Benes Gets the Padres Through It : Baseball: Padres beat the Mets, 4-2, after surviving a night of turmoil.

It was an ordeal just to survive the night. There were crazy cab rides to Shea Stadium. Sore backs from the sagging hotel beds. Fights in the stands. Limes thrown on the field.

This city should have known better. When the Padres’ Andy Benes has full command of his pitches, there’s little an opponent can do.

Proving that his past few starts were only an ugly phase and not a trend, Benes handed the New York Mets their first defeat at home in a month, lifting the Padres to a 4-2 victory at Shea Stadium.

Benes, who had not won in a month and had a 9.72 ERA his last three starts, shut down the Mets. He struck out nine batters in seven innings, retired 11 consecutive batters at one point, and allowed only five hits.

“Andy’s our stopper, it’s that simple,” Padre first baseman Fred McGriff said. “When we’ve got to have him come through, when we really need a win, he’s the guy. This is the game we had to have.”

It’s not as if the Padres (16-16) are obsessed by the standings, but considering that Dwight Gooden and David Cone are the next two pitchers they face, it was not exactly a treat. Met starter Anthony Young, 2-2, was going to be as easy as it got.

“If there was a game we had to have,” Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said, “it was this one.”

Benes, who had a two-run lead before taking the mound and a 3-0 lead after 5 1/2 innings, never gave the Mets a chance. He struck out at least one batter in every inning. He kept the top of the Mets’ order in check, limiting them to a measly single.

“I just wanted to go out there and give us an opportunity to win, something I haven’t done lately,” said Benes (3-3). “I wasn’t worried about winning or losing. I learned that lesson from last year.

“I’m not going to point fingers and say it’s someone else’s fault. I’m not going to go home and say I quit. I’m not going to let my teammates know I lost three in a row and go hang my head.

“I wanted to show them I still had confidence, and that way, they’d have confidence in me.”

The Padres, who have been tormented by their starting pitching and abysmal hitting from the bottom of their order, even found a new offensive hero.

Benito Santiago. The guy who was hitting .210, hitless in his last 12 at-bats, and mired in a two-for-28 (.071) skid the last seven games.

Santiago, who was spurned by the Mets when the Padres attempted to trade him to New York in the off-season, unleashed a two-run single in the first inning and reached base three times for the game. He even walked twice. He had walked only four times the entire year, including none in the last 11 games.

“I told you New York is my town,” Santiago said. “This brings out the best in me. Now they’ll say, ‘Santiago is back. I knew he’d be back.’

“Yeah, here I am.”

It was the kind of night that the Padres were actually able to laugh off four errors and two baserunning blunders. The most serious occurred in the eighth inning after Mike Maddux, who has not allowed a run in seven appearances this season, retired the first two batters.

Maddux then induced a routine ground ball from Bobby Bonilla for what appeared to be the third out, only to watch in disbelief as the ball slid under the glove of second baseman Kurt Stillwell. Gwynn retrieved the ball, threw it to Stillwell, and then Stillwell tried to make amends for his error. Seeing Bonilla take a wide turn at first, Stillwell threw the ball wildly to McGriff that bounced, and landed in the seats. Instead of the inning being over, Bonilla was on third base and the Padres’ 4-2 lead was in jeopardy.

When Maddux followed the error by walking Eddie Murray, Padre Manager Greg Riddoch summoned bullpen stopper Randy Myers, who promptly walked Howard Johnson to load the bases.

Met Manager Jeff Torborg called for pinch-hitter Junior Noboa. The crowd of 17,336, who had more of a rooting interest in the NHL New York Rangers’ playoff game, immediately booed.

They know their baseball.

Noboa struck out on three pitches.

Myers snuffed the Mets in the ninth by pitching a rare 1-2-3 inning, only his sixth of the season, and snapped the Mets’ 11-game winning streak at Shea Stadium.

Actually, the toughest aspect of his outing, Myers said, was keeping his concentration when a brawl broke out in the stands just above the Padre dugout. There was one out in the ninth when several fans started throwing roundhouse punches, causing Myers to actually stop and watch.

“Hey, they were my buddies,” said Myers, who avoided a lime being tossed at his head amid the melee. “I know those guys.”

Who would ever have thought the night would turn out so lovely for the Padres.

It made Padre infielder Craig Shipley temporarily forget his back problems from a sagging bed, which caused so much pain that he called the hotel desk at 4 a.m. to get a new one.

It calmed Padre reliever Rich Rodriguez, who had a harried cab ride. The way he figures it, he’s lucky to be alive.

The Padres, now at home here, can watch as Gooden, 27, faces his nephew, Padre third baseman Gary Sheffield, 23, for the first time in their professional careers. It’s the moment they’ve long awaited.

“There’s only one thing he wants to do,” Gooden said, “and that’s take me deep. That’s no secret.”