Padres Keep Talks Alive with Brewers : Baseball: McIlvaine targets infielder Sheffield, who has two hits and two stolen bases in exhibition game, in discussions with Milwaukee’s Bando.

No players changed uniforms Sunday, but while the Milwaukee Brewers were in town, Padres General Manager Joe McIlvaine and his Milwaukee counterpart, Sal Bando, continued to discuss a potential trade for third baseman Gary Sheffield.

McIlvaine would only say the two teams talked Sunday, but Padres sources said some new names were exchanged, the latest being infielder Jose Valentin and outfielder Matt Mieske, two of the Padres’ top minor league prospects. Pitcher Ricky Bones also remains on the Brewers’ want list.

Sheffield, 23, who desires the trade, had two hits, two stolen bases and mixed in a throwing error in with several slick fielding plays. Sheffield said he has gotten no reading of an impending trade, but he was busy schmoozing with Padres players Sunday, sort of a an early transition phase.

“I can’t sit here and say San Diego would be the ideal place,” Sheffield said, “but I’ve got friends on the team. I’ve asked Fred McGriff a lot about the team and he says I’d fit in. I’m trying to get a feel for the guys. It would be good knowing some players and the general manager.”

Sheffield and McIlvaine both have Mets ties, McIlvaine having worked in the New York front office while Sheffield was growing up playing with his uncle, Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden.

Sheffield has gotten a reputation as a malcontent and is clearly not happy in Milwaukee.

“(McIlvaine) knowing me personally, he knows the real Gary Sheffield,” he said. “He knows the stuff they say about me is lies. A trade can only help. I’m not asking to escape, but I’ve done been through hell for four years. I just want to be treated fair. It feels good to be wanted (by the Padres).”

McIlvaine would only say, “We’re talking.”

Bruce Hurst, Sunday’s starter, sandwiched four no-hit innings between a torturous first inning and a postgame diatribe against the press.

The veteran left-hander, the Padres’ probable Opening Day starter, who has struggled all spring, was nailed for six hits and all seven runs in the opening inning of a 7-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. The inning of extended batting practice included four consecutive two-out extra-base hits, one of them a triple by Brewers pitcher Bill Wegman.

But Hurst turned things around in the second inning and gave up only a walk in the rest of his five-inning stint. Then he turned on the press.

“This is the most miserable part of the day for me,” Hurst said after icing his shoulder. “I pitched poorly in the first inning. I got it going pretty good after that. That’s that. I’m not frustrated. I’m not disappointed. I don’t think about where I’m at, I don’t have a progressive little chart. I don’t have stages. It doesn’t work that way to me. It’s more abstract. You ask me questions I don’t have answers for, it’s aggravating. There you have it.”

Hurst (0-2 in the spring), whose exhibition earned-run average rose to 7.86 (14 earned runs in 16 innings), allowed that he would like to have better arm strength at this stage. “The arm has felt better but it’ll be fine,” he said. “It felt better after the first inning. That’s my only worry about spring training (but) that’s what spring training’s for. It’s to get in shape. I don’t worry about (statistics).”

Manager Greg Riddoch said Hurst “started throwing his curveball for strikes, (and) that made a big difference in his fastball. When he changed that, his whole demeanor on the mound changed.”

Riddoch said the team isn’t concerned about Hurst’s arm. “It just takes a number of pitches to build arm strength up,” he said. “He’s not there yet. I’m not worried.”

Hurst’s outing was less impressive than those turned in Saturday by Andy Benes and Greg Harris, who are expected to join Hurst as the bulwarks of the staff in the absence of Ed Whitson, who will have tests this week for an elbow problem.

Benes, making his first official start Saturday, threw three innings of no-hit ball against Seattle, making 41 pitches. He was workmanlike in his reaction.

“It felt really good--I felt like I kept my mechanics pretty solid,” Benes said. “I’m happy I could get in a game and try to mix it up a little bit--it’s a lot different throwing on the side or in the bullpen.”

Benes’ progress has been slowed by minor abdominal surgery before the start of spring training, but he hopes to be ready for the season-opening series in Cincinnati. “I won’t be hindered at all when the season starts,” he said. “As long as I can throw five, six, seven innings when we start, I’ll be happy.”

Catcher Tom Lampkin was more impressed: “For the first start, I thought he threw great,” he said. “He had good command of his fastball and he was throwing hard.”

Harris, who had been unimpressive most of the spring, threw five innings of two-hit ball after struggling in the first inning. He said it was a matter of finally listening to pitching Coach Mike Roarke.

“I’ve been trying to get by with my fastball and my slider because I know my breaking ball is solid,” Harris said. “Mike said, ‘Just throw your breaking ball,’ and it all came together. I threw more curveballs today than the previous three games combined.

“Mike said, ‘You’ve got to understand your breaking ball is what got you here. You’ve got to throw it.’ He probably knew it the whole time.”

Outfielder Tony Gwynn was pulled after the fourth inning Sunday, and Riddoch said Gwynn will get more innings and games off this year, like it or not. Gwynn’s stock answer: “He’s the manager.”

Gwynn would prefer to be in the lineup unless he’s injured, but Riddoch said, “I don’t care. He’s gonna take some time off. I want him (fresh) the last two weeks of the season.

“You get a little older, you can’t hammer yourself all year. . . . He can’t do the things he did seven years ago. He just hates coming out, he paces the dugout, he doesn’t know what to do. He’d probably make a lousy designated hitter. But there are gonna be some days I’m just gonna say, ‘Sit down and be a cheerleader.’

“I’m not looking at any kind of a (games played) figure. I’ll try to feel it as he goes along.”

Gwynn, coming off arthroscopic knee surgery last fall, turns 32 in May.

Padres Notes

After Hurst’s disastrous first inning, the Padres shut out the Brewers, allowing only two more hits, both off Pat Clements. Larry Andersen and Clements each pitched two innings. Milwaukee starter Bill Wegman (3-0 in spring), already tabbed his team’s opening day pitcher, threw five innings of four-hit ball, giving up a run on back-to-back doubles by Fred McGriff and Benito Santiago, his second run batted in this spring. . . . Dan Plesac pitched the last four innings for the Brewers, giving up single runs in the seventh and eighth innings, one of them Jim Vatcher’s first spring homer. . . . Tony Gwynn, one for two Sunday, has 10 hits in 13 at-bats. . . . Craig Shipley started at third base Sunday and solidified his standing for a probable utility spot with an RBI double. . . . Tonight’s game against the Cubs will be televised on Channel 51 at 6.