Roberts Steals the Show : Padres: He has four hits, a stolen base and a spectacular catch in a 4-1 victory over Montreal.

Bip Roberts heard the whispers during the winter, knowing there were skeptics lurking everywhere he turned, and critics waiting to mug him at the moment of failure.

It didn’t seem to matter that he batted .301, scored runs at a higher rate than anyone in the league, and was the catalyst of the Padre offense a year ago as their leadoff hitter.

Roberts knew what everyone was thinking.

“They thought I was a fluke,” Roberts said Monday. “Nobody believed in me. I don’t know if they thought I was joke, or what.”

Well, well, look who’s laughing now.

It was Mr. Roberts himself Monday night stealing the show in the Padres’ 4-1 victory over the Montreal Expos, stunning a crowd of 13,403 at Olympic Stadium who must have wondered how this little fella could sneak through customs and invoke such damage.

At the plate: Roberts went four for five, with a double and RBI, obtaining the fourth four-hit game of his career. In the four-game series against the Expos, he batted .529 (nine for 17) with three doubles, one homer and three RBIs. He has raised his batting average to .301, its highest point since June 6.

On the basepaths: Roberts stole his career-high 32nd base (and his third of the series) in the seventh inning. He has just seven fewer stolen bases than the combined total of the Padre’s Monday lineup.

In the field: Playing his third different position in four games, left field, Roberts threw out Tim Wallach at second base in the sixth inning and made the game-saving catch in the ninth.

No wonder Expo first baseman Mike Aldrete walked over to him and said, “Man, you’ve got everything working tonight.”

Roberts could only smile, thinking about all those days during the past winter where he worked out with teammate Tony Gwynn, getting stronger and stronger, and taking batting practice so often that the callouses on his hand turned into blisters.

“I just wanted to prove I’m no fluke,” Roberts said. “I know people were saying a lot of things. People were even saying back in ’87 after I got sent down (to the minors) that I’d never be back.

“I’m not saying I’m the total complete player, but I think I’ve proven a lot of people wrong.”

Said Gwynn: “You know, he talked about that all winter. Every day he worked out, he had that on his mind. He said he had something to prove, and he’s proving it.”

Said shortstop Garry Templeton: “Hey, the man can play. Hell, I always thought he could play. I don’t hear anyone talking now.”

While Roberts was the feature event in the Padres’ attack, his supporting cast wasn’t too shabby, either, with every player in the lineup reaching base at least once.

After scoring just six runs in the previous four games combined, Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said it was time for drastic measures, and after going through a hotel notepad of experimental lineups, he finally settled on one that was a bit curious.

There was no Tony Gwynn, who was being benched for the first time in his career. Catcher Benito Santiago was batting third for the first time since 1988. Fred Lynn was playing right field for the first time since 1984.

In fact, the Padres had six players in the lineup who were batting .250 or lower.

So it figures, right, that the Padres not only break out of their slump, but they even displayed rare power, hitting two homers in a game for the first time since July 28? Joe Carter homered in the fourth inning, ending his nine-game drought without an RBI, and Templeton put the game out of reach with his two-run homer in the seventh.

The result proved to be quite satisfying to Riddoch, who knew that he not only was leaving himself wide-open to second-guessing about his lineup, but that he had irritated Gwynn, his four-time batting champion.

When Gwynn, who leads the team with a .315 batting average, was asked before the game when he last sat out of a game without an injury, he said: “Never, and it’s not going to be happening today, either.”

Gwynn promptly went out on the field before batting practice, summoned Riddoch, and they went back inside the clubhouse and had a 10-minute closed-door meeting.

“He was as mad as a bee in a hornet’s nest,” Riddoch said, “but I wasn’t changing my mind. I wanted to rest him.”

Of course, one look at the statistic sheet revealed just why Riddoch made the move.

Gwynn, the four-time batting champion, happens to be hitting .182 in his career against Expo starter Oil Can Boyd.

Lynn, who had spent his 15 years in the American League, owns a .316 career batting average against Boyd.

It turned out that Lynn went hitless in three plate appearances against Boyd and didn’t obtain a hit until the eighth inning off reliever Scott Ruskin, but all was forgotten by the time Roberts caught Andres Galarraga’s line drive for the final out.

Padre starter Ed Whitson (11-7) won his fourth consecutive decision, but the only difference this time was that he needed a little help.

Just one out away from obtaining his sixth complete game, Whitson gave up a two-out single to Aldrete and issued a walk to Mike Fitzgerald--his first in 20 innings--to load the bases.

Whitson departed, and in came bullpen stopper Craig Lefferts. To the plate came pinch-hitter Galarraga, who just so happens to have two hits in nine at-bats against Lefferts, both home runs.

The first pitch was in the dirt. The second pitch was a screwball, and Galarraga slammed it into left field.

“I thought it was in the gap for sure,” Whitson said. “But then I saw Bip coming on, and then I said thanks for having him on my team.”

Roberts, running at full speed, caught the ball as it was slicing away from him, saving what appeared to be a double that was going to score at least two runs.

“Oh man, with the way that ball was going,” Roberts said, “it was a lucky catch more thananything. It was in the lights, and it was dropping. I wasn’t sure it hit my glove until I looked inside.”

The save was Lefferts’ 22nd of the season, and the man who was being asked to step in the Cy Young shoes of Mark Davis, has allowed just one run in his past 22 innings.

“There’s a lot of satisfaction in what I’ve done,” Lefferts said. “I believed in myself that I could do it, and to me that confidence is the most important thing you have.

“Unfortunately, I had that bad 10-day stretch there (blowing three consecutive save opportunities) when I went into a tailspin at the same time as the team. If I don’t got into that tailspin, maybe they don’t go into a tailspin.

“And that’s going to haunt me the rest of the year.”

Padre Notes

Padre first baseman Jack Clark, who has missed the past six games with a strained right hamstring, was available Monday night for pinch-hitting duties. Clark possibly will miss the rest of the trip, Manager Greg Riddoch said, to make sure his hamstring is fully recovered. “I don’t want to play the 90-percent game again,” Riddoch said. “He wasn’t totally healthy when we brought him back last time, and look what happened.” Clark injured his hamstring Aug. 9 and missed six starts before returning. Four games later, he sustained the same injury. . . . Garry Templeton’s home run in the seventh inning was his first since July 6. He now is just one home run shy of his career-high of nine, set in 1979. “He threw me one changeup too many,” Templeton said of his homer off Oil Can Boyd. . . . Fred Lynn’s single in the eighth inning ended his one-for-21 (.048) slump. . . . Padre 23-year-old starter Andy Benes on Ed Whitson: “He’s embarrassing the rest of us, is what he’s doing.” . . . Padre chairman Tom Werner will meet the team today in New York, his first road game outside Los Angeles since purchasing the club June 15. . . . The Padres provided the Expos with their most-lopsided defeat since Aug. 4. . . . The Expo bullpen has yielded just five earned runs over their past 51 2/3 innings for a 0.87 ERA. . . . Expo outfielder Otis Nixon has 41 steals this season in only 165 at-bats. The all-time major league record for fewest at-bats in a season with 50 or more stolen bases is held by Miguel Dilone of the 1978 Oakland Athletics. He stole 50 bases in 258 at-bats.