Padres Stir Giant Fire Even More : Baseball: Padres’ 4-2 victory adds to controversy already swirling in San Francisco, where Craig’s job or Mitchell’s future as a Giant might be in jeopardy.

It happened in New York. It happened in San Diego. Now nearly four years to the day after the last trade, San Francisco Giant outfielder Kevin Mitchell senses it again.

He’s going to be traded. He doesn’t know where. He doesn’t know for whom. But the hints and clues are out there for the world to see.

The Padres’ 4-2 victory Friday night over the Giants--in which Padre starter Ed Whitson recorded his first victory since May 20--proved to be a mere sub-plot to the controversy surrounding Mitchell, the focal point of a 20-minute closed-door team meeting before Friday’s game.

Mitchell was criticized anonymously by several teammates in a column published Friday morning in the San Francisco Chronicle, blaming Giant Manager Roger Craig for providing Mitchell preferential treatment. It also inferred that his teammates would like to see him traded.

What it didn’t say is that the Giants, according to two baseball executives, likely will attempt to trade Mitchell in the second half of the season, and expect him to be gone by the start of the 1992 season.

“If they want to get rid of me,” Mitchell said, “what can I do? What can I say? I don’t want to go, but I don’t have a choice, either.”

Mitchell, who still leads the Giants with 14 homers and has 32 RBIs despite missing 33 games with knee surgery, says he was unaware of his teammates’ opinion of him. Then again, he says he doesn’t give a darn, either.

“They’re probably jealous of me,” said Mitchell, who is in the first year of a four-year, $15 million contract. “They don’t know me from the inside. They don’t try to get to know me. How do they know me?

“What am I supposed to do, come in here and hug everybody every day?

“If I’m out there doing my job, what else do they want from me?”

The Giant players’ chief complaints with Mitchell is that he often arrives late to games. He doesn’t participate with the team during stretching exercises. And he was allowed to miss a recent exhibition game in Phoenix in which the rest of the team was required to attend.

“That’s between Kevin and I,” Craig said. “Kevin is a different person, as you all know. He’s a loner. He doesn’t like the limelight.

“I let him do certain things, personal things, that I don’t tell nobody.”

For the first time Friday, Mitchell revealed the reason for his tardiness is that he has been attending a counseling program because of a civil suit filed against him two years ago by his ex-girlfriend. His former girlfriend charged that Mitchell beat her at their Foster City, Calif., apartment, and also threatened her with a gun.

In a plea agreement, Mitchell said Friday, he was required to attend 24 counseling sessions, which he completed with his last visit Friday afternoon.

“That’s why I came late,” Mitchell said, “I had to complete the program. And now it’s done.

“But I don’t understand why people should get upset if I’m not stretching. I’m still out there playing. I was doing my exercises.

“If (the players) don’t like the way I’m stretching, put me on their own program.”

Mitchell vows that he won’t allow his teammates’ criticism to affect his play. And Craig says he’s not about to let anonymous opinions tear apart his clubhouse. Yet, the Giants lost their fourth consecutive game and dropped to 33-46, 14 1/2 games behind the Dodgers. It’s apparent they have big problems.

After spending $33 million in the off-season on free agents, the Giants have managed the second-worst earned-run average in the National League, and only the Houston Astros and Montreal Expos have scored fewer runs.

The Padres’ Whitson, who has won all four of his games on the road this season, didn’t allow a runner to reach second base until Matt Williams hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning. The bullpen combination of Rich Rodriguez and Mike Maddux did the rest, pitching three scoreless innings, with Maddux picking up his second save of the season.

The Padre offense actually did what the Giants should have been doing all season--blasting home runs. Fred McGriff and Benito Santiago each hit solo homers in the second inning--only the second time this season the Padres had two homers in the same inning.

The Padres extended their lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning when center fielder Darrin Jackson hit his eighth homer of the season. Jackson, who went three for four and raised his batting average to .250, is averaging one homer every 14 at-bats, the fewest at-bats per homer on the team. And just when the Giants threatened to make a game of it with Williams’ two-run homer, Jackson foiled them again, hitting a two-out single in the seventh to score Scott Coolbaugh.

“I always knew I could do it if I got the chance,” Jackson said, “but I’ve never gotten that chance. No one knows if I can be an everyday player because I’ve never been one.

“Maybe, someday, who knows?”

The victory allowed the Padres (40-41) to gain a game on the Dodgers, moving within 8 1/2 games of the division lead. For the Giants, their problems simply continue, and there appears to be no end in sight.