PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK / BOB NIGHTENGALE : Team Still Waiting for Offense

The Padres might have defeated the Mets, 2-1, ending their losing streak, but they left Shea Stadium still feeling awfully embarrassed about their offense, and wondering when they’re going to awaken.

The Padres are batting .160 over the past six games, and not so coincidentally, the Padres have won only one game. They’ve also only scored six earned runs during this stretch--four on home runs.

Even their homers have been disappointing, with their past 13 homers all been solo shots, including 15 of the past 16.

So considering their woes of late, one can imagine how they felt Sunday during the first inning.

Bip Roberts opened the game by walking on four pitches. Mets starter Ron Darling, trying to keep Roberts close, then balked. Tony Fernandez followed by hitting a drive to deep right field. Mackey Sasser, playing the outfield for the first time, was fooled on the ball. He realized late that the ball was going over his head before he started running back toward the wall.

Roberts, seeing that Sasser had misjudged the ball, took off running toward third. Fernandez started to round first thinking he had at least a double, maybe a triple. Sasser just knew he was in trouble.

He ran back toward the wall, looked up at the last second, and made a brilliant one-handed grab before crashing into the wall. Considering he’s a catcher by trade, the impact didn’t faze him in the least. He threw the ball quickly into the infield, and easily doubled-up Roberts for a double play.

Tony Gwynn, however, followed with a drive to right that was carrying towards the Mets’ bullpen. This time, Sasser went back just like he knew what he was doing. He went right to the wall. Braced his arm against the wall. Leaped. And caught the ball, robbing Gwynn of a home run.

The crowd started screaming, chanting, “Mackey, Mackey, Mackey.”

Gwynn started cursing, and the name he was chanting wasn’t Sasser’s.

“You know, I didn’t hit it that good,” Gwynn said, “I thought it was just a fly ball to right field. Then, when I saw him go over the fence and get it, I got mad. Man, that was a catcher that did it to me.

“After the fourth inning, he ran by me and said, ‘Tony, I’m a Gold Glover out there.’

“Baby, that dug in deep.”

Padre catcher Benito Santiago left the game in the fifth inning Sunday after he was hit in the groin area when a ball bounced off the plate with Greg Harris pitching to Kevin Elster. He tried to stay in the game, but felt feint, and spent the rest of the game in the clubhouse.

“I was listening to the game on the radio,” Santiago said, “and I thought, ‘Man, he’s (Harris) going to throw a no-hitter and I’m going to miss it.”’

Santiago said he felt fine after the game, but the Padres are expected to rest him today in the first game against the Montreal Expos and start Dann Bilardello.

Even if Harris and Bilardello had teamed up for a no-hitter, it wouldn’t have been the first for either of them.

Harris threw a no-hitter against Midland, Tex., in 1987, while pitching for double-A Wichita.

Bilardello caught a no-hitter thrown by Luis Aquino at triple-A Omaha in 1988 while in the Kansas City Royals’ system.

“But we both know it’s not the same feeling as it would have been today,” Bilardello said. “We had a chance to make history.”

Fred McGriff usually hates to rate his homers, but after his blast cleared the outfield bleachers at Shea Stadium Sunday, some 435 feet away, he didn’t hesitate to say it was the best of the season.

“That one felt great,” said McGriff, breaking into an expansive smile. “I think I’m coming out of it. I’ve been feeling pretty good lately, the results just haven’t been there. Today, I tried the Walt Hrniak (White Sox hitting coach) approach, and it seemed to work.

“It’s a good feeling when I hit one like the one today, because when I hit it good, it has a chance of carrying.”

The Padres’ worst offensive statistic, according to Merv Rettenmund, Padre batting coach:

They have struck out 568 times this season, and have walked only 281 times.

“That’s absolutely terrible,” Rettenmund said.

The Mets’ 10-game winning streak was just the fourth winning streak of at least 10 games in the National League since 1985, and the Mets have had three of them. The Houston Astros are the only other team to accomplish the feat when they won 10 in a row from May 26-June 4, 1989. . . . When Met starter Dwight Gooden recorded his 1,500th career strikeout Thursday at the age of 26, he became the second-youngest pitcher to reach that plateau among the top 25 strikeout pitchers in baseball. Only Bert Blyleven, at age 25, was younger when he recorded his 1,500th strikeout in 1976 with the Minnesota Twins. . . . When the Mets played host to their Sports Illustrated for Kids promotion Saturday, guess who was on the cover? Yep, Darryl Strawberry.