he passes four former NL rookies who, if not for hitting in 23 straight games, would never be mentioned in the same paragraph--Mike Vail (Mets, 1975), Richie Ashburn (Philadelphia, 1948), Alvin Dark (Boston, 1948) and Joseph Rapp (Philadelphia, 1921).

“I can’t think of the records,” said Santiago, who has been asked about this streak many times. “When I come to the plate, I can only concentrate on one thing.”

He will try to tie Gwynn today against Cincinnati right-hander Ted Power, and at the same time would tie Boston’s Wade Boggs for the second-longest streak in the majors this season.

Only Brewer Paul Molitor’s 39 is longer.

“I’m proud of my streak, but I know it’s going to be passed,” said Gwynn, who set it in 1983.

He smiled. “Of course, after I was stopped, I hit in 15 more.”

Padre Notes Tuesday night’s loss, the Padres’ second straight, came about when starter Mark Grant couldn’t hold a 2-0 lead, walking five batters in the fifth and sixth innings. He watched three of the free-passes score as the Reds collected all of their runs in those innings. . . . The Padres loaded the bases with none out in the ninth and the top of the order up against John Franco, but only Tony Gwynn’s sacrifice drove in a run. Stanley Jefferson lined out, dropping him into an 0-for-11 skid, and Randy Ready, who had earlier hit his eighth homer, flied out to left to end the game. . . . Besides Benito Santiago, the Padres’ best news Tuesday came from Andy Hawkins, who threw hard and well in his second appearance since coming off the disabled list Sept. 1 after suffering from tendinitis in right shoulder. He came on in the seventh and retired six of the seven batters he faced.