Gwynn Back With a Bang : Baseball: He figures in both scoring innings as Padres beat Cubs, 4-1.

The unexpected return of Tony Gwynn gave the Padres more than mere inspiration Tuesday night.

Gwynn had been thought to be out at least until Thursday because of a knee injury suffered Friday, but he looked as good as new in leading the Padres to a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

He keyed both Padre scoring innings with singles as Andy Benes won his seventh game in a row.

A crowd of 9,047, smallest since a game with Cincinnati drew 8,575 on June 7, 1988, saw the Padres clinch the season series from the Cubs for the first time since 1983. They lead, 7-4, with the finale to be played tonight. The Cubs had won eight of 12 in each of the past three seasons and nine of 12 the season before that.

As good as Benes was in boosting his record over .500 at 11-10, Greg Maddux outpitched him until Gwynn led the Padres’ charge in the seventh inning. Maddux, who lost to Benes by the same score in Chicago Aug. 24, had a two-hitter going through the sixth and had retired Gwynn twice, running Gwynn’s hitless streak to 13 at-bats.

But when Jack Howell led off the seventh with a single, Maddux had to face Gwynn with the game on the line. Gwynn looped a single to center, and that opened the floodgates.

Fred McGriff followed with a single that tied the score, then Benito Santiago hit a single that untied it. That finished Maddux, and when reliever Les Lancaster threw a wild pitch to Tim Teufel, McGriff crossed the plate with the third run.

Gwynn struck again in the eighth, driving a more solid single to center with Howell on first and one out. Howell went to third on Gwynn’s hit, then scored when first baseman Mark Grace bobbled McGriff’s grounder and lost a possible play at the plate before stepping on first.

Afterward, Gwynn said, “I felt pretty good until the seventh inning. Then the knee started to stiffen a bit as it got cooler. When I went from first to third on McGriff’s hit, I felt like I was running in slow motion. At that point, I figured I’d played seven innings, so I might as well play the whole nine.

“I hit the ball pretty good, I caught a couple of fly balls and I ran from first to third. It isn’t 100%, but it’s pretty good. This is a good first step, having the guts to go out there so quick.”

Manager Greg Riddoch was asked if he was amazed by Gwynn’s return.

“Other people may be amazed, but not me,” Riddoch said. “I’ve been around long enough to watch this scenario.”

Cub Manager Jim Essian called Gwynn the difference in the game.

Said Essian: “With Gwynn in the lineup, he gets on base, moves runners along in scoring position, and he rattles our pitchers. Tonight, Howell leads off with a hit, and that’s automatic trouble with Gwynn coming up. He gets a hit that sends Howell to third, and that creates a lot of holes for McGriff.”

Maddux also had praise for Gwynn, saying, “He’s a gamer. He’s going to play and he wants to get his at-bats. He plays hard and he plays hurt. You always want to face the other team’s best and that’s Gwynn.”

Of the bad inning that beat him, Maddux said, “I wasn’t tired. I made a good pitch to Gwynn, but he hit it, and when I fell behind McGriff, he hit it hard enough to find a hole.”

While Gwynn’s appearance in his usual No. 3 spot in the Padre batting order caught most people by surprise, he said he was not among them.

“Yesterday I felt like I’d be able to play today,” he said. “I had the knee drained Saturday, and Sunday I just hung around, but yesterday I hit off the tee and felt good. Today they had me out there sucking gas--running bases, hitting and shagging fly balls.”

Originally, Riddoch posted a lineup in the clubhouse with the third spot left blank. That was before he and his coaches put Gwynn through his paces Tuesday.

“Tony hit probably a hundred balls in batting practice,” Riddoch said. “Then we ran him from first to third, hit him fly balls in the gap and in front of him. He looked the same as ever.”

Gwynn said he had inserted his own name in the batting order.

“I like to play,” he said. “I don’t like sitting around. I felt good, so I decided to try it.”

Gwynn said the only thing that surprised him about his quick recovery was that the cortisone shot he took when he had his knee drained had worked as fast as it did.

“I had a bad experience with cortisone before,” he said. “It was in ‘88, when I hurt my hand. I had surgery the next day, so taking cortisone wasn’t high on my priority list. After that, I didn’t think it would do that much good, but it really worked.”

Gwynn kidded the reporters who crowded around his locker, saying, “I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t want you guys pressuring me.”

The Cubs scored their only run off Benes in the fourth, when Ryne Sandberg singled, took second on a wild pitch and went home on George Bell’s double.

As impressive a victory as this was, though, Benes was upset with the fans for their treatment of their favorite whipping boy, Santiago, in the eighth. With the bases loaded, Benes missed a squeeze-bunt sign and struck out, leaving Santiago to be hung out to dry between third and home.

“They shouldn’t have booed Benny on that,” Benes said. “They had lack of knowledge of what happened. That took away a lot of the excitement of the win for me.”