Padres’ Clark Won’t Play Numbers Game : Baseball: Outfielder is off to such a poor start this season that he refuses to check his average, which is below .200.

He quit reading the newspaper weeks ago. He refuses to glance at the scoreboard when he walks to the plate. He simply does not want to know.

“I don’t want to see it,” Padre left fielder Jerald Clark said. “I mean, I know it’s bad, I just don’t know how bad. I just know it’s bad enough where I don’t want to see my batting average. I look everywhere I can to avoid it.”

Mum’s the word, but Clark is batting .176.

Clark knows it would be nice to say he’s only in a slump, but it wouldn’t be true. He hasn’t hit the ball all season. It has been nearly a month since his batting average was even .200.

“This is killing me, just killing me,” Clark said. “I feel like a newborn baby up there with no idea what I’m doing. I’m trying everything and nothing’s working.

“It hasn’t been one particular pitch, either. Breaking ball, fastball, slider, changeup, forkball . . . You name it, I can’t hit it.”

Although Clark has managed to hit four home runs this season, along with 10 RBIs, he has not homered in his last 45 at-bats. Since his last homer, April 27, Clark has only two-extra base hits and two RBIs.

“I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, there are a lot of guys struggling right now who are making a lot more money than you,’ ” Clark said. “Hey, man, that doesn’t matter to me. You think I’m supposed to feel good about that? That’s supposed to make it OK?”

But most amazing, Clark concedes, is not his struggle at the plate, but that he continues to be in the starting lineup.

“I can’t believe the patience they’ve had in me,” Clark said. “I guess they think like I do. They know it’s going to come, but it’s just a question of when.

“But I know they’re not going to wait forever for me.”

Clark has been dropped from sixth to seventh in the batting order, and if his slump continues much longer, he probably will find himself on the bench. He has hit .115 the past 10 games, getting the ball out of the infield only seven times.

No wonder Padre General Manager Joe McIlvaine’s index finger is raw from dialing teams to try to trade for help for the bottom of the lineup.

“Naturally, we were hoping for more production out of Jerald,” McIlvaine said. “We’re not giving up on him, but now’s the time for him to come through.”

Clark typifies the woes of the bottom of the order. In the past six games, the Padres’ quartet at the top of the lineup is batting .414 with six homers, 15 extra-base hits, 24 runs and 21 RBIs. The 5-6-7 trio, consisting primarily of Benito Santiago, Darrin Jackson and Clark, have batted .132 with no homers, two extra-base hits, one run and three RBIs in the same span.

“We’ve got to have some more offense down there,” said Merv Rettenmund, Padre hitting coach. “You can’t expect the top of the order to carry us all year like this.”

Clark needs to show signs of life when the Padres open a three-game series today against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium. The alternatives would put Clark in a platoon role or on the bench.

The Padres could bring up Phil Stephenson in the next two weeks if they’re not satisfied with Clark’s progress. Stephenson, a left-handed batter, is starting in left field for the Padres’ triple-A Las Vegas team and batting .376 this season with four homers and 24 RBIs. The Padres would platoon him with Clark or right-handed hitter Kevin Ward, but considering Clark’s .182 career average against lefties is the lowest of any active right-handed hitter in baseball, Clark could be on the bench.

“We’ll have to just see what happens,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said. “We want to give Jerald every opportunity to succeed, we really do.”

Clark never figured he’d be back this year, anyway, after losing his job last season. He finished the 1991 season on the bench, batting .228 with 10 homers and 47 RBIs, with Oscar Azocar and Ward playing ahead of him in left field.

The Padres began a full-scale search for a left fielder when the season ended. They tried to acquire left fielder Eric Davis in a trade, but settled on reliever Randy Myers. They sought free-agent outfielder Danny Tartabull but dropped out of the bidding. They even tried to pick up Carlos Quintana of the Boston Red Sox.

“I thought after they took me out of the lineup last year,” Clark said, “it was pretty black and white that I’d never start again here. I thought they didn’t want me anymore.”

Instead of giving Clark a one-way airline ticket out of town, the Padres ignored his second half--.179 with two homers and 14 RBIs--and gave him another chance. He responded by hitting .295 this spring with a team-high four RBIs.

The Padres were confident, if not smug, that Clark would be more than adequate. Instead, their illusion has turned into Clark’s nightmare.

“The thing is, I feel good out there,” said Clark, who was troubled by a sore Achilles’ tendon most of last season. “It’s not like I can blame it on injuries like last year. It’s the most frustrating thing in my life.

“I just don’t know what’s happened.”

Clark has tried to resist the temptation, but can’t help but take his troubles home. He has been hitting off a batting tee in his garage at 2 in the morning after games. He has taken imaginary swings in front of a mirror in his hotel room.

There was even day on the last home stand when he ate an apple in the afternoon before a game, got two hits, and made sure he ate an apple at the same time the following day. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts.

“Everybody’s been trying to help me, and I’ve been doing a lot of praying,” Clark said. “They know how tough it’s been for me. They’ve given me advice, and I’ve tried everything.

“I’ve moved up in the (batters) box, back in the box; tried to shorten my swing, took a longer swing; moved my hands up the bat, down the bat.

“I’ve tried everything, and nothing’s working.”

Most important for Clark now, said teammate and confidant Tony Gwynn, is to cling to his confidence. He can’t let it waver.

“It’s one thing if you struggle in the middle of the season,” Gwynn said, “but when you struggle at the start the first thing that goes is your confidence. It’s natural. Jerald has got to make sure that doesn’t go, or then he has real troubles.”

Clark, 28, hears Gwynn and nods. He’ll be all right, he’s convinced. He hit at .300 at every level in the minors, didn’t he?

“I wish this was a nightmare, I’d wake up, and we could start all over,” Clark said. “I can’t believe this is happening. Man, what am I hitting anyway?”

Clark stopped, his face flushed, and he blurted out, “No, no, no. . . . I don’t want to know.”

Does Clark have any idea what he’s hitting?

“I know it’s below .200,” Clark said, “I do know that. You don’t need a calculator to figure that. Maybe when I got above .200 I’ll look again.

“But until then, my eyes are shut.”