Roberts Delivers in the 11th : Baseball: His single gives Padres 2-1 victory over Montreal, but Gwynn’s slump continues.

Tony Gwynn studied the lineup posted in Padre clubhouse for several moments Tuesday afternoon when he decided to take action.

Careful not to be detected, Gwynn did a little rearranging of the lineup board, slid one namecard here, another there, and when he was done, he was batting ninth in the order.

“That’s where I belong,” said Gwynn, the No. 3 hitter, “the way I’ve been hitting.”

Gwynn, the Padres’ four-time batting champion, indeed might be mired in his deepest slump of the season, but if anyone’s looking for him to crack, they’ve got the wrong guy.

While the Padres defeated the Montreal Expos 2-1 in 11 innings on Bip Roberts’ two-out single, the focus again remained on Gwynn, whose slump continued.

Gwynn, despite getting his first extra-base hit in 16 games when he doubled in the 10th inning, went one for five, dropping his batting average to .337--the lowest since May 19.

“I have to get used to it,” Gwynn said of the attention, “because I just know that’s the way it’s going to be with me. Everything’s magnified because of what I’ve done, and people are going to disect what’s going wrong.

“But I’m not going to lose my sanity over this.”

He then paused, smiled weakly, and said, “At least not yet.”

Gwynn’s grief was eased, however, when the Padres were able to pull out the victory. After the Expos tied the game in the eighth inning to send the game into extra innings, the Padres started a two-out rally in the 11th.

Thomas Howard started the rally with a two-out single to center off reliever Dave Schmidt. Pinch-hitter Darrin Jackson then walked. And on an 0-1 fastball, Roberts hit a single to right field for his third hit of the game, easily scoring Howard for the game-winner.

The crowd of 14,007 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium went into the parking lot rejoicing, headed to their cars, and then began discussing what’s wrong with Gwynn.

Gwynn, who was batting .371 only a month ago, is in a five-for-38 skid. He has only two extra-base hits and two RBIs this month. And although it hardly seems possible, and certainly not fair, even Padre fans have become openly critical.

“I may not like it,” Gwynn said, “but their reaction doesn’t surprise me. It just goes to show you if you’re going through a real tough spell, nobody’s immune from being booed.

“To tell you the truth, I’ve come to exect a lot of different thing that happen here.”

Gwynn’s slump began in San Francisco when he went two for 10 in the three-game series before the All-Star break. Yet he had two hits in the All-Star Game and came back with two hits in his first game after the break in New York.

“I thought I got it back,” Gwynn said, “but then it disappeared again. And I’m still trying to find it.”

Considering Gwynn has lost more than 30 points on his batting average, you’d think that he’d be coming into the Padre clubhouse each day in a volatile mood. You’d think he’d be snapping at reporters, yelling at his teammates and wanting nothing to do with anyone.

“Even my family’s surprised at the way I’ve taken this,” Gwynn said. “We were talking about it this morning. They said, ‘Dad, how come you haven’t gone off yet? How come you haven’t gone off the deep end yet?’

“But I learned a long time ago, you have to learn to deal with failure. There was a lot of attention on me when things were going well. Now, when things aren’t going well, it’s only fair the attention comes back at me, too.

“Sure, it hurts what I’m going through. It eats at me every day. But I’m not going to let it change me.”

Gwynn, trying to forget all about baseball for a day, went deep-sea fishing Monday with teammates Jerald Clark and Darrin Jackson. They spent the talking about anything, and everything . . . except baseball. It was a day that Gwynn needed simply for mental rest.

“I didn’t even think about baseball,” Gwynn said.

When their day was done, Gwynn drove home, pulled into the garage, said hello to the family, and went right to the backyard and started hitting off the batting tee.

Gwynn, who has changed bats, wrist bands, shoes and gloves during his slump, picked up batting coach Merv Rettenmund on his way to the stadium and vowed to himself the skid would be ending. He batted off the tee in the early afternoon. He took early batting practice. He was ready to end this crazy thing.

So what happens? He lined out to left field in his first at-bat. He lined to center in his next at-bat. He hit two one-hoppers back to the mound. And he ended his night with a double to right-center.

“I know it’s going to turn, I just know it,” Gwynn said. “And when it turns, hopefully it’ll turn with a vengeance.”

In the meantime, Padre starter Andy Benes (4-10) continues to wait for his time to come. He has won only four of his past 26 starts, and was within five outs of winning for the first time since June 9 when it happened again.

Benes, who retired 13 of their past 15 batters, opened the eighth inning by striking out Marquis Grisson. Ivan Calderon then hit a single through the hole into right field. Tim Wallach followed by walking on four pitches, and for the first time since the third inning, the Expos had a baserunner reaching second base.

Mike Roarke, Padre pitching coach, went out to talk to Benes, but although relievers Craig Lefferts and Larry Andersen were warming up, Benes was allowed to stay in the game. Dave Martinez then hit a grounder to second baseman Bip Roberts, forcing Wallach at second for the second out.

That brought up Andres Galarraga, who had doubled and singled in his previous three at-bats against Benes. Padre Manager Greg Riddoch stuck with Benes . . . and paid the price. Galarraga ripped the first pitch into right field, scoring, Calderon, tying the game at 1-1. Benes was able to get out of his own jam, however, when Ron Hassey grounded to shortstop Tony Fernandez.

The game remained tied until Roberts’ heroics in the 11th.