Williams Looking Down : Padres: As fast start fades, so do his hopes of staying in the majors. His first at-bat in a week was an out during a 7-1 loss in Atlanta.

Eddie Williams sat alone in front of his locker Wednesday night, slowly sipping a beer after the Padres’ 7-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves, wondering how everything could go so wrong so quickly.

It was just three weeks ago that the Padres brought him up to the big leagues, providing him the third base job they hoped he’d secure for the future.

Maybe he’d make up for their monumental blunder of failing to protect third baseman Dave Hollins in the 1989 major league draft, allowing the Philadelphia Phillies to select him. Maybe he’d make up for the trade of third baseman Carlos Baerga to Cleveland. Maybe he’d once and for all resolve the Padres’ problems since Graig Nettles last played for them.

Even the most skeptical in Padre management had a fleeting moment of optimism when he hit .289 with three homers in his first 10 starts. But slowly, that feeling of euphoria has faded, and the Padres already seem to have given up on him.

Williams, 25, hasn’t played in the field in the past six games. He made his first appearance in a week when he pinch-hit in the ninth inning Wednesday and fouled out to first on the first pitch.

He likely won’t go another week without playing. But he won’t be with the Padres. He’s expected to be returned to triple-A Las Vegas Friday when catcher Benito Santiago is activated.

“Any time you don’t play,” Williams said, “when you don’t play against left-handers or right-handers, you know something is up.

“I feel I’ve done well, but if they want to send me down, there’s nothing I can do about it.

“I thought when I had my opportunity, I did a good job. But maybe I didn’t do it to somebody’s liking.”

It was Williams’ last start, a week ago in Cincinnati, that sealed his fate. He irritated Manager Greg Riddoch in the third inning when he failed to cover third on a stolen base attempt by Mariano Duncan.

But that was mild compared to the fourth, when he left Riddoch absolutely infuriated. With runners on second and third, Duncan hit a bouncer to Williams, who tried to bare-hand the ball. It caromed away, but while Williams casually went back to retrieve it, Sabo kept running and scored from second.

When Williams’ turn to bat came in the fifth, Riddoch shook his head. Sorry, he was going with a pinch-hitter. It would be the last time Williams would play in a game until Wednesday.

“I think I can do the job, I really do,” Williams said. “But I guess it looks like I might not have another chance, huh?”

Riddoch refuses to publicly criticize Williams or any of his players, but his sentiments are obvious. The Padres don’t believe Williams is capable of being a major league third baseman. Oh, he can hit just fine, but defensively, they’ve got enough problems without weakening themselves further.

This is a team that now has made 106 errors. Only the Braves, who had four rookies in their starting lineup Wednesday, have made more (114).

Even more devastating, Riddoch said, has been their woes on the left side of the infield--a whopping 47 errors, 29 at shortstop and 18 at third base.

To put that in perspective, the Montreal Expos have made just 16 errors between shortstop Spike Owen and third baseman Tim Wallach, and the Cincinnati Reds have made 19 errors between shortstop Barry Larkin and third baseman Chris Sabo.

Considering the Padres have no left-side prospects at the triple-A level, what’s a team to do?

“Well,” said Pat Dobson, Padre pitching coach, “we’ll just have to get more right-handed pitching. You know, so we can get left-handers (hitters) to pull the ball.

“This is a club that gives up a lot of ground balls and doesn’t get too many strikeouts, so we have to rely on our infielders. That’s why we just can’t continue to keep giving clubs the extra outs.”

Once again Wednesday in front of just 6,070 fans at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the Padres’ defensive deficiencies came back to haunt them. They made three errors, two by rookie catcher Tom Lampkin and the one that broke the game wide open in the fifth, committed by third baseman Mike Pagliarulo.

The Braves were leading, 2-1, with two outs and Mark Lemke on third. Jeff Blauser hit a smash down the third-base line. Pagliarulo snared the ball, falling down. He quickly rose to his feet, but his throw to first skipped 10 feet past first baseman Jack Clark, allowing Lemke to score and Blauser to reach third. Pagliarulo’s error compounded problems even further when Ron Gant followed with a single up the middle, providing the Braves with a 4-1 lead.

The Padres never were able to recover. In fact, they never even got a hit after Pagliarulo’s double in the fourth, finishing the game going zero for 17 with two walks.

Rookie right fielder David Justice produced more offense by himself for Atlanta, hitting two more home runs and driving in three runs. He now has hit five homers in his past 10 at-bats off Padre pitching.

“That guy’s just killing us,” Dobson said. “We haven’t got the ball in on him yet. Every ball he’s hit have all been right there in the strike zone.

“I’m going to tell these guys, ‘Let’s just start with a very simple format, keep the ball down and take our chances.’ ”

Indeed. Because no matter how well a team’s defense plays, no one yet has figured out a way to defense home runs.

In fact, it was Joe Carter’s 19th homer that provided the Padres with their lone run. The only Padre player who has figured out a way to hit Brave starter John Smoltz is Tony Gwynn, who went two for three off him, raising his career average to .480.

“I’ve got him psyched out,” Gwynn said. “When I got my hits off him, he looks at me and says, ‘I can’t get you out. And you know something, I can’t even get your brother out either.’

“When I ran to first base, you should see the look on his face, it was like God had hit or something.”

So what’s Gwynn’s reward?

He strikes out against rookie Kent Mercker in the eighth inning, his first strikeout in 90 plate appearances.

“God, can you believe it?” Gwynn asked.

Hey, why not. The Padres have proven this season that anything’s possible, haven’t they?

Padre Notes

Padre catcher Benito Santiago is scheduled to meet the team in Houston late Thursday and be activated Friday. He has not played for the Padres since June 14, when he sustained a fractured left forearm. He has spent the past six games with the Padres’ triple-A Las Vegas club. . . . Padre reliever Paul Rodriguez worked out with Pat Dobson, the pitching coach, before the game to help solve his delivery problems. Rodriguez, who has failed to retire his past eight batters, will eliminate his high leg kick. . . . Padre catcher Mark Parent spoke with former Padre pitcher Dave Leiper, who underwent open-heart surgery in April. Leiper is pitching for the Oakland Athletics’ Class A team in Modesto, Calif., and is expected to be promoted later this week to triple-A Tacoma in the Pacific Coast League. “He says he’s pitching the best he ever has,” Parent said. “He knows he’s physically sound now, and I think that’s made the whole difference.” . . . Calvin Schiraldi will make his third start of the season Saturday against the Houston Astros, giving Andy Benes his usual five days rest between starts. “We just didn’t want to push Andy on a day’s less rest,” Dobson said. . . . Because of the Padres’ day off on Monday, Dobson said, Eric Show will be skipped in the rotation. . . . Of Joe Carter’s 19 homers, 13 have been hit to left field, four to center (including the past three) and two to right. . . . The Braves’ starting lineup Wednesday included four rookies and seven players who had less than 2 1/2 years experience. . . . With the trade of right fielder Dale Murphy, shortstop Andres Thomas now has the longest continuous service on the team at five years. . . . ESPN taped an interview Wednesday with Padre outfielder Fred Lynn on his All-Star career, even though Lynn is in a one-for-21 slump. . . . Padre Manager Greg Riddoch’s best friend just happened to be the winner of the latest Colorado lottery, taking home $9 million. . . . Padre catcher Tom Lampkin went hitless in three at-bats and is in a zero for 14 slump. . . . The Padres’ doubleheader sweep of Atlanta Tuesday was their first against the Braves since May 29, 1979. . . . The scheduled pitching matchups for the Padres’ three-game series against the Houston Astros beginning Friday: Ed Whitson (8-7) vs. Jim Deshaies (5-9) on Friday; Calvin Schiraldi (3-4) vs. Danny Darwin (7-1) on Saturday, and Andy Benes (8-8) vs. Bill Gullickson (8-8) on Sunday.