Cone Gives Padres Whiff of Distress : Baseball: Mets right-hander strikes out 13 in 3-1 victory. Padres’ meeting fails to prevent fifth consecutive loss.

Tony Gwynn looked at the bulletin board Saturday in the Padre clubhouse and cringed. Goosebumps sprouted on his arms. Repulsive thoughts ran through his head.

Players meeting, 6:30 p.m.

“I’ve got to admit, I had flashbacks,” said Gwynn, who became the Padres’ all-time leader in games played (1,287) Saturday, passing Garry Templeton. “Man, I didn’t feel too good.”

Indeed, this was the site of the Padres’ infamous team meeting of a year ago. But instead of Jack Clark throwing soft-drink cans against the wall, blasting away at Gwynn and creating turmoil that would endure all season, the intent of Saturday’s meeting was to make sure the Padres wouldn’t accept this ugly habit of losing.

So they clapped their hands, charged onto the field and spent the rest of the night wailing away in frustration, losing 3-1 to the New York Mets in front of 33,139 at Shea Stadium.

In the tender words of Gwynn, “I don’t want to make excuses, but we got the ball shoved down our throats.”

The Padres, who lost their fifth consecutive game and their 12th of the past 15, struck out a season-high 14 times, 13 against Mets starter David Cone.

They now have the honor of having struck out more times this season than any team in baseball with the exception of the Detroit Tigers. The Padres have whiffed 562 times, with 11 games of 10 or more, including three in the past seven games.

And while the Tigers have 588 strikeouts, they also have hit a major league-leading 107 home runs, 49 more than the Padres.

Cone never even gave the Padres a chance on this night, and if it wasn’t for Padre pitcher Dennis Rasmussen’s offensive performance, Cone likely would have had a shutout to go along with his career high-equaling strikeout total.

He made the Padres look silly enough as it was. Three were three different Padres who struck out three times--Bip Roberts, Jerald Clark and Benito Santiago. He struck out everyone but Gwynn and Rasmussen. Four times he ended an inning by striking out a batter with a baserunner in scoring position. Only once did he go more than three batters without a strikeout.

“Cone is an unbelievable pitcher,” Gwynn said. “I don’t see why he doesn’t win 30 games a year.”

Said Merv Rettenmund, Padre hitting coach: “He’s got the best stuff in the league. He’s got three pitches, and he can knock you dead on any of them.”

The Padres weren’t shrewd in their choice of days to select a team meeting. You don’t have meetings when you’re about to face a pitcher the caliber of Cone (9-5).

Maybe the talk could have pumped up the Padres a bit, but after they watched Cone strike out leadoff hitter Roberts on three pitches, Tony Fernandez on four and induce a fly ball from Gwynn, they knew it was going to be one of those nights.

“We’ve been losing a lot lately,” Gwynn said, “so we had the meeting to make sure we weren’t getting complacent. We didn’t want anyone to get used to this. We didn’t want to start accepting defeat.

“I still think we gave a good effort, but thank God for the wild pitches, or else we never would have scored.”

The Padres’ lone dose of offense occurred in the third inning when Rasmussen hit a sharp one-out single to center. He went to second on catcher Rick Cerone’s passed ball and to third on Roberts’ grounder to second base. Rasmussen scored on a wild pitch.

And that was it for the the Padres’ offense.

Although not nearly as sensational as Cone, Rasmussen kept the Padres tied, 1-1, entering the eighth inning. The only run he had allowed came on Cone’s groundout with the bases loaded in the second, scoring Hubie Brooks.

Rasmussen, who escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning, opened the eighth by retiring Kevin McReynolds, but then gave up a single off the end of Howard Johnson’s bat. He followed by walking Hubie Brooks on four pitches, his sixth walk of the game.

That brought out Padre Manager Greg Riddoch. Rasmussen didn’t want to leave the game, but after 115 pitches, Riddoch decided it was time to bring in left-hander Craig Lefferts.

Lefferts immediately fell behind 2-and-0 to Mark Carreon. He threw a slider over the plate for the next pitch. The pitch broke Carreon’s bat, but he forced it into center field in front of Thomas Howard.

Johnson rounded third. Howard scooped up the ball and threw on the run. The ball and Johnson arrived almost at the same time, but Santiago was not blocking the plate and Johnson was able to slide by for the winning run. The Mets scored another when Roberts double-clutched and couldn’t turn an inning-ending double play, but the damage already was done.

The Padres (40-46) fell a season-high 11 games behind the division-leading Dodgers and a season-high four games out of third place.

They are batting .159 during their losing streak. And they are averaging 1.6 runs a game.

Little wonder why the most exhilarating moment for the crowd was when Donald Trump and Marla Maples were spotted in the fifth inning, surrounded by bodyguards and Mets’ security as they changed seats.

Perhaps this is why Padre first baseman Fred McGriff said, “You can have all the meetings you want, but the bottom line is you’ve got to do it on the field, and we’re not doing that.”

The defeat also spoiled what should have been a celebratory night for Gwynn, who was hitless for the second consecutive game. It’s the first time that happened since May 9-10--and only the third time this season.

“It’s nice to become the all-time leader,” Gwynn said, “but I’m not ready to stop now. I want to keep on putting up numbers that nobody will touch. And as long as I could do what I’m doing, I’m going to keep on playing until they tell me to stop.

“Really, it’s been great. It’s just that I’m not too crazy about these team meetings in New York.”