Padres Still Mystified by Struggles at Home : Baseball: Cubs shell Benes en route to 7-3 victory. Hitter muster little offense against Chicago starter Danny Jackson.

The Padres are getting sick of trying to explain it. Pitcher Andy Benes simply shrugs his shoulders and offers no answers. Padre Manager Greg Riddoch is speechless.

But once again, with a new team in town and facing a pitcher who recently came off the disabled list, the Padres looked like the ones who had the hangover from jet lag, losing 7-3 to the Chicago Cubs.

It’s really nothing new. The crowd of 30,161 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium actually is beginning to get accustomed to this. After all, the Padres have lost 18 of 30 games at home this season. And if you throw out their four-game sweep against the anemic Houston Astros, the Padres have lost 13 of their past 15 home games.

Certainly, no one exemplifies the Padres’ mystifying ways at home than Padre starter Andy Benes, who appears as comfortable at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium as Saddam Hussein would touring the White House.

Benes (4-7) once again showed how he’s Dr. Jekyll on the road but Mr. Hyde at home, lasting only 4 2/3 innings, yielding 10 hits and five earned runs.

In Benes’ seven starts at home this season, he’s 1-5 with a 5.75 ERA, yielding a .321 batting average.

Yet in his six starts on the road, he’s 3-2 with a 1.79 ERA, yielding a .195 batting average.

Go figure.

“I know I haven’t thrown well here,” Benes said. “I haven’t been giving the people here a lot to cheer about when I’ve been out there. Even my best game (April 16 against Cincinnati), I got beat 1-0 here.”

Certainly, no one ever accused San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium of being a paradise for pitchers, considering three other members of the staff have an ERA of at least 4.82 at home, but what it doesn’t explain is is why the Padres’ hitters are struggling.

“That one’s unexplainable,” said Merv Rettenmund, Padre batting coaching. “This is a great hitters’ ballpark.”

There are those, however, who find it much more comforting on the road than at home:

* Left fielder Jerald Clark: .175 at home; .321 on the road.

* Right fielder Tony Gwynn: .330 at home; .387 on the road.

* First baseman Fred McGriff: .260 at home; .294 on the road.

* Leadoff man Bip Roberts: .250 at home; .273 on the road.

The Padres actually spent a lot of time on the basepaths Friday, getting seven hits and seven walks, but couldn’t produce the big hit. They went 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 baserunners.

They actually had a funny feeling moments after the game started that this might be one of those lonely nights at home.

It took all of about five pitches.

Jerome Walton, who had not hit a home run in six weeks, led off the game by hitting a 2-2 pitch into the left-field seats for his second homer of the season and only the ninth of his career.

It was just the beginning for the Cubs, who won their sixth consecutive road game for the first time since 1974. Benes allowed four of the first six batters to reach base, leading to two runs, but was rescued when catcher Benito Santiago threw out Andre Dawson straying off second base.

The Cubs scored again in the third inning when Ryne Sandberg led off with a walk and scored on Dawson’s bloop single to right. And once again Santiago stopped any further damage, this time catching George Bell napping at second.

But Benes never survived the fifth. Walton led off by slapping a ball off the plate for an infield single. Sandberg followed by hitting a double into the left-field corner. Walton scored on Mark Grace’s grounder to second, and Sandberg scored on Bell’s single to left.

Benes induced Dawson into a fly ball to center for the second out, but Luis Salazar singled to left, bringing Riddoch out of the dugout to signal for a reliever.

It was Benes’ shortest outing since April 21, and the second-most hits he has allowed this season. He already had thrown 92 pitches by the time he left the game.

Meanwhile, the Padres’ offense was shackled for five innings by Cub starter Danny Jackson, who was making his second start after spending seven weeks on the disabled list with a strained groin. After Roberts and Tony Fernandez led off the first inning with hits, Jackson retired 14 of the next 17 batters, winning his first game for the Cubs since signing his $10.5 million free-agent contract.

The Padres didn’t get untracked until Jackson left the game, when Darrin Jackson hit a two-run, pinch-hit homer off reliever Chuck McElroy in the seventh inning. It was the Padres’ third pinch-hit homer of the season, but that’s not necessarily a good sign for Jackson. The other two pinch-hit homers were came from Marty Barrett, who was released, and Garry Templeton, who was traded.

The Padres, who trailed, 5-2, threatened to tie the game in the eighth inning, courtesy of three walks, but Santiago flied to center, Jerald Clark hit a sacrifice fly and Thomas Howard fouled out to Berryhill.

The Cubs made sure that there would be no dramatic comeback in the ninth by scoring two runs off Padre reliever Larry Andersen, who entered the game with a 0.61 ERA. Still, even with a 7-3 deficit, the Padres made one last-gasp effort when Roberts led off with a walk, and Fernandez doubled into the right-field corner. It hardly was the ideal situation for Cub bullpen stopper Dave Smith, who watched Tony Gwynn step to the plate and Fred McGriff move to the on-deck circle.

No problem. Third baseman Jose Vizcaino speared Gwynn’s sharply-hit grounder, preventing anyone from moving. McGriff struck out, his batting average plummeting to .279, its lowest since April 22. And Tim Teufel grounded out, ending the game.

It was the Padres’ fourth defeat in the past five games, dropping them to a season-high 5 1/2 games behind the division-leading Dodgers.