Streaking Padres Hit the Road : Benes, Santiago Hit Homers as San Diego Sweeps Philadelphia

Just wait, the Padres said. Things will fall together. Sooner or later, they would begin to execute.

And so, on their third-to-last home stand, they finally put together the kind of streak Manager Jack McKeon has been looking for all season.

They only hope it’s not too late.

The rampaging Padres whipped the Philadelphia Phillies again Sunday, this time, 9-5, to finish the best nine-game home stand in club history.

The Padres (71-65) went 8-1 on the home stand, sweeping three games from Philadelphia after taking two of three from Montreal and sweeping three from the Mets.

They have won 11 of 13 games, are six games over .500 for the first time since Oct. 4, 1985, and just one game behind second-place Houston.

The Padres aren’t getting much cooperation from San Francisco, though, in their pursuit of first place. The Giants won their fourth consecutive game Sunday, 4-0, over New York, and did the same thing the Padres did when they opened this home stand a week ago: swept the Mets.

Still, the Padres picked up three games on the Giants during their 10-day stay at home.

“We’re playing good ball, but we can’t dwell on it,” Tim Flannery said. “We’re not in a pennant race yet. Two weeks from now, if we’re close, we can say, ‘Now we’re in a pennant race.’ ”

Said McKeon: “Perfect timing. But we have a big series coming up, and what we have done today is history. We have to keep it up.”

One thing the Padres have going for them is that a different player is contributing each day.

In front of 20,404 Sunday in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, Benito Santiago hit a seventh-inning grand slam to give the Padres a 9-3 lead. It came on a one-and-two breaking ball at eye level.

“The first two pitches (Jeff Parrett) threw me were breaking balls,” Santiago said. “So I don’t look for a fastball--I look for a breaking ball.”

It was his 10th homer of the season, and the second grand slam of his career.

Tony Gwynn, Bip Roberts and Jack Clark each had two hits. Clark’s first-inning single drove in one run, and his fifth-inning double drove in another.

Andy Benes (3-2) won his third start in a row for the Padres. He went 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs and five hits. He also struck out six, but his most memorable moment of the day came in the second, when he hit a full-count Dennis Cook pitch over the right-field fence for a two-run home run.

That put the Padres in front, 3-0, and the Phillies never caught up. Benes said his last home run came in high school, but he couldn’t remember it.

“He came across the plate so serious,” Bip Roberts said. “I’m happy for him. He’s a good kid.”

Benes, meanwhile, had more to say about his pitching than about his home run.

“I felt more confident,” Benes said. “The newness is kind of over with.

“I didn’t throw well in Las Vegas (triple-A), but my concentration wasn’t what it was here. Every pitch here can win or lose a ballgame. The hitters are a lot better.”

The list of contributors to the latest Padre victory goes on. Mark Davis pitched 2 1/3 innings to earn his league-leading 34th save, but he was a little rustier than usual: He gave up four hits, two runs and walked three.

Roberto Alomar also went one-for-four to extend his hitting streak to eight games. And Gwynn’s two hits moved his league-leading batting average to .342.

“We’re playing real good baseball right now,” Gwynn said. “We’re getting good pitching and we’ve been making some plays defensively. We’ve done what we expected to do all year long. Every game is important. We’ve got to keep it going.”

The home stand was successful for, among other things, two important reasons:

--Until Philadelphia’s Dwayne Murphy hit a sixth-inning homer Sunday against Benes, Padre pitchers had gone five consecutive games without allowing a home run. Padre pitchers kept the ball in the park throughout the nine-game home stand, allowing just four homers.

--Padre batters, meanwhile, hit 12 homers during the home stand--and the last eight came with men on base.

“It’s exciting because we’re playing good baseball,” Gwynn said. “This is the most fun we’ve had all year. More important than the streak is the way we’re playing the game. When you have a streak like this, you learn from what you’re doing out there. We’ve been playing aggressive, fundamentally sound baseball, and the guys picked up on it right away.

“And it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. When we had to have it, we got it.”

The Padres dug themselves a hole deep enough, though, that their only hope for a pennant race is to keep playing at a blistering pace. All of their remaining 26 games are against NL West division rivals, and half of those are at home.

“We play our own division now, and that’s what it all comes down to,” Flannery said. “We can close the distance or open the distance real quick.

“But the Giants are no concern of this club, I hope. You have to get to second place before you get to first. Houston should be our concern. We can’t do anything about San Francisco until we play them.”

The Padres have six games left with the Giants and four left with the Astros. They are in Atlanta today and Tuesday, then go to Houston Wednesday and Thursday.

“You’d like to say three wins (in the four games) would be a good road trip, but I don’t think so,” Gwynn said. “At this point of the year, you can’t say that. It’s like you have to win every ballgame.”

After Thursday’s game in Houston, the Padres open a seven-game home stand against Los Angeles, Houston and Atlanta.

Said McKeon: “We’ve got to keep it going. The Giants aren’t making it any easier for us. If we keep playing like we’ve been playing, we’ll be all right.”

Padre notes

The previous best nine-game home stand in Padre history was a 7-2 mark from June 4-12, 1974. . . . Mark Davis, with 34 saves, is just three behind the club record set by Rollie Fingers in 1978. . . . Pitcher Eric Show was at the stadium before Saturday night’s game, but only because of the team picture taken Saturday afternoon. Show, who underwent surgery Aug. 2 for a bulging disk in his back, said he is raring to go. “This couch potato stuff is for the birds,” he said. “The hardest part of the surgery is the waiting.” Show said he will undergo therapy at Scripps Clinic for another two weeks before moving his work to the stadium. Right now, he said he is doing “easy stretching and real easy biking.” He didn’t know when he will start throwing. . . . The Padres have added Thursday’s game against Houston to their Channel 51 telecast schedule.