Padres Begin Pittsburgh Stop on High Note : Baseball: Bonilla expresses interest in moving to San Diego, and Padres beat Pirates, 7-5, in 10 innings.

Bobby Bonilla’s eyes popped wide-open. His face broke into an expansive grin. He looked all to the world like a man drawing to an inside straight.

“I was really hoping San Diego would make a play for me, and it feels great knowing they’re interested,” Bonilla said Monday before the Padres’ 7-5, 10-inning victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. “I keep hearing everyone say, ‘New York this, New York that.’ Everyone has me playing in New York next year.

“But San Diego, oh, man, who wouldn’t want to be there? You can’t tell me there’s a better city in the league than San Diego.

“My family’s from New York and all, and Chicago’s great, but San Diego, wow!”

The man who is considered the most attractive free agent in baseball, Roberto Martin Antonio Bonilla is willing to consider San Diego for his next place of residence.

The Padres, who were in a celebratory mood anyway because of Tony Gwynn’s two-run, 10th-inning homer at Three Rivers Stadium, aren’t allowed to make their intentions known.

However, sources in the organization say Bonilla is No. 1 on their wish list, and they couldn’t be more delighted that Bonilla is willing to wear Padre pinstripes for the next five years.

“I don’t know where I’ll end up, I really don’t,” said Bonilla, who extended his hitting streak to a team-high 16 games with his fifth-inning double. “But people are mistaken if they think my mind’s made up I’m going to New York.”

Bonilla, according to agent Dennis Gilbert, will attract at least a dozen free-agent bids. No one knows just who’ll make offers, but sources say there are at least five teams who have made their interest known: the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Padres.

“Anybody that gets Bobby Bonilla,” Pirate teammate Barry Bonds said, “they’ll have a chance to get to the World Series. . . . He’ll make a championship contender out of any team. Any team.

“I know for us, it’ll make it very, very difficult to repeat without him.

“Almost impossible.”

The Pirates, sources say, have no chance of signing Bonilla, who’s incensed at the way he has been treated. The Pirates didn’t even bother making an offer to him until a week before the arbitration period in January. Bonilla wound up losing his arbitration case at $2.4 million, and the Pirates have since made three contract offers--three years for $13.5 million, four years for $16 million and four years for $16.8 million.

“It’s too late now,” Bonilla said. “It’s only a week until September. If I’ve waited this long, I can wait another two months to file for free agency.”

Although Bonilla said it’s premature to discuss what it’ll take to sign him in the free-agent market, baseball executives predict he’ll become the highest-paid player in baseball history. He likely will receive a five-year contract for about $25 million, surpassing Jose Canseco’s $23.5-million deal.

“Money’s not important to me,” Bonilla said, “I get paid well now. The big thing is I just want to be happy again. I want to go where I’m appreciated.”

Perhaps the titillating irony about Bonilla’s decision for a new job site is that Bonds happens to be the guy who’s trying the hardest to lure him to San Diego.

The reasoning is simple.

Bonds wants to play in San Diego, too.

“That’s the place I want to go,” said Bonds, who lives in Temecula, and is having a home built in the area. “Everybody wants to play at home. There’s nothing more I’d love to do that go there, hit homers, and bring the championship to San Diego.

“Me and Bobby have been talking about that a lot. We’d like to play on the same team. And we’ve talked a lot about San Diego.

“The big thing is we want to play together. We’ve played together for eight years, and we want to stay together. We just know each other so well. I know him so well I can tell you when he’s going to take his hat off and wipe his forehead.

“If we get separated, man, there’s going to be a lot of tears.”

Will Bonds, who’s eligible for free agency after the 1992 season, follow Bonilla if he goes to New York, too?

“Nah, I ain’t a New York person,” Bonds said. “If he goes there, he’ll have to go without me.

“But whatever happens, in two months, Bobby’s got freedom of choice.

“He’ll be a free man.”

It has been a difficult year for Bonilla, although you’d never realize his torment by the statistics. He’s ranks among the league leaders in virtually every offensive category. He’s batting .313 with 80 RBIs, 77 runs and league-high 57 extra-base hits.

He has been pestered frequently this season by Manager Jim Leyland, pleading for him to sign with the Pirates. Teammates have begged him to stay. Fans have sent letters imploring him to remain.

Bonilla says it’s as if he’s supposed to feel guilty for departing.

“Hey, I love this game, I really do,” Bonilla said, “but this is a big business, too. It’s a game at 7:35, and it’s big business before that.

“Do you think when Andy Van Slyke signed for $4.2 million a year, he cared about me? No one’s cared about me for a long time here, but all of a sudden, people are asking me, ‘Don’t I care about Pittsburgh?’

“I don’t care about the money. I make a lot of money. Who am I going to bitch to, the boys back home because I’m only making $2.4 (million) a year, come on?

“The Pirates couldn’t come with the market value, so fine. I have no complaints. But I also understand what the market value is, and it’s my right to see what that is.

“I’ve made a lot of sacrifices here, but no one seems to talk about that.”

In the most important financial year of Bonilla’s career, he volunteered to move to third base when third baseman Jeff King went on the disabled list. King likely will be lost for the season. Sure, Bonilla is considered only a mediocre third baseman. And yes, exposing his defensive defiencies might make Bonilla less marketable.

“I know it wasn’t in my best financial interest,” Bonilla said, “but I’m not going to sit around here and protect myself. Jim Leyland said it might cost me a chance at the All-Star game if I made the move, but hey, I didn’t care. That’s only one game.

“I want to be playing the games in October, that’s what this game is all about.”

The Padres made their best attempt in trying to thwart the Pirates’ bid for their second consecutive divison title with one of their most dramatic victories of the season.

The Padres trailed two different times in the game, looking dead each time, only to come to life. Pirate starter Randy Tomlin, staked to a 4-2 lead, retired 16 consecutive Padres after Kevin Ward’s first career homer leading off the second. The skein ended when Benito Santiago hit a one-out single in the seventh, and one out later, Tim Teufel tied the game with a homer.

Pirate pinch-hitter Gary Redus put the Pirates back atop with a solo homer in the eighth off Rich Rodriguez, but the Padres answered with two outs in the ninth when Jack Howell hit a single, scoring Santiago.

That set the stage for the 10th inning, when Gwynn hit his fourth homer of the season on an 0-and-2 pitch over the the wall in right-center field. And Craig Lefferts, who entered the game in the ninth, pitched the final two innings for his first victory of the season.

“I predicted I’d hit a homer tonight,” Gwynn said, “but I said I’d hit one to left-center. The guys are ragging me now because I didn’t.

“Hey, I’ll take it, anyway.”