Bad Break for Padres, Santiago : Baseball: During San Francisco’s 6-2 victory, All-Star catcher is hit on arm by pitch, and bone is fractured. He is expected to miss at least six weeks.

There will be hell to pay for this one, the Padres vow. They’re not going to disclose just when or how, but after learning the severity of catcher Benito Santiago’s injury Thursday, the Padres promised that they will get even.

Santiago, hit by a pitch in the seventh inning of the Padres’ 6-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants, suffered a fractured ulna bone in his left forearm and will be out a minimum of six weeks.

He will be placed on the 21-day disabled list today. The Padres have purchased the contract of triple-A catcher Ronn Reynolds of Las Vegas to take Santiago’s place on the roster, and Mark Parent will inherit the starting job.

“You know how I feel about the Giants anyway, I can’t stand them,” said Jack Clark, the Padre first baseman who used to play for San Francisco. “Now, I just hate them that much worse. Their time will come, believe me, their time will come.”

Padre left fielder Bip Roberts, who was hit in the right elbow in the ninth inning, said: “I can’t tell now how I really feel right now, because I don’t want to get in trouble. But I’m mad. I’m very mad. Let’s just say it’s not going to be forgotten about, believe me.”

There were several other players who also pledged that there will be retaliation in the Padres’ three-game series against the Giants Monday through Wednesday in San Francisco. One regular, who asked for anonymity, said, “They’ve got another thing coming if they think they’re going to get away with that. We should have done something about it today. You’re damn right we will next time.”

It actually had been a quiet, peaceful game for the crowd of 27,380 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium until the seventh inning. The Padres were at bat trailing, 3-2, with Jerald Clark was on second, Santiago pinch-hitting for reliever Greg Harris and Jeff Brantley on the mound.

Santiago looked at strike one.

He fouled off the next pitch for strike two.

Then it happened.

Brantley, just wanting to waste a pitch, decided to brush Santiago off the plate.

He threw an inside fastball. It sailed toward Santiago’s face. In fact, Brantley thought briefly it was going to hit Santiago in the mouth. But at the last moment, Santiago put his left arm up to protect himself, and the ball caromed off while he fell to the ground.

Santiago got up momentarily, yelled at Brantley and then dropped to the ground in pain. Manager Jack McKeon and Larry Duensing, the assistant trainer, examined Santiago as the Giant infielders looked on. Santiago was in severe pain but told McKeon he’d stay in the game because the Padres were out of catchers--Parent had been pinch-hit for earlier.

He walked slowly to first, taking occasional glances at Brantley, who was not looking his way. Santiago stayed in the game for the first two pitches to Roberts but then told Amos Otis, the first base coach, that the pain was too much, and Joey Cora came in to run for him.

Santiago was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital for X-rays, and Dr. Cliff Colwell said that the bone was fractured. Santiago was immediately put in a cast, and the Padres were told not to expect gun back in the lineup until at least Aug. 1.

“We’re just going to have to pick up the pieces and go on from here,” said McKeon, slumped behind his desk. “What else you going to do? But this hurts.”

Said Padre center fielder Joe Carter: “We all know Mark Parent will do a good job, but losing Benny, man, this hurts. Benny’s in a class by himself. Guys like him come around every 35 years or so. You just don’t replace a Benito Santiago.

“This is very irritating to all of us.”

Although the Giants claimed to a man that there was no intention to hit Santiago, with many seeming remorseful, it did not soothe the Padres’ anger.

It was time for retaliation, several Padre players said. And they couldn’t believe their good fortune when they saw who was stepping to the plate to lead off the eight. Yep, the man who threw the pitch himself, Brantley.

“You couldn’t ask for a better situation,” Clark said. “It was the perfect opportunity. How many times does a reliever come to the plate? This was the time for us to make a statement.”

Instead, Mark Grant’s first pitch was a strike down the middle of the plate. The second pitch was lined up the middle for Brantley’s second hit of the season.

Did Grant think about throwing at Brantley?

“You know, that never even entered my mind,” Grant said. “I didn’t want to put a guy on base. But as it turns out, he got a hit anyway. Maybe I should have.”

Said Brantley: “I think it would have been pretty ridiculous if he had. It was just a fastball that got away from me, and he dove into the pitch.”

Giant catcher Gary Carter said: “Hey, there was no intention to hurt him. It was a fastball that, if anything, was trying to get him off the plate. Santiago dives out over the plate. The same pitch to Joe Carter, he backed out of the way. You’ve got to establish inside.

“I know Benito was having a great year, but it’s one of those things.”

Hey, it’s not the Giants’ problem that the Padres will be without the leading catcher in the league, right? They’re not the ones who are going to have to try to replace a .317 batting average, nine homers and 33 RBIs. Let the Padres try to stay in the race without their All-Star catcher.

Certainly, the Giants showed little sympathy when the Padres were forced to seek a volunteer to catch in the eighth. With Parent out and Santiago on his way to the hospital, McKeon looked at his bench.

Pitcher Andy Benes volunteered. So did Jerald Clark. And Shawn Abner. And Bip Roberts.

But Cora said, “I can catch. I’ve caught before.”

Cora was lying through his teeth. He had never caught a game in his life. The closest he had come was warming up pitchers in triple A.

There was a delay of several minutes while the Padres tried to fit Cora in catcher’s gear. After all, you’re talking about a guy here who’s 5-feet-8, weighing all of 150 pounds. No wonder Grant said, “All I could see back there was the glove.”

The little guy certainly won’t be called up again if McKeon can help it, but for two innings, he did all right. There was one wild pitch over his head, but not a single passed ball. And fortunately, the Giants had few baserunners.

But after Gary Carter’s solo homer in the ninth gave the Giants a 6-2 lead, Dave Anderson singled. He looked across the diamond, got the go-ahead and then stole second without Cora attempting a throw.

“That’s when I got mad,” Grant said. “I didn’t think that was right. I was thinking of doing something right then (throwing at pinch-hitter Greg Litton), but I didn’t want to put another on base.”

The Padres actually threatened to tie it in the bottom of the ninth when Roberts was hit by Steve Bedrosian’s pitch, loading the bases. But Roberto Alomar hit into a double-play, ending the game and heightening their frustration.

It was the Padres’ third consecutive defeat, and once again, it was Padre starter Bruce Hurst (3-6) who failed. Hurst pitched six shutout innings but couldn’t get out of the seventh and was left screaming in the Padre runway as he took the long walk to the clubhouse.

It perhaps was the most frustration Hurst has vented publicly since coming to the Padres in December, 1988. He threw his rosin bag to the ground when he saw Pat Dobson, the pitching coach, coming to the mound to relieve him. He stalked behind the mound until Dobson arrived, then began yelling all the way to the dugout, into the runway and the clubhouse.

Little did Hurst, or anyone else, realize that the rest of the Padre team would soon be joining him and venting their anger and frustration.

“It was a lousy day for everyone,” Parent said.

Padre Notes

Although no charges have been filed, sources said nine North County high school students have been identified as the culprits who stole about 200 of the Padres’ bats from San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium two weeks ago. Most have been located by the San Diego Police Dept., but a couple dozen are still missing. The police were working on the case without any suspects until Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn came to the rescue. “I broke open the case, I broke it wide open,” Gwynn said, laughing. “I feel like Detective Clouseau.” Gwynn was signing balls and bats at a clinic last Saturday at the North County Fair mall when a boy asked Gwynn if he could sign his bat. Gwynn noticed immediately that this was one of the missing ones and asked the boy’s father where it was purchased. The father identified the store, and Gwynn and his agent, John Boggs, went to work. They drove to the store, identified themselves and saw that there were new bats displayed belonging to Gwynn, Jack Clark, Joe Carter, Bip Roberts and Roberto Alomar. “There wasn’t a mark on them, which should tell you something,” Gwynn said. “They were hot. I told the guy these bats were stolen, asked where he got them and he told me he got them from these kids. I snatched the bats, told the Padres’ detective about them, and two days later, he tracks down nearly all the stuff. It was unbelievable. It was wild. It was like a great movie, or Mannix, or something.” The kids apparently entered the stadium one night, climbed over a chain-link fence and entered the storage shed containing the bats. It was the first time bats had been stolen from the shed. They now have the area fully secured and under surveillance.

New Padre owner Tom Werner is expected to address the team for the first time today in Los Angeles when the Padres begin a three-game series at Dodger Stadium. He’s then scheduled to meet with the Padre employees Monday and Tuesday in San Diego. . . . Center fielder Joe Carter drove in his 50th run in the third inning, reaching 50 RBIs faster than any Padre has. “That’s nothing to be proud of,” Carter said, “I should have at least 60 with the number of guys who have been on base.” Carter has been at the plate with 164 runners on base this season and is batting .289 with runners in scoring position. . . . Catcher Ronn Reynolds, 31, a non-roster player with the Padres this spring, previously has played in 135 major league games with the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros. He was batting .280 this year in Las Vegas with six homers and 31 RBIs in 45 games. In his past three games, he’s six for 10 with two homers, one double and five RBIs. . . . Giant reliever Ed Vosberg won his first major league game Sunday after spending seven years in the minors, including five years in the Padre organization.