Home Fans Don’t Get Padres’ Recent Success : Baseball: They can’t see what all the fuss is about as team returns home from 9-2 trip and loses to Montreal, 8-3.

Returning from the most successful road trip in their 22-year history, the Padres stumbled to a disappointing, 8-3 loss to the Montreal Expos Tuesday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Coming after the 9-2 trip, the loss in front of 15,855 fans snapped the Padres’ four-game winning streak. It also evened Manager Greg Riddoch’s record at 17-17 since he took over July 11.

In an indication of what kind of year it has been and night it was it was, the Padres used three-fifths of their season-opening starting rotation.

Dennis Rasmussen started and was ripped for five hits and five runs in 3 2/3 innings. He fell to 8-11 with a 4.64 earned run average.

Eric Show, the Padres’ all-time victory leader who said Sunday that he wanted to be traded, was next. Show, just 4-8 this year and relegated to the bullpen probably for the rest of the season, pitched decently but was not overwhelming.

Andy Benes, who missed a start Sunday to attend to family matters, came on in the eighth in his first career appearance as a reliever. He started well, retiring the side in the inning, but then gave up three runs on two hits and two walks in the ninth.

Montreal, meanwhile, was winning its sixth in a row, and Dennis Martinez was cruising to his 9th victory in 17 decisions.

Martinez allowed just five hits, four in the first two innings. After that, he retired 17 in a row and 22 of the last 23.

Most of the scoring occurred in the first 3 1/2 innings, and the source of most of the damage was an improbable one.

Otis Nixon, Montreal’s No. 2 hitter, greeted Rasmussen in the first inning with a line drive home run over the auxiliary fence in left field.

What’s so unusual about a home run, especially off Rasmussen, who has now yielded 16, the second highest on the team?

Answer: Nixon had not hit a home run in nearly five years. His last came Sept. 4, 1985, in Toronto, when he played for Cleveland. This one, on a 2-2 pitch, was his first National League homer and just the fourth of his six-year career.

It was so rare that the Expo pre-game press notes stated: “Otis Nixon is vying to become the first-ever member of the exclusive 30-0 club (30 stolen bases combined with no home runs) three years in a row.”

He didn’t make it. But it turned out to be a memorable night anyway as Nixon, a switch-hitting center fielder, finished four for four with a walk, four runs batted in and a stolen base to give him a team-leading 36.

It was Nixon’s first four-hit, four-RBI game. Entering the game, he was hitting just .239 with 11 RBIs.

Trailing, 1-0, the Padres rebounded for three runs in the bottom of the second.

Benito Santiago singled to center to get the rally going. It came on the first pitch Santiago has seen in the stadium in exactly two months. On June 14, Santiago suffered a broken left forearm here on a pitch by San Francisco’s Jeff Brantley.

Since returning Friday at Houston, Santiago has gone four for 14 with three RBIs.

After Phil Stephenson grounded out to third, Mike Pagliarulo appeared to have done the same to shortstop, but normally reliable Spike Owen threw low to first, and Andres Galarraga was unable to scoop it.

For Owen, who led all National League shortstops in 1989 with a .979 fielding percentage and set a National League record by going 63 games without an error earlier this year, it was only his fourth error and just the fifth by an Expo shortstop.

Now with first and third occupied, Garry Templeton lined a single to right, driving in Santiago.

After Rasmussen struck out attempting a sacrifice, Bip Roberts hit his second double of the game--he doubled to lead off the Padres’ first--to drive in Pagliarulo and Templeton. Montreal made another throwing error--this time it was second baseman Delino DeShields on Roberto Alomar’s grounder--to keep alive the inning, but Tony Gwynn grounded out to end the inning.

DeShields made up for his miscue immediately by leading off the top of the third with a triple down the right-field line. Nixon drove him in with a single to center to cut the Padres’ lead to 3-2.

In the fourth, the Expos got three runs on three hits and drove Rasmussen from the game.

Galarraga walked. Marquis Grissom singled. Mike Fitzgerald singled, driving in Galarraga with the tying run. Owen’s grounder to second drove in Grissom, giving the Expos a 4-3 lead.

After Denny Martinez grounded out to first and DeShields walked, Riddoch had seen enough of Rasmussen.

Enter Show, who was wildly booed upon being introduced, then booed again when he allowed a single up the middle to Nixon.

To his credit, Show allowed just one more hit and was the most effective Padre pitcher on the night.

The reception Show received, of course, had something to do with the way he lambasted the Padres’ organization Sunday, especially pitching coach Pat Dobson.

“There’s two points I want to make,” he said afterward. “First, it was an off day, and I should have realized it was an off day, and there would be nothing to write about. Second, the way (Dobson) appeared to be manipulated by some questions or made the mistake of thinking I blamed something on Dobson, there’s no way I’m going to blame my problems on anyone else.

“Everything I said was true. To say I didn’t mean it would be a lie, but I wasn’t looking to go to battle with anyone. . . . People have said it before. Maybe the best thing for me is to pitch somewhere else.”

Padre Notes

Jack Clark, who missed all three games in Houston over the weekend because of a sore right hamstring, was scratched from Tuesday’s starting lineup after reporting a slight twinge to Manager Greg Riddoch. Riddoch said Clark’s status is day-to-day, but he could be used as a pinch-hitter. “He’s doing more each day,” Riddoch said. “He took ground balls as well as batting practice today. I would rather be safe than sorry. I would rather make sure we have him for the last five or six weeks (of the season) than use him early and risk anything happening.” . . . Benito Santiago said he’s feeling fine since returning Friday against Houston after 56 days out because of a broken left forearm. “He’s great,” Riddoch said. “In fact, I talked to him during infield and said, ‘Hey, you look strong.’ He said, ‘I am.’ He said, ‘Why don’t we do this? Why don’t I let you know if I’m starting to feel tired.’ He’s the most durable catcher I think I’ve ever seen in professional baseball.”

Andy Benes, who flew back to San Diego and missed his scheduled start Sunday at Houston because of family matters, re-joined the club Tuesday. Benes is scheduled to pitch Saturday against Philadelphia. Riddoch and Pat Dobson, the pitching coach, said they would like to give Benes a couple innings of relief work either today or Thursday. . . . A number of Padres have hit Montreal’s pitchers well this season. After five games entering Tuesday’s, Mike Pagliarulo was hitting .375, Tony Gwynn .368, Bip Roberts and Shawn Abner .333 and Roberto Alomar .316. Strangely, Garry Templeton, who was one for 17, had the Padres only home run, and no Padre had more than two runs batted in. . . . The Expos, who led the National League in stolen bases last year with 160, already have a league-leading 170 this year. They are also the only major league team with three players with 30 or more steals. Otis Nixon and Tim Raines had 35 entering Tuesday’s game, Delino DeShields 32.