Padres Already Summoning Pitching Help

“Disgusting,” said Andy Benes.

“Tired,” said Craig Lefferts.

The subject was their pitching, and the conversations took place after the Padres’ 11-9 loss to San Francisco on Thursday, an afternoon during which five Padres pitchers gave up 11 runs and 19 hits.

Outfielder Thomas Howard might have more words to describe Padre pitching, but if he does, he is holding them inside.

Because the Padres suddenly are desperate for pitching, they optioned Howard to triple-A Las Vegas after Thursday’s game and recalled left-hander Steve Rosenberg.

Some game, huh? Padre pitchers screw up, and Howard, an innocent bystander, pays.

Rosenberg is supposed to join the team in time for today’s 1:05 p.m. game in Los Angeles. Howard was sitting on the team bus in the San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium parking lot, all set for the trip to Los Angeles, when he was told to visit Manager Greg Riddoch’s office.

He learned he was going on a road trip, all right, but to a different location.

“We gotta get some pitching, so I’m going down,” Howard said after emerging from Riddoch’s office. “It doesn’t bother me, because we ain’t got no pitching.

“I’m mad I have to go down, but what am I gonna do?”

Rosenberg, a lefty, came to the Padres in a March 31 trade with the Chicago White Sox. He allowed nine hits in 11 innings and had a 3.00 ERA for the White Sox this spring and appeared in only one B game with the Padres.

Three games into the season, and the Padres already are pitching-thin. They elected to break spring camp with only 10 pitchers--carrying an extra infielder rather than an extra pitcher--and now realize maybe they should have gone with 11 pitchers, like most teams.

The Padres have won two of three, but they have allowed seven home runs--a major-league high--and 37 hits.

Lefferts has pitched nine of the past 10 days. He and Mike Maddux have pitched in all three games. Rich Rodriguez has pitched twice. Larry Anderson, who earned the save in Tuesday’s season opener, still has a kink in his neck and was unavailable for duty the past two days. His status is day-to-day.

Benes started Thursday and collapsed in the fifth. In order, Benes allowed a single, homer, triple, single, walk and single. He left after that, having allowed six runs, eight hits and three walks in four innings.

“I didn’t get my fastball down, and they swung the bats real well,” Benes said. “Obviously, it was a real disappointing effort.”

Four pitchers later, on came Lefferts. It was the 10th and the score was 9-9. In order, Lefferts allowed a walk, single, single and another single. Score two runs for the Giants.

“The only way I was going to pitch was if we tied it,” Lefferts said. “I was just playing catch (in the bullpen).”

Lefferts wasn’t the only one who received an emergency call. Eric Nolte, scheduled to start Saturday in Los Angeles, warmed up in the bullpen in the 10th because the Padres had run out of pitchers. Things were that bad.

Of course, when you score nine runs and collect 17 hits and still can’t win . . .

“We made some pitches we’d like to forget,” said Mike Roarke, Padre pitching coach.