Benes’ Winless Skid Ends at 14 : Baseball: The Padre pitcher went 6 2/3 innings as he defeated the New York Mets, 5-2. Tony Gwynn hit a first-inning home run off David Cone.

There were no bottles of champagne awaiting. He didn’t stick a victory stogie in his mouth. Padre pitcher Andy Benes just calmly dressed, and headed on home for a late-night dinner Monday, just as if this were another night.

Only this game, Benes knows, was much different. This night, for the first time in 14 starts, Benes was the winning pitcher, beating the New York Mets, 5-2, in front of a crowd of 14,158 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“I know it’s been a long, long time,” Benes said, “but I promised myself I wasn’t going to live or die with each start. And I’ve lived with that promise.

“Good thing, or else I’d have torn all my hair out by this time.”

It was the Mets who started Benes’ winless streak in the first place, back on Aug. 29, 1990, with a 2-1 defeat at Shea Stadium. It had been so long ago, Benes said, that he couldn’t remember the details. Hey, who could blame him. Much has happened in this world the past 262 days:

10) Doug Drabek has gone from a Cy Young winner to a Cy Young bust.

9) The UNLV basketball has has gone on probation, gone off probation, lost the NCAA championship anyway, and is back on probation.

8) The drought in California turned from a severe threat into an afterthought.

7) Bo Jackson finished his baseball season, football season, and perhaps his career.

6) The Persian Gulf War has come and gone.

5) The NBA and NHL seasons opened training camps, completed their regular seasons, and are almost done with their playoffs.

4) George Foreman went from being a fat slob to being a rich, respected, fat slob.

3) Roger Clemens has won nine games and taken an avid interest in lip-reading.

2) Lisa Olson has become the most famous woman sportswriter in America.

1) Donald Trump has gone from Ivana to Marla Maples to Rowanne Brewer to Marla again.

“Yeah, it’d been awhile,” Benes said, shrugging his shoulders.

In truth, Benes hasn’t pitched nearly as poorly as the winless streak would indicate, although the Padres lost 11 of the games. Since his last victory Aug. 24, 1990, against the Montreal Expos, Benes has had a respectable 3.90 ERA, pitching at least six innings in 10 his starts.

The biggest problem was that his teammates scored an average of only 2.7 runs a game for him during those 13 starts, and two or fewer runs in eight of them. But this time, the man whose last homer dated back to before Benes’ last victory, right fielder Tony Gwynn, provided the offensive thrust.

Gwynn, whose last homer was July 15, 1990, hit the first homer of his career off Met starter David Cone in the first inning, a span of 363 at-bats. In fact, no one in the National League had gone longer without a homer, with that feat now belonging to Padre shortstop Tony Fernandez.

“When I was rounding the bases,” said Gwynn, who’s nursing a sore left pinkie finger, “I was thinking, ‘I just blew my goal of not hitting any home runs this year.’ I was thinking it would be nice to drive in 70 to 80 runs and not hit a homer.

“With all of the RBI opportunities I’m getting, I don’t need to hit homers. I can drive in runs by just putting the ball in play.”

Benes, who allowed five hits and two runs in 6 2/3 innings, breezed along and was protecting a 3-0 lead until the seventh when Howard Johnson hit a two-run homer into the right-field seats. He left the game with runners on first and second, and Mark Carreon, who’s batting .625 with three homers as a pinch-hitter, at the plate.

Left-handed reliever Steve Rosenberg came in and calmly induced a ground ball by Carreon, ending the inning. Padre catcher Benito Santiago put the game out of reach in the eighth with a two-run homer, and Craig Lefferts closed the door, snapping the Padres’ five-game losing streak.

And if the Padres didn’t have enough reason to be elated Monday night, they were rejoicing over their latest Bip Roberts experiment.

Roberts found himself starting in center field for only the second time in his major league career Monday, and the first since Aug. 6, 1989. The last time he regularly played the position was in triple-A Las Vegas in 1987.

“Hey, does this mean I’m out of second for good,” Roberts said, smiling.

Who knows, but considering his problems turning the double play, the Padres decided to see just how he looks in center, albeit he’d never even taken fly balls in center during spring training.

“I just want to take a peek at him out there, that’s all,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said. “It’s a convenient time because of the way we’ve been playing. It’s not like we’re disrupting something.

“It’ll be for more than one game, but we’re not prepared to do it permanently.”

Said Joe McIlvaine, Padre general manager: “I think he has the capabilities to be a good one, but then again, I thought Juan Samuel would be one too. He had a stronger arm than Bip. He was faster than Bip. But he just couldn’t catch a fly ball.

“I want to see it for myself.”

If one game is any indication, Roberts looked like he’d been playing center his whole career. He was tested immediately when Vince Coleman hit the first pitch of the game to him. Roberts camped under the fly ball, raised his second-base glove, and caught it. He ended up making four put-outs, and handled eight chances without the slightest hint of trouble.

If it sounds like the Padres are experimenting, just as if they were in spring training, well, yes. But then again, considering their pitching woes of late, everything else should be of little consequence.

The Padre pitching staff has a 4.30 ERA, the worst in the National League entering the game, and they have allowed more hits (309) than any team in the major leagues.

“The problem right now is that you’re asking your eighth, ninth and 10th guys,” McIlvaine said, “to become your fourth, fifth and six guys. That’s the problem. Basically, they’re separating themselves.

“Everybody’s looking for pitching right now. The easiest thing to do would be to sign (Andy) Hawkins or Fernando (Valenzuela). But that’s not the answer. That’s a Band-Aid solution.

“We’ve just got to be patient.”