Reds Find Way to Be Just Offensive : Baseball: Cincinnati is hitting, bickering and winning. The Padres lose, 6-2.

Cincinnati Reds Manager Lou Piniella’s right foot was sore Wednesday night after kicking the bench in a rage. Reliever Randy Myers was hiding in the trainers’ room, still incensed with the media. And bullpen stopper Rob Dibble was complaining about the Reds’ management.

The Reds are back.

“I’m not sure if they ever went away,” Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said.

The Reds knocked off the Padres, 6-2, Wednesday night at Riverfront Stadium, and are beginning to scare the daylights out of the league.

After winning 12 of their past 17 games, the Reds (38-32) moved to six games over .500 for the first time this season, and proved they’re not about to let the Dodgers win this division uncontested.

“All we want to do is stay close, stay close,” Piniella said, “and that’s what we’re doing. You know, I think we’ll be all right.”

This was a team that just a few weeks ago appeared to be on the verge of dropping out of the National League West race. Starter Norm Charlton went on the disabled list for the second time. Starter Jose Rijo broke his right ankle. All-Star outfielder Eric Davis already was on the disabled list. And shortstop Barry Larkin and second baseman Bill Doran were just returning from the DL.

“I’ll tell you, it was a little frightening,” said Piniella, who went berserk in the fourth inning after Joe Oliver was called out for leaving third base too early on a sacrifice, kicking the dugout bench and slamming an ice chest. “If we didn’t do something, our season could have been over.”

Then along came the offense.

After having the worst offense in the National League the first two months, batting .234, the Reds have come out of hiding. They’re hitting .302 over their past 21 games, with at least 10 hits in 12 of the past 17 games.

“Their offense is as good as anybody’s,” said Padre starter Dennis Rasmussen, who gave up a season-high 10 hits and four runs (three earned) in six innings. “They make it pretty frustrating on you, especially what they did tonight.”

The Reds now have hit two home runs in each of the past five games, but more spectacular has been the guys who have been hitting them.

It was excruciating enough for the Padres Tuesday night watching Jeff Reed hit his first grand-slam and second homer of the season, and Herm Winningham hit his first. But somehow Wednesday, the Reds managed to make Reed and Winningham look like Mantle and Maris.

Pitcher Scott Scudder came into the game with a career .115 batting average. Not only he had never never hit a home run, he had only two RBIs in his entire career.

That was Scudder leading off the third inning with a home run over the left-field seats.

After Billy Hatcher flied out, Mariano Duncan was up next. He was in a six-for-56 slump (.107) coming into the game, with only seven extra-base hits and one home run. Two pitches later, Duncan was hitting a shot into the right-field seats.

And just like that, the last four home runs hit by the Reds were achieved by a quartet who previously had only four.

The Reds, who have had 15 of their 22 runs in the past three games scored in only three innings, continued their big-inning binge after Duncan’s homer. Larkin singled to right, Chris Sabo walked, and they pulled off a double steal. Padre catcher Benito Santiago threw to second trying to get Sabo, but his ball sailed over the head of second baseman Bip Roberts, allowing Larkin to score and Sabo to third. Glenn Braggs then hit a bouncer to third, enabling Sabo to score, completing the four-run inning.

And once again, one inning was all they needed. Scudder allowed four hits in 6 1/3 innings for his third victory, and reliever Randy Myers, who’s upset at the media for printing his comments that he would soon be traded to the Mets, pitched 2 2/3 shutout innings for his sixth save.

“A lot of people have been asking questions, ‘What’s going to happen to Cincinnati now that Charlton and Rijo are out of the rotation,’ ” Duncan said. “We miss those two guys because they’re great pitchers. But there’s nothing we can do about it. They’re out. We still have to play, whether they’re here or not.”

Said Dibble: “If this team is smart, they’ll put Charlton back in the bullpen where he belongs. I think it’s a pretty easy decision.”

The only offense the Padres were able to muster came in the top of the fourth when first baseman Fred McGriff hit a monstrous 449-foot home run into the center field seats. It was the longest home run hit at Riverfront Stadium this season, and McGriff’s first homer in 37 at-bats, and his 15th of the season.

It also virtually assured his spot on the National League All-Star team. Piniella said before Wednesday’s game that McGriff likely will be chosen for the All-Star game.

“I’m trying not to get too excited about it,” McGriff said, “because I’ve been let down plenty of times before. That’s why I’ve already made plane reservations for Tampa. If I don’t make it, I’ll just go home and relax.

“But it sure would be special if I made it, just to say I played in an All-Star game. And if you get there one time, then I think you’ll always have a good chance of getting back in.”

That was to be the extent of McGriff’s pleasure for the evening, and the last remains of the Padre offense until the seventh.

The Padres, trailing 4-2, managed to load the bases with two outs in the seventh inning after knocking Scudder out of the game. The pitcher was Myers. The batter was Gwynn, who was hitting .442 with runners in scoring position and .500 with the bases loaded.

Myers quickly got ahead of Gwynn with two strikes, but before he knew it, the count was full, and the runners were going. Gwynn fouled off one pitch. Then another. But the next was a bouncer hit right to Larkin, who threw out Gwynn, ending the Padres’ threat.

The Reds left the Padres’ top of the order completely frustrated the entire evening. Remarkably, none of the top three hitters in the lineup were able to even hit the ball out of the infield, and leadoff Bip Roberts left the game in the seventh feeling sick to his stomach after going zero for four with three strikeouts. Roberts’ status is unknown today.