Padres Get the Brush From Viola : Baseball: They call Met pitcher ‘Leonardo da Viola’ after his five-hit masterpiece and 4-1 victory.

SAN DIEGO — Frank Viola is one of the premier pitchers in baseball, but his past three outings had hardly been works of art.

Then Viola and the New York Mets defeated the Padres, 4-1, Wednesday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Viola, 0-3 with a 7.71 earned run average in his three previous starts, pitched masterfully, allowing just five hits and one run over eight innings. Just for good measure, he added a pair of singles at the plate.

“We ran into Leonardo da Viola,” Padres Manager Greg Riddoch said. “He was painting today.”

And that was not good news for a team that is struggling offensively. The Padres hit just .225 with three homers and 25 runs batted in on the nine-game home stand that ended Wednesday with the Padres 4-5.

The Padres had visions of leaving town on a winning note by completing a three-game sweep of the Mets. Viola had been struggling, and his career 0-3 record against the Padres included two losses this year. The Padres had also defeated the Mets in seven of nine games and had won nine of 11 in San Diego over the past two seasons.

But Viola retired the first six batters he faced and got the side out one-two-three in the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth innings. He threw just 100 pitches, 61 for strikes.

Viola walked just one batter, who later scored. He struck out seven, giving him 134 for the year, tied for sixth in the National League with Atlanta’s John Smoltz.

Viola, who started 7-0 but then went 8-8, improved to 16-8, tying him with Pittsburgh’s Doug Drabeck for most victories in the league.

“I mixed things up better today than I had recently,” Viola said. “Except for a couple of those curveballs late in the game, I felt I had pretty good control.”

John Franco, the NL leader in saves, came on in the ninth to preserve the victory in front of an afternoon crowd of 18,547. It was his 29th save in 32 opportunities, the best ratio in the league.

“Take a look at the way we matched up against (Viola) in the past, and we had some pretty good stats against him,” Riddoch said. “But today, today was his day. Today might have been one of those days where he could tell you, ‘OK, here comes a fastball,’ and we still couldn’t hit him.”

Benito Santiago was the only Padre with two hits, but they were wasted, both coming with two outs and no one on base.

In the fourth, Santiago singled but was thrown out by Met catcher Mackey Sasser while trying to steal second. Three innings later, Santiago got the next hit off Viola--a lined single to right center with two outs. Jerald Clark, who arrived from triple-A Las Vegas late Tuesday night and started at first for injured Jack Clark, followed with a single to center. But Mike Pagliarulo flied to center to end the inning.

The Padres had their only significant rally off Viola in the third. Pagliarulo walked, but then Shawn Abner and Calvin Schiraldi struck out, Schiraldi on three fouled bunt attempts.

Bip Roberts, playing shortstop for the second consecutive day while Garry Templeton is nursing a sore back, singled to center, and Roberto Alomar singled to right.

Pagliarulo scored on Alomar’s hit, and Roberts took third. But Alomar was thrown out on a close play trying to advance to second.

End of rally and, for all intents and purposes, end of game, the way Viola was throwing.

“I’m not looking for excuses when a guy pitched a good ball game,” Riddoch said. “He just beat us. He was ahead in the count and in control throughout the game.”

It was similar to the way the Mets ran into Ed Whitson Tuesday night. Whitson threw just 98 pitches and came away with a 7-0 shutout in just over two hours.

That loss was the Mets’ second in a row to the Padres and third in five games on their 10-game West Coast swing. It also prompted Manager Bud Harrelson to call an eight-minute team meeting before Wednesday’s game.

Harrelson just wanted to remind the Mets to play fundamental baseball, that that’s what had gotten them back into the NL East race after a 20-22 start.

That was when Harrelson took over for Davey Johnson. Since then, they have gone 49-30.

“I thought it was necessary because we were getting a little lackadaisical in our fundamentals,” Franco said.

The Mets, ninth in the league in defense, made three errors Tuesday night but were flawless Wednesday.

Schiraldi (3-6) pitched well for the Padres in his fourth consecutive start but left trailing, 2-1, after six innings.

The Mets scored one in the second and one in the third off Schiraldi.

Darryl Strawberry walked to lead off the second, but then Schiraldi struck out Howard Johnson and Kelvin Torve. Daryl Boston drove in Strawberry, who had stolen second, with a single.

In the third, doubles by Gregg Jefferies and Strawberry brought in another run.

The Mets got two more in the ninth with three hits and a walk off reliever Greg Harris and a rare two-base fielding error by Gold Glove right fielder Tony Gwynn. Harris had entered the game having allowed just two hits in his past 10 innings and only one earned run in his past 14 1/3.

The Padres threatened in the bottom of the ninth. Alomar led off with a walk off Franco. Gwynn singled to extend his hitting streak to seven games. It was his only hit of the game; his average is .316.

But Joe Carter forced Alomar at third, Strawberry hauled in Santiago’s liner down the right-field line, and Jerald Clark grounded to third.

Viola said he felt good enough to have pitched the ninth but added, “That’s what Johnny’s here for. I don’t lose any confidence when Johnny comes in the game.”

Padre Notes

Catcher Tom Lampkin was sent down to triple-A Las Vegas to make room on the roster for newly acquired pitcher Atlee Hammaker. Lampkin, who came to the Padres in a minor-league trade with Cleveland during the All-Star break and was called up the same day, batted .222 with one homer and four RBIs in 22 games with the Padres. Manager Greg Riddoch said Lampkin will be recalled when major league rosters can be expanded Sept. 1. Hammaker will meet the team in San Diego today and fly with them to Montreal for Friday’s game; it was originally thought he would meet the team in Montreal. Riddoch said Hammaker will begin his tour with the Padres in the bullpen, but his precise role is yet to be determined.

Jack Clark’s status is still day to day. Clark has been out since Monday when he reinjured his right hamstring. Riddoch said Clark may have to be placed on the 15-day disabled list if the leg doesn’t respond to treatment within a few days. . . . Tony Gwynn, who struck out just one time in 139 plate appearances before Tuesday’s game, has now struck out twice in two games. Still, Gwynn has struck out just 21 times all season, once in every 25.6 trips to the plate.

In the minors, Ricky Bones won his second consecutive game for Las Vegas since being called up from double-A Wichita. Bones went 8 1/3 innings in the Stars’ 7-3 victory at Vancouver. First baseman Rob Nelson hit his 20th home run and added a triple. . . . Today is a travel day for the Padres. They begin a 10-game Eastern trip Friday with a four-game series at Montreal. Pitching matchups for that series: the Padres’ Andy Benes (9-8) vs. the Expos’ Dennis Martinez (10-8) Friday; Dennis Rasmussen (8-12) vs. Chris Nabholz (1-0) Saturday; Bruce Hurst (8-8) vs. Kevin Gross (8-10) Sunday, and Ed Whitson (10-7) vs. Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd (7-4) Monday.

Steve Scott, the American record-holder in the mile, stopped by the Padre clubhouse before Wednesday’s game. Scott was there as a guest of Garry Templeton. It seems they both go to the same massage therapist. . . . San Diego City Manager John Lockwood played host to a group of 48 city employees of the year. The group, with each member representing a different department of the city government, was given a complete tour of the stadium before settling in for lunch and the game in the city’s sky box.