PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Faries Sent Back to Minors

Although Manager Greg Riddoch wouldn’t make it official, it became apparent Thursday that the Padres would have a new shortstop for tonight’s game against the New York Mets at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Utility infielder Paul Faries was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas after the Padres’ 6-5 victory over the Montreal Expos. Riddoch declined to say who would be called up to replace Faries, but shortstop Tony Fernandez, who has a sore thumb, let the news leak by telling reporters that he was taking tonight off.

This meant that, barring an unforeseen trade, Craig Shipley will be brought in from Las Vegas and will start at shortstop in the series opener with the Mets.

Shipley, 28, who comes from New South Wales, Australia, was hitting .301 through Monday and had committed only six errors in 64 games. Originally Dodger property, he had brief stays with the Dodgers in 1986 and 1987 and the Mets in 1989.

A knee injury forced Shipley to miss almost all of last season. He batted only three times, without a hit, in four games at triple-A Tidewater. The Padres acquired him from the Mets’ organization in the Rule 5 draft last December, and he has been having the best season of his career. His highest average to date has been .291, with triple-A Albuquerque in 1986.

Faries, 26, who scored ahead of Bip Roberts as a pinch-runner when Roberts won Thursday’s game with a ninth-inning home run, was batting .165 in 85 at-bats in 38 games. He took the news of his demotion well.

“At this point in my career, I want to be playing and not just sitting somewhere,” Faries said. “Hopefully, I can come back and get in a groove and do some good up here.”

Plate umpire Bill Hohn should apply for combat pay after what he went through Thursday.

Hohn was felled by one of Greg Harris’ pitches when Harris and catcher Benito Santiago got their signals crossed in the second inning. When Santiago failed to get his glove on the ball, it hit Hohn in the chest just below the rib cage. Hohn toppled to the ground on all fours, and even though he stayed in the game, he was still hurting when it was over.

As though that wasn’t enough punishment for one day, Hohn later was hit on the leg and in the neck by foul balls.

Atlee Hammaker, on the Padres’ disabled list with tendinitis in his elbow, will pitch tonight in a simulated game. . . . Harris explained his fifth-inning knockout Thursday by saying, “I made a lot of to-the-plate pitches. They singled me to death.” . . . Until the Padres won the rubber game from the Expos, they hadn’t won a series at home since they took two out of three from the Cubs June 14-16. . . . Tonight’s game has been moved back to 7:35 to accommodate ESPN’s telecast, which will be blacked out in this area.