Lefferts, Myers Are Hanging Tough : Baseball: Struggling pitchers boost confidence in Padres’ score 2-1 vicotry over Cincinnati.

Before the ninth inning Sunday, the sound system at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium played the old Four Seasons hit, “Let’s Hang On.”

It actually went with a DiamondVision highlight video, but it could have been a plea to the Padres’ beleaguered bullpen which had been hit hard in two previous losses.

The plea was answered by Randy Myers, who worked out of trouble to hang on to a 2-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in front of 19,964, nailing down Craig Lefferts’ second victory as a starter. It was Myers’ fifth save.

The victory ended a four-game Cincinnati winning streak and a two-game Padres losing streak, and allowed the Padres to move back into a second-place tie with the Reds at 10-9, a half-game behind Houston.

“We got a game-saver today, the way our bullpen has been taxed,” Padres Manager Greg Riddoch said. “A lot of people had Lefferts dead and buried. He pitched outstanding. Myers worked himself out of a jam. It should be a great confidence builder.”

To Lefferts and Myers, this may have been more than the 19th game of a 162-game season. It was a game in which each had something to prove.

Myers was coming off his disastrous outing Friday in which he blew a four-run lead in a game the Reds eventually won in 16 innings. Fans booed when he was brought in to pitch the eighth against his former team.

Lefferts, making a mid-career transition from reliever to starter, was in jeopardy of losing his spot in the rotation if he didn’t come up with a good outing soon. Lefferts (2-2) responded with 6 1/3 innings of six-hit ball, working out of some jams but giving up only a home run to Billy Hatcher leading off the sixth. The loss went to Reds starter Chris Hammond (2-1), who gave up only five hits in six innings but was nicked for single runs in the third and fourth.

After Jose Melendez finished the seventh, Myers came on to work a 1-2-3 eighth, then an edgy ninth which began with singles by Chris Sabo and Bill Doran and a sacrifice by Paul O’Neill to move them into scoring position.

Myers, given the option of walking catcher Joe Oliver, chose to pitch to his former battery mate, striking him out looking on a backdoor slider, then coaxed Freddie Benavides into a groundout to short.

Myers then nearly bowled over catcher Dann Bilardello in a celebration of near-World Series proportions.

“I think he kissed me, I don’t know. Jiminy Christmas,” said a somewhat perplexed Bilardello. “He came at me. I was like in shock. I was wearing all my equipment, he knocks my helmet off. He was pumped up.”

“I don’t think I kissed him,” Myers said with a grin. “I’m Mr. Mellow.”

Myers said he had put Friday’s disaster out of his mind, but some in the San Diego clubhouse had their doubts. He came into Sunday’s game with three blown saves in eight chances and a 5.84 earned run average.

“Randy’s a competitor,” Bilardello said. “People don’t like to fail, and he’s been discouraged a couple times already this year. I’m sure he was (distressed). Randy puts a lot on his shoulders. I think (this game) was more a redemption type thing from the failure in his head.”

With two men on in the ninth, Riddoch went to the mound to discuss strategy. He said he never considered lifting Myers.

“What am I gonna do, take him out and watch his chin Velcro to his chest?” Riddoch said. “We’re trying to build confidence, not tear it down. He’s our stopper. People talk about the times he’s failed, but they’re not talking about his five saves.”

Myers said, “Today’s over. I’ll see what worked, what didn’t work and file it for tomorrow. We lost as a team the other night and we won as a team today.”

Riddoch said Lefferts would have stayed in the rotation regardless, but admitted his position was precarious.

“For him and his mental psyche it was a very big game,” Riddoch said. “There’s been a tremendous amount of pressure on him to go out and succeed. In that way it was a pivotal game. I’m happy for him. He’s got a lot of people pulling for him--mostly in this clubhouse.”

Lefferts said the game was “pivotal in the sense . . . I made improvement and I’m getting somewhere.”

In the victory he lowered his ERA from 7.15 to 5.09.

“I’ve always been the last guy chosen for the team, the one they said couldn’t do it,” Lefferts said philosophically.

“I just focus on the job and (do) not let outside circumstances change what I’m going to do. I do my job and push anything else--the boos, criticism in the media--aside. I feel I’ve made the transition (to starter). Obviously I’m not 4-0, but I’m working on improving. I shouldn’t be judged (on one game), but that’s the nature of the game.”