This One a Gem for Six Innings : Dodgers: Padres’ Andy Benes doesn’t allow a hit until the seventh of a 3-1 victory.

The ball finally bounced the other way for the Dodgers Wednesday night.

In losing to the San Diego Padres, 3-1, the Dodgers were cost two runs after a ball bounced off Fernando Valenzuela’s leg.

Then they were cost a comeback when Chris Gwynn could not make contact on a fastball. As they fell for the first time after two opening victories, the Dodgers were reminded that the simple can often become quite complicated.

“That’s this game,” Valenzuela said with a sigh.

For the Padres, who pleased a crowd of 29,872 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, their first win was a celebration of the new and the newer.

Pitcher Andy Benes, whose fastballs already have the Dodgers frustrated in just his third month of big-league ball, pitched a no-hitter for six innings and left after allowing the first two Dodgers to reach base in the seventh.

He wound up with a victory featuring seven strikeouts and three walks, which already makes him 3-0 against the Dodgers with an 0.42 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 21 innings.

“It is surprising, the kid didn’t do much in triple-A, but look what he’s doing now,” said Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda of Benes, who had an 8.10 ERA at Las Vegas earlier last season. “He’s shown all of us, he can really pitch.”

Benes was eventually followed by a pitcher that really frustrates the Dodgers, reliever Craig Lefferts. Signed last winter as a free agent for $5.25 million, Lefferts made his first Padre appearance on the same night that the man he succeeded in the Padre bullpen, last year’s Cy Young award winner Mark Davis, got his first save for Kansas City.

The reliever left the field greatly relieved. He finished the game by retiring the Dodgers’ Kal Daniels, Eddie Murray and Hubie Brooks with Willie Randolph on first base to collect his first save.

In his career, Lefferts is 8-0 against the Dodgers with four saves and a 2.33 ERA.

“I don’t know what it is about the Dodgers,” Lefferts said, noting that he was glad just to step on the field. “I wasn’t worried about getting a chance for my first save. I just wanted to get my first appearance. It felt good just to get out there.”

Good thing somebody felt good Wednesday. Valenzuela, who knows about such things, experienced the Dodgers’ first hard luck of the season in the fourth inning, when a scoreless tie was broken after a two-out grounder by Fred Lynn bounced off his left leg and rolled toward first base, slow enough for Lynn to reach the base safely and keep the inning alive.

Two batters later, Garry Templeton lined a single over the right side of the infield to score two runs and give the Padres a lead they never lost.

“That ball was hit hard, but it wasn’t hit that hard,” said Valenzuela of Lynn’s single, which came two outs after a Tony Gwynn single. Valenzuela had walked Benito Santiago to load the bases, setting up Templeton’s hit.

While lacking some arm strength, Valenzuela certainly showed the spirit and brains that have marked his comeback from shoulder problems.

The Padres’ first batter, Bip Roberts, lined a ball off third baseman Jeff Hamilton that was ruled a base hit. Two outs later Roberts stole second and kept running to third when catcher Scioscia, in his first throw of the year, put the ball into center field. Jack Clark then walked.

But with the pressure on, Valenzuela made a good pitch to Joe Carter, fooling him into a grounder that Hamilton grabbed on the short hop and threw to first to end the inning.

“I still felt good, I feel like this is going to be my year,” said Valenzuela, who was the loser despite allowing just two runs on six hits in five innings and 95 pitches. “This is going to be the start of something.”

The Dodgers closed the gap to 2-1 in the seventh. Daniels opened the inning by breaking Benes’ no-hitter with a double. Daniels then scored on Murray’s single, but Murray was left on the bases when Brooks, Hamilton and Mike Scioscia went down in order to end the inning against reliever Calvin Schiraldi.

Then the Dodgers’ last real chance was blown in the eighth when tying run Alfredo Griffin was tagged out between first and second base on a blown hit-and-run. Griffin had started the inning with a single off Schiraldi, bringing up pinch-hitter Gwynn, who needed to make contact on a play when Griffin was sprinting toward second.

But Gwynn swung and missed. And Griffin stopped between first and second, figuring his best chance was to hope for a mistake on a rundown. It didn’t work, as he was tagged out.

“He swung right through it, it was right down the middle,” Lasorda said of the botched play. “You have got to put the bat on the ball in that situation.”

Said Gwynn: “I was coming cold off the bench and it was a tough pitch to hit under those circumstance. I gave it my best shot. I did everything I could do to hit it.”

Dodger Notes

The Padres’ final run Wednesday came on Tony Gwynn’s home run in the eighth inning off reliever John Wetteland. It was Gwynn’s first homer in 85 games, since last June 25. . . . Jay Howell threw in the bullpen in the sixth inning for the first time this season. If he feels all right today, he could be ready as soon as this afternoon’s game here, although Dodger officials could play it safe and hold him out until this weekend in Houston.

The Dodgers have finally conceded that Kirk Gibson will not be well enough to come off the 15-day disabled list when he is eligible Sunday. “From what I’m hearing today, I don’t think so,” said Fred Claire, Dodger vice president, Tuesday. Gibson took live batting practice Tuesday for the first time since last weekend, and struggled again with pain in his surgically repaired left knee. “It could be months and months,” said a frustrated Gibson. A more reasonable guess might be mid-May. Said Dodger trainer Bill Buhler: “We have to get him to function without the aches, that is the main thing.”

Proving once again that veteran teams are able to do the little things it takes to win, Alfredo Griffin quietly pulled off one of the plays of the game in Tuesday’s 1-0 Dodger victory. In the first inning, left fielder Daniels couldn’t find leadoff hitter Bip Roberts’ fly ball in the late evening haze. While Daniels stood in left field waving his arms as if lost, Griffin calmly ran to the edge of the outfield grass and pointed to the ball in the sky while Daniels ran underneath it and the made a catch. “It’s an awful feeling out there when that happens, like you’re all alone and don’t know where to turn,” Daniels said. “Then I heard Alfredo yelling and pointing, and I followed him until I picked the ball up.”