Andersen Makes It Gem to Remember : Baseball: Benes, who leaves the game with a no-hitter but doesn’t know it, ends up a winner in Padres’ 3-2 victory over Atlanta.

Andy Benes left the game Saturday night with a one-hitter, only to find out he had a no-hitter.

He entered the shower room thinking he had a no-decision, only to find out he was the winning pitcher.

He thought he’d be answering questions about his pitching performance, only to find out people wanted to know more about the Padres’ decision to pull him from the game.

And while Benes was bewildered, reliever Larry Andersen was being mobbed by his teammates, the hero of the Padres’ 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

“I still don’t think Andy realizes what happened,” Andersen said. “Hell, I was out there at the end, and I’m not sure, either.”

Andersen’s role occurred in the ninth when he was called into the game with the Padres clinging to a 3-2 lead. The bases were loaded. There was no outs. And the heart of the order was coming to the plate, beginning with Terry Pendleton.

“I took the ball from Greg (Riddoch),” Andersen said, “and I said, ‘Th-th-th-thanks. It’s a reliever’s nightmare. But it was such an impossible situation, I just decided to throw everything I had.”

It looked like it would be a quick outing. Andersen’s first pitch was hit 450 feet into the right-field seats . . . foul.

“Whew, my heart stopped there,” Andersen said.

Pendleton, after hitting another long foul, then hit a chopper to third baseman Jack Howell. He threw perfectly for a force out at home. One out.

Next up, Ron Gant. He popped up the first pitch to shortstop Tony Fernandez.

“I had to make sure I didn’t have a letdown,” Andersen said. “That was my biggest fear. We had gotten out of that mess, and I didn’t want to ruin it now.”

No problem. Tommy Gregg struck out. Fittingly, Andersen, the zaniest member of the Padres, was the one preserving one of their wackiest games of this season in front of a sellout crowd of 42,067 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

“It was unbelievable,” Andersen said. “I don’t think I’ve ever done that in my life. Well, the last time I did was during a spring training game when I was with Cleveland. And I got released after the game.

“I better take a shower and get out of here before someone starts thinking.”

Andersen added to the bizarre after the game when he revealed that a doctor’s diagnosis of his chest contusion Friday actually is a cartilage fracture.

“I guess I can’t call it a jacuzzi contusion any more,” said Andersen, who sustained the injury two weeks ago when he slipped entering his jacuzzi.

The controversy in the game actually focused on official scorer Mark Fredrickson, but to set up Fredrickson’s dilemma, you must go back to the Padres’ pregame batting practice.

That’s when Benes hit a ball off his left foot, leaving him in anguish. He headed straight toward the trainer’s room, and it was questionable whether he even would pitch. After treatments from trainer Bob Day, Benes decided to give it a try.

For whatever reason, Benes was magnificent, putting the Braves down in order inning after inning. He never once reached a three-ball count on a single hitter.

He retiring 12 batters in a row until facing Gant came up in the top of the fifth. Gant hit a sharper grounder over the pitcher’s mound toward the second base bag. Second baseman Bip Roberts ran over to field the ball, it bounced up, hit the heel of his glove and caromed away.

Everyone awaited a scoring decision. . . .

Base hit. . . .

For the time being. . . .

Benes’ composure was not shaken in the slightest. He struck out Gregg and Jeff Blauser, and the inning ended when catcher Benito Santiago threw out Gant at second.

It would be the only flaw in his performance for six innings, and he was taken out of the game in the seventh for a pinch-hitter. He had faced the minimum 18 batters, but Padre Manager Greg Riddoch and pitching coach Mike Roarke thought Benes was straining his arm because of his sore foot and decided not to take any chances.

It made perfect sense. The Padres had a 1-0 lead on Tony Gwynn’s first-inning homer. And who would have known that pinch-hitter Craig Shipley would hit into an double play, anyway?

“We weren’t going to take any chances with him,” Riddoch said. “He was really favoring that foot. For a guy who throws 92-93 m.p.h., he was only throwing 82-83 m.p.h.”

Said Roarke: “To tell you the truth, I was praying they’d get a single. He was hurting out there.”

So Benes left the game, and headed to the clubhouse to watch the rest while icing his foot. He certainly didn’t want to leave the game, but he was merely following orders.

In the eighth, Gwynn drove in another run with his third hit of the game, and Fred McGriff made it 3-0 with another single off Braves pitcher Tom Glavine.

Then it happened. While the Braves were making a pitching change, Fredrickson decided to change the call. He now was ruling Gant’s hit was an error charged to Roberts.

“That’s what he should have ruled it,” Riddoch said. “Bip was right in front of it. That was an error.”

Said Andersen: “Yeah, there was no doubt about it. That was an error all the way.”

Fredrickson said: “I decided it was better to make the right call late than not at all.”

Roberts begged to differ, saying that if anyone should have had the ball, it was Benes.

Nevertheless, the scoring change immediately shed new light on the decision to take Benes out of the game. He was throwing a no-hitter, but no one realized it. If Benes had been throwing a no-hitter, would Riddoch still have taken him out of the game?

“I have no idea,” Riddoch said. “I can’t answer that. But even if he had been throwing a no-hitter, we still felt he was laboring.

“I really don’t know if we would have let him continue.”

Said Benes, who had thrown only 65 pitches: “I think I might have argued a little bit.”

The Padres, though, realized they had a chance for a team no-hitter--the first in the 23-year history of the franchise.

That became a moot point when Ron Gant led off the eighth with a home run to left field, cutting the Padres’ lead to 3-1. Mike Maddux retired the next three hitters, and then stepped aside for the wild ninth, which included four consecutive hits off reliever Craig Lefferts.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” said Benes (6-10). “My head kind of hurts thinking about all this. What a night.”