Benes Is Beaten in Major Debut as Padres Split

Andy Benes waited a lifetime for this opportunity Friday, wondering just what it was like to step on that mound and pitch in his first major league game.

Oh, the NCAA tournament was nice. And the Olympics were a blast. But the big leagues, man, that’s been his dream ever since he could put a baseball in his right hand.

“I’m pretty laid-back,” Benes said, “but you think about it when you’re in the clubhouse, watching TV, and you say to yourself, ‘God, what would it be like to be out there?’ ”

Well, before he had a chance to contemplate his situation, there he was standing on the mound, encircled by a crowd of 25,755 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. His mother and two brothers were in the stands. His friends and former college teammates were back in Evansville, Ind., watching on cable TV. His dad was back home in Chicago, sitting in front of their living room TV set.

He knew this was the big-leagues when he found himself facing the superstars, such as seven-time All-Star Dale Murphy. Oh, look, there’s 42-year-old Darrell Evans, who began playing professionally the year he was born. And there’s Lonnie Smith, the man who has three World Series championship rings.

So you can just imagine just how disillusioned he must have been after the Padres’ 6-5 loss in the first game of the doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves. One of his teammates lost a ball in the sun to help trigger a four-run inning, and the Padres’ final rally was killed in the ninth when another was tagged out at second on the hidden-ball trick.

Welcome to the big-leagues, kid.

The Padres wound up splitting the doubleheader, winning the second game, 2-0, with Dennis Ramsussen (5-8) winning, and Mark Davis recording his major-league leading 30th save. But the media mob attending the doubleheader, even including a couple of reporters from Evansville, weren’t there to interview Rasmussen, talk to Jack Clark about his two-run homer in the second game or ask about Tony Gwynn’s four-hit game and six-for-eight doubleheader performance that raised his average to .346.

No sirree, the focus centered squarely on Andrew Charles Benes, the man the Padres paid $235,000 a year ago as the No. 1 pick in all of the land in the June free agent draft.

Benes has also found himself in the center of controversy in the Padre organization on just how to handle the kid. There was a quarrel whether he belonged in the Padre major league spring-training camp this year instead of the minor league camp. There was bickering over when Benes should be called up from double-A Wichita. There was quibbling whether Benes should be called up to the big-leagues now, after yielding an 8.10 ERA in five starts at Las Vegas, including 41 hits in 26 2/3 innings.

But there he was on display Friday night, with the entire Padre front office on hand, anxiously anticipating the unveiling of pitcher they believe one day will be among the elite in the game.

The reviews from the Padre organization were quite favorable, but the bottom line was that Benes pitched, well, like a 21-year-old kid making his major-league debut.

Benes, 6-feet-6, 235 pounds, showed flashes, striking out six batters on an array of fastballs and curveball.

He also revealed that he has a long way to go before he makes anyone forget about Dwight Gooden, surrendering three home runs and falling behind in the count to 14 of the 27 batters he faced.

The result: six innings, six hits, six runs, four walks and six strikeouts.

“I felt good, and my arm felt real good,” said Benes, who was out 15 days in Wichita with tendinitis in his right shoulder. “But I’m disappointed I lost. I was the one who got the loss in a game we could have won and stayed on a roll.

“Things will get better. I’ve still got a lot of things to work on. You just don’t overpower hitters here like you do in Wichita.”

Benes learned the hard way that you can’t get by solely on your fastball in the big leagues. He said he threw 12 to 15 changeups in the game, which is quite remarkable considering that he threw a combined total of about 20 in his 21 minor-league starts this season.

Only one problem. He had difficulty throwing any for strikes. And when it came time to throw a pitch in a crucial situation, the Braves knew exactly what was coming.

Evans hit a three-two fastball in the second inning for a bases-empty homer into the right-field seats.

Oddibe McDowell came back with another homer in almost the same spot in the third inning on a two-zero pitch.

“I’m going to give up homers, I know that,” said Benes, who has yielded 17 in his past 66 innings, after not allowing any in his first 75 innings. “So the solo homers don’t bother me. It’s the others that hurt.”

The Padres took a 3-2 lead in the fifth before Benes found out that the big leagues aren’t all that they are cracked up to be. With one out and Brave pitcher Derek Lilliquist on first, McDowell hit a line drive into right. Right fielder Chris James, who would extend his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games, squinted into the sun trying to pick up the ball. It was no use. By the time he saw it, it was falling by his feet. McDowell wound up with a double, and Lilliquist was at third.

Jeff Treadway, the man who would pull the hidden ball trick on Marvell Wynne in the ninth inning, hit a ball toward the gap. Second baseman Roberto Alomar dove and stopped it, saving one run, but the tying run scored.

Benes got ahead on Smith, the Braves’ leading hitter, on a zero-and-two count and then struck him out on a fastball. Benes knew it should have been the third out but refused to allow himself to be distracted as Murphy strode to the plate.

He worked Murphy to a two-two count, then tried to decide what to throw next. He had struck Murphy out on a fastball in the fourth inning and figured he’d fool him this time, throwing a curve. Surely, Murphy wouldn’t be expecting that.

Benes threw a curveball, and Murphy sent it deep into the left-field seats for a three-run homer.

“I fell behind two-and-oh a lot tonight and got away with a few of them,” Benes said. “He didn’t give me that chance that time, and that was pretty much the game.”

Still showing confidence in Benes, Padre Manager Jack McKeon stuck with him and allowed him to get out of the fifth inning. And when the inning ended, with Benes having already thrown 108 pitches, the Padres tried something to which Benes is not accustomed.

They left him in the game.

Rarely has he been allowed to throw more than 100 pitches in double-A or triple-A this season, but this time, McKeon let him go out for the sixth.

Instead of showing signs of weariness or fatigue, Benes mowed down the Braves one-two-three for the first time in the game, on two ground balls and a strikeout. He was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the sixth, then watched in frustration with his teammates as the Padres’ ninth-inning rally fell short when Wynne was bamboozled on the hidden-ball trick.

“I was very impressed with Benes,” McKeon said. “He had problems with his off-speed pitches and breaking pitches, but I saw a lot out there. We can get that straightened out in a week or so. I saw a lot of promise out there.”

Tom Romenesko, the Padres’ director of player development who has seen Benes perform more than anyone else in the organization, said: “There’s no question that Andy Benes will pitch in the major leagues, pitch well in the major leagues and stay here for a long, long time.

“There’s no doubt at all about that.”

Padre Notes

Atlanta Brave left fielder Lonnie Smith, seeing Andy Benes for the first time before the game, said: “What position does he play, center field?” When he was told he was the Padre starting pitcher in game one of the doubleheader, Smith said, “You’re kidding me? A guy that big?” . . . Padre left fielder Bip Roberts homered in the fifth inning for his first home run since Aug. 15, 1986. His last homer had been in the second game of a doubleheader against Cincinnati Reds pitcher Tom Browning, a span of 255 at-bats. . . . After going 238 games, Sept. 13, 1987-June 4, 1989, without doing so, the Padres have scored in double figures four times in their past 60 games.