Santiago’s Streak Ties Club Record; Padres Win, 6-4

Yes, Padre catcher Benito Santiago got his hit Wednesday, for the 25th straight game, tying Tony Gwynn’s club record.

But after what happened in front of a sleepy crowd of 17,082 at Riverfront Stadium, it appears that nothing can be as tough as extending it to 26.

The Padres defeated the Reds, 6-4, on back-to-back 13th-inning homers by Randy Ready and John Kruk, the club’s first consecutive homers since opening day, when the Padres set a major league record by opening the season with three straight homers.

Wednesday’s game took 4 hours and 10 minutes. The Reds used 26 players, including three catchers. The Padres used 18 players.

Santiago caught the whole thing.

This was three games after he caught a 14-inning game in Houston. In his four games on this five-game trip, he has caught 45 innings.

The wear was starting to show. He got his hit in the third inning, an RBI ground-ball single up the middle on a 1-and-2 pitch from Ted Power. But by the end of the game, that seemed like sometime last week. After his hit, he went 0 for 4, which would be enough to stop the streak in most games.

Wednesday’s game also featured his first passed ball of the streak. In fact, it was his first passed ball in 30 games. And there were two of them. One passed ball accounted for a run in the seventh inning that started the Reds on a rally from a 4-1 deficit.

Today’s game begins at 12:35 p.m. EST, or just 13 hours after Wednesday’s game ended.

And Santiago is catching it.

As evidence for reporters, Padre Manager Larry Bowa called Santiago into his office after Wednesday’s game. “Hey Benny, can you play?” Bowa shouted.

“Let’s go get them,” replied Santiago, 22, holding a paper plate of food and smiling.

“Hey Benny,” Bowa shouted again, “did you know that in a couple of games, you’ll have caught more games than anyone in baseball?”

“Really?” said Santiago. “I want that.”

Later, Bowa laughed. “Shoot, when I was his age, I was playing in three games a day. One during the day, then two more on the streets at night.”

Santiago won’t need that many to lead baseball, as his 135 games (out of 151) trail Baltimore’s Terry Kennedy and Cincinnati’s Bo Diaz by one game each. Nobody else in baseball is close.

Kennedy is the player the Padres traded to Baltimore this winter so Santiago could play. But after this much of this season, the irony is lost.

“I’ll take it. I don’t care who the other catchers are,” said Santiago. “That’s a lot of games.”

And a lot of squatting and a lot of getting hit in the mask with baseballs and . . .

“OK, he really is getting tired,” Bowa conceded. “He really needs three or four days off. And I would give them to him, except for the streak.

“I’m not going to be the guy who takes him out of the lineup when he feels he’s hitting good.”

But somebody mentioned that Bowa did rest him Sunday in Houston against pitcher Mike Scott. Bowa just shrugged, knowing full well that today’s pitcher for the Reds is not a Cy Young Award winner, but left-hander Guy Hoffman (9-10, 4.27 ERA).

“Nothing against anybody,” Bowa said, “but there is only one Mike Scott. And Benny wants to be in there.”

A hit today not only would break Gwynn’s club record, it would tie a major league rookie record set in 1943 by Guy Curtright, who hit in 26 straight. Santiago already holds the National League rookie record.

For now, he’s just glad Gwynn doesn’t hold a grudge.

“I have not talked to Tony about the streak at all,” Santiago said. “Maybe if I break it today, I will say something to him.

“But he’s been just awesome to me the whole time. Sometimes, you break guys’ record, they try to foul you up, fool with you. Not Tony. All he has done is help me.”

Gwynn said it was nothing.

“All I do is tell him, get a knock your first time up and that way you don’t have to worry about it,” said Gwynn, who had four hits Wednesday. “That’s the key to any streak.”

Wednesday’s game finally ended when Ready stepped to home plate to face Jeff Montgomery, the Reds’ eighth pitcher. Ready was tired, his ribs hurt and he was hungry.

“I looked over at Galen (Cisco) and I said, ‘Man, I’m so hungry, I’m going to pretend the ball is a Big Mac,”’ Ready said afterward. “I told him I was going to try and take a bite out of it.”

He did, both out of the ball and the Reds, who failed to gain ground on NL West-leading San Francisco. In his last 13 games, Ready has gone 12 for 39 (.308) with 5 homers and 12 RBIs.

Padre Notes

Eric Show pitched well Wednesday, allowing two runs on six hits in 5 innings, but his elbow tightened up and he had to be removed. “I asked Larry (Bowa, Padre manager) to let me stay in, but he didn’t want to risk anything,” Show said.