Padres Pick Up Where They Left Off, With an Injury, a Loss : Baseball: Hit by McReynolds in the ninth gives Mets a 4-3 victory.

If the first game after the All-Star break was any omen Thursday, the Padres should pack their bags, cancel the rest of the season and lock themselves in the safety of their homes.

The Padres certainly have had crazy days--particularly with their comical history--but after a 4-3 defeat to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium, they had a hard time remembering a more unusual one.

This was taken right out of the Twilight Zone. Then again, a Rod Serling narrative might have seemed more sane.

“This whole season has been crazy,” Padre right-hander Ed Whitson said, “but it seems to be getting crazier by the minute.”

Padre Manager Greg Riddoch should have known this was going to be one of those days he should have called in sick when he ran into Whitson in the clubhouse.

Whitson informed Riddoch that he sustained a gash in his right index finger during the break while adjusting his boat trailer. Whitson said the injury would preclude his making his scheduled start tonight. Moreover, Whitson said his right elbow was killing him, and he would fly Sunday to Alabama to be examined by Dr. James Andrews. He might be out the rest of the season.

So there’s another injury, Riddoch said. The manager has become accustomed to those. The Padres have used the disabled list 12 times this season, Whitson’s injury included. Adam Peterson will be the emergency starter tonight.

But something else was amiss in the clubhouse. It was nearly empty--less than two hours before game time. The team bus still had not arrived.

Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn noticed. He arrived early at Shea Stadium for extra hitting, and, after unpacking his bags, realized he left his uniform in his hotel room. So he called his wife at the hotel and was assured he’d have it when his teammates arrived.

Gwynn waited. Played a few hands of cards. A few more hands. He got tired of cards. He looked at the clock. The Mets had finished their batting practice. And there still was no sign of the bus.

“Uh, anyone seen the bus?” one of the coaches yelled.

The team bus, it turned out, was sitting in the middle of Park Avenue, being weighed. After pulling out of the team hotel, the bus was pulled over. The bus was found to exceed to maximum weight limit for vehicles entering that expressway.

“We were all sitting there,” Padre pitcher Larry Andersen said, “thinking this really can’t be happening. I kept waiting for Batman to pull up in his Batmobile so he could police Gotham City.

“It was incredible. There’s drugs being smuggled all across the state, and they stop us for weighing too much.”

During the wait, Riddoch learned that Bip Roberts still is not ready to play, and he might be out until the weekend.

Roberts, who sustained a bruised right shoulder July 3 while crashing into the center-field wall at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, attempted to take early batting practice, but the pain prevented him from swinging from the right side.

“It’s so frustrating,” Roberts said. “It looks like one of those injuries that’s going to take time. It’s the same thing that (Darryl) Strawberry had.”

And if that weren’t enough to test Riddoch’s mettle, there was the game, the Padres’ 10th defeat in the past 13 contests.

Four Padres were thrown out attempting to steal, equaling the total number of steals they’ve had in the past 14 games. They botched a suicide squeeze in the fourth inning when Paul Faries couldn’t get his bat on a low-and-away pitch with two strikes, resulting in a double play. They left the bases loaded in the eighth inning when pinch-hitter Darrin Jackson hit an infield pop-up. Catcher Benito Santiago forgot how many outs there were in an inning.

And the Mets won the game in the ninth inning after an intentional walk.

After Riddoch ordered pinch-hitter Garry Templeton walked, another ex-Padre, Kevin McReynolds, hit a two-out single up the middle for the game-winning run.

No wonder Padre outfielder Shawn Abner, who was surprised he wasn’t traded during the All-Star break, said: “Get me out of here. It’s crazy. This whole thing is crazy.

“They don’t want me to play. They don’t want me to do nothing. They don’t want to trade me.

“What’s going on around here?”

Riddoch was left fending for himself once again in the ninth inning with a tactical maneuver that favored the percentages, but backfired.

The situation unfolded with two outs in the ninth. Gregg Jefferies was at second base, first base was open, and Templeton was at the plate. Riddoch went to the mound and asked Andersen if he thought it might be a better idea to pitch to on-deck hitter Kevin McReynolds than Templeton.

Templeton was hitting only .234 left-handed, compared to .391 right-handed. But he also had a .476 (10 for 21) batting average against Andersen in his career. And McReynolds owned a .143 (three for 21) career average against Andersen.

The decision was to pitch to McReynolds, despite his .397 batting average the past 20 games. Andersen fell behind 2-and-0 to McReynolds, threw the next pitch for a strike, and then watched the next squirt past him into center for the game-winning run.

“I didn’t think they’d pitch to me,” Templeton said, smiling coyly. “They know what I can do.”

Said Teufel: “It’s ironic, isn’t it. They intentionally walk me in a big situation (in the eighth inning). They intentionally walked Tempy. Man, where was all this respect before we got traded for each other.”

Santiago tied a team-record with three doubles. He threw out a baserunner from his stomach. He was thrown out trying to steal third himself. And he forgot how many outs there were in an inning.

Santiago’s faux pas was set up after the Padres tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fourth when center fielder Mark Carreon dropped Teufel’s fly ball for a three-base error.

In the bottom of the fourth, Howard Johnson led off with a double. That brought up Hubie Brooks, who hit a solo homer off Padre starter Bruce Hurst in the second inning. This time, he grounded out to shortstop Tony Fernandez. Dave Magadan then was caught looking for a third strike. For the second out .

Santiago, apparently caught up in the excitement, pounded his glove, and rolled the ball to the mound as he headed off for the Padre dugout. Hurst ran off the mound, quickly scooped up the ball and yelled toward Santiago.

“Two outs, Benny, two outs,” Hurst said, raising two fingers in the air.

Santiago, embarrassed, trudged back behind the plate, asked home-plate umpire Gary Darling if there really were only two outs, and when Darling confirmed, Santiago crouched behind the plate again.

“I looked at the scoreboard and saw two outs,” Santiago said. “I thought the inning was over. Someone might say they don’t know if my head was in the game, but it was right there.”

It was that kind of night.