Santiago Gets Break This Time : Baseball: His single off Giants’ Brantley gives Padres a 7-4 opening-day victory.

The Padres’ 7-4 opening-day victory Tuesday night over the San Francisco Giants came down to the confrontation of the season-- last season.

Padre catcher Benito Santiago stood at the plate in the eighth inning in front of 48,089 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, staring at the man on the mound, trying to keep his composure. He had waited 10 months for this chance.

He was facing San Francisco Giant reliever Jeff Brantley, the same pitcher who broke his left forearm with an inside pitch on June 14, 1990, leaving Santiago in a cast the next two months.

Santiago dug in at the plate, refusing to let Brantley intimidate him. Brantley fired the first pitch, and Santiago fouled it back. Undaunted, Santiago tapped the dirt off his left shoe, then his right, took three cuts and was ready again.

He studied Brantley, inviting another challenge. Brantley delivered. Santiago swung. The ball was lined into center, Tony Gwynn was scoring from third with the game-winner and Santiago was on first, pumping his fist in ecstasy.

The Padres were winners on opening day for the first time in seven years.

“What happened between me and that guy last year is over,” Santiago said. “I’m not going to try to hit a home run because he broke my arm. You learn year by year. And I’m going to keep on learning.

“Last year, when I came back, the first thing I was going to do (if I faced Brantley) was hit the ball out of the park. Last year is over, you can’t think about the pitcher.

“No matter who’s pitching, I’ve got to do my job.”

It proved to be one of only several feats for Santiago on this night. He went four for four, marking the fourth time in his career that he had four hits in a game.

But there were plenty of heroes: Third baseman Jim Presley drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the second inning; Shawn Abner drove in two runs; Gwynn went two for four with an RBI; Mike Maddux won his first big-league game in two years; and Larry Andersen, wondering if he could even pitch because of a stiff neck, pitched the final inning for the save.

A check of your standings this morning will show that, at least for a day, the Padres are tied for first place.

“The wonderful thing about opening day,” Padre chairman Tom Werner said, “is everybody can dream.”

Certainly, the way everything transpired this day, it hardly seemed to be the best of omens for the 1991 season.

The Padre front-office crew showed up to work only to find a leaky beer keg from the upper level dripping into their office hallway. It didn’t seem so bad at the time, though, considering a skunk also had left its fragrance.

Later in the day, one of the Padre administrative assistants, Linda Barron, went to her car, only to find that one of the Charger players had left a note on her car in the parking lot. Sorry about that smashed-in fender.

So perhaps it wasn’t surprising to the Padres when they received a phone call in mid-afternoon. It was Andersen, who warned the team not to count on his pitching that night because he awoke with a stiff neck and spent the day at the chiropractor’s office.

But those Padres, they weren’t about to let anything deter their optimism.

“The anxiety level, naturally is high on opening day,” McIlvaine said. “When you’re a general manager, people can look up and say, ‘Hey, is this the best you’ve got to show us? Or they can say, ‘Wow, look at this team.’

“I know it’s just one of 162 games, but it’s such a gala festivity, a command performance, and you want things to go well.

“You want to give people a good first impression.”

Certainly, if nothing else, the Padres showed they will be entertaining.

They led 2-0 after Presley, whom McIlvaine signed as a free agent in February, hit a bases-loaded single off Giant starter John Burkett.

It looked as if it might be enough for Padre starter Ed Whitson, considering that he did not allow a ball to be hit out of the infield in the first two innings and had a no-hitter through three.

Nope. After Padre first baseman Fred McGriff allowed Will Clark’s sharp grounder to skip through his legs, Kevin Mitchell tied the game with a two-run homer into the left-center seats.

In the seventh inning, with Santiago on second, Abner at the plate and Whitson on deck, Giant Manager Roger Craig decided it be more prudent to pitch to Abner than allow a pinch-hitter to take his cuts. Abner stroked what appeared to be the game-winning hit, a single to center.

The Giants trailed, 3-2, when they took their turn at the plate in the eighth inning. But with their lineup, requesting one run is like asking Michael Jordan if he has another dunk left in his repertoire.

It didn’t matter that Whitson had allowed only two hits the previous seven innings. He walked Robbie Thompson, the Giants’ leadoff hitter. Willie McGee laid down a bunt that was too good for a play to be made. Craig Lefferts entered the game in place of Whitson.

Clark lined a triple over the head of center fielder Abner for a 4-3 lead.

Along came the Padre eighth. Bip Roberts led off with a single to center. Tony Fernandez sacrificed him to second. Gwynn tied the game with a single to center, took second on the throw home and advanced to third on a wild pitch to McGriff.

Santiago hit what proved to be the game-winner, and Jerald Clark followed with an RBI single. Abner’s sacrifice fly scored the final run.