Padres Stay in Tailspin : Baseball: Cincinnati feasts on Hurst in 7-3 victory. Padres’ loss is their eighth in nine games.

The sound of sirens screeched through the air Friday night. The Riverfront Stadium scoreboard flashed warnings. Tornadoes were spotted only 20 miles away, with winds gusting as high as 100 m.p.h.

The tornado that decked the Padres, however, was wearing a Reds uniform, blowing past the Padres, 7-3, leaving them dazed and wondering how much worse it can become.

The Padres (16-19), in a complete free fall, have lost eight of their past nine games and 13 of 18.

Instead of talking about first place, the Padres are talking about how they’re not in last place. Instead of talking about proving people wrong, the Padres now are talking about simply being competitive. And instead of showing any signs of confidence in their bullpen, the Padres have virtually disregarded any notion of their competence.

Who knows what would have happened if Padre Manager Greg Riddoch had summoned a reliever to help starter Bruce Hurst in the sixth inning before blowing a 3-0 lead? Who knows what would have happened if Riddoch had pulled Hurst in the seventh inning, before the Reds took a 5-3 lead? What is known is that every decision backfired.

It wasn’t until Hurst had allowed seven hits in a span of nine batters--one homer, two doubles and four singles--that Riddoch lifted Hurst. And for the second game in a row, Riddoch was second-guessed for his handling of Hurst, leaving him in too long on this night and pulling him too quickly in his last outing Sunday.

“He’s my best pitcher right now,” Riddoch said, defending his decision. “Maybe if we had done a better job lately, I would have gone to the bullpen. We just haven’t had that type of consistency. Plus, I wanted to show confidence in him where he could win the thing.”

Instead, Padres lost the lead in the sixth inning or later for the fourth time in the past eight games.

“Those are the kind that kill you,” Padre center fielder Bip Roberts said. “It takes days to recover. You try to battle back, but when games are being taken away from you like this, man, it’s tough to recover.

“I mean, we were sailing along tonight, and boom, the tornado winds hit us, and we didn’t know how to act. The Reds played nine innings and hung tough, but, hey, that’s something we just haven’t done.”

The Padres managed to play the first five innings like gangbusters, doing everything to perfection, but by the time the game ended, they looked like a mobile home caught in a whirlwind, spinning into the night.

They owned a 3-0 lead through the first five innings, and the way Hurst was pitching, it appeared only to be a question of whether he’d get a shutout. He only allowed two hits through five innings, and no runner reached second base.

But in the sixth, after retiring catcher Joe Oliver on a ground ball, Hurst fell apart. His first pitch to pinch-hitter Glenn Braggs was a fastball. Hurst and catcher Benito Santiago could only watch as Braggs belted it into the left-field seats.

“It looked like it was on a tee,” Braggs said. “It was a fastball, a nice one to hit.”

It was only the beginning. Billy Hatcher followed with a single to right field. Then came another single by Mariano Duncan. A double by Hal Morris. An intentional walk. Another single . . .

Left fielder Thomas Howard’s throw to the plate, nailing Paul O’Neill, kept the inning from continuing, but the 3-0 lead had turned into a 3-3 tie.

Since Hurst was scheduled to lead off the seventh, Riddoch briefly considered using a pinch-hitter. But instead, he decided to leave Hurst in the game. Hurst struck out, and two batters later was back on the mound.

After getting leadoff hitter Luis Quinones to ground out, Oliver hit a single that bounced off the glove of third baseman Scott Coolbaugh into left field. Braggs followed with a double into the left-field corner. And with runners on second and third, Riddoch summoned right-handed reliever Mike Maddux.

With the infield playing in, Maddux induced Hatcher to hit a high one-hopper to second baseman Paul Faries. He hesitated momentarily, threw home, and pinch-runner Barry Larkin slid safely under the tag. Mariano Duncan, who achieved his first four-hit game since 1985 when he was a Dodger, then executed a suicide squeeze, and the Reds had a 5-3 lead.

By the time the game ended, third-base coach Jim Snyder (substituting for Bruce Kimm who was attending his son’s high-school graduation), was ejected from the game for arguing a called third strike, right fielder Tony Gwynn struck out swinging for the first time this season, Maddux dropped a throw from first baseman Fred McGriff that accounted for two more runs, and Riddoch was being asked when he had Garry Templeton (.176) pinch-hit for Scott Coolbaugh (.421) in the eighth inning against Rob Dibble.

“We’re just in one of those ruts,” Gwynn said. “Even when we were winning early, I kept saying we were on a wave, let’s just ride it to the end.

“Well, ladies and gentleman, it’s ended. We’re looking for a break, and it’s nowhere to be found.”