Padres Use Plenty of Power to Outlast Pirates : Baseball: Sheffield puts one in the second deck of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Tony Gwynn, Padre right fielder, spent most of the afternoon Monday working on his bats. He unwrapped the tape from the handles of all his bats, carefully inserted foam padding, and began re-taping once again.

The project was a pain, and Gwynn was in a sour mood. Besides, who knew if it would work anyway? He had cut a hole in the back of his glove last week, and he still could feel the pain in his broken middle finger.

Any doubts about his ability to hit were loudly erased Monday night at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium when he helped the Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-6.

Gwynn, playing an entire game for the first time in a week since fracturing his finger in a car door, appeared to break open the game in the fifth inning with a towering three-run homer, which put the Padres up, 7-1.

There was a temptation at that point, Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said, to remove Gwynn from the game. After all, Gwynn had not played in an entire game since fracturing the middle finger of his right hand a week ago.

The suggestion was made. Gwynn refused to listen.

Afterward, Riddoch could only say, ‘Thank God.”

The Padres, whose ninth-inning leads have a way of dissipating this season, once again turned a breather into a heart-stopper. The Pirates, trailing 7-4 into the ninth, drew a one-out walk from reliever Mike Maddux. Riddoch went to the bullpen, and summoned Randy Myers.

Barry Bonds greeted him with a double into the left-center gap, cutting the lead to 7-5. Steve Buechele reached first on an infield single, advancing Bonds to third. That brought up Orlando Merced, setting up the play of the game.

Merced hit a line drive into right field. The ball hung in the air momentarily, but Gwynn was unable to snare the ball out of the air as he raced toward the infield. He picked it up on one hop, and Buechele suddenly realized he better hurry to second.

Gwynn, a five-time Gold Glove winner, fired to Tony Fernandez at second. Out! He turned Merced’s hit into a harmless fielder’s choice, albeit Bonds scored to cut the lead to 7-6.

“I thought I could catch it,” Gwynn said, “and that was probably the key to the play. The throw didn’t have much on it, but it was enough to get the out, and that turned out to be the key play of the game.”

The game mercifully ended for the Padres when third baseman Tim Teufel dove and stopped Jose Lind’s shot toward the hole, threw to second, and nipped Merced at second.

The crowd of 18,546 paused to allow their hearts to beat again, and Myers walked off the field with his glove in front of his face, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He now has 12 saves, despite a 5.48 ERA.

It also preserved Craig Lefferts’ performance, who now is tied for the league lead with a six victories. Lefferts (6-2), who allowed 11 hits and two earned runs in seven innings, now has won a career-high five consecutive games.

“I was really worried coming in, because I still haven’t felt right,” said Gwynn, who raised his batting average to .369. “ I didn’t want to say this might be the only game I played all week, but I thought it was a possibility.

“I’d like to say the finger feels fine. It feels great. But it hurts, and it’s going to hurt for awhile.”

Gwynn, who wondered aloud if he could turn on a ball, much less hit with power, actually astonished himself on this night. Clinging to a 3-1 lead after Benito Santiago’s three-run homer in the fourth inning, the Padres put runners on first and second with one out against veteran Zane Smith.

Gwynn, who never had homered against Smith, took the first pitch for a strike. The second one soared 398 feet off Gwynn’s “I’m honest,” Gwynn said, “when I stink, I stink. When I’m going good, I shut up and let you judge for yourself. I’m not going to make any excuses. I’ll let my performance speak for me.”

Gwynn’s homer also set up the most dramatic moment of the Gary Sheffield show, which gets better every night.

Smith, obviously frustrated by the homer, unleashed his aggression on the next batter, who just so happened to be Sheffield. Smith fired a fastball high and tight to Sheffield, knocking him to the ground. Home plate umpire Larry Poncino immediately issued a warning to Smith, and to both benches. One more pitch like that, and there would be ejections.

Consider it a lesson learned. While most National League pitchers this season have learned that you can’t throw an inside fastball past Sheffield, it’s wise not to rile him up.

Sheffield hit Smith’s next pitch into the second deck of seats. That’s right. The second deck.

Sheffield became the eighth player in the 24-year history of the stadium to hit a homer into the second deck, and the first since Kevin Mitchell homered in the loge level on June 25, 1989. It has been eight years since a Padre had accomplished the feat when Kevin McReynolds homered July 24, 1984, off Dave Smith of the Houston Astros.

“That’s the best one, right there,” said Sheffield, who left the game after the homer because of a bruised hand. “It’s a great feeling to hit the ball like that, and it was the key run of the game.”

Said Padre Manager Greg Riddoch: “In your face. He was sent a wake-up call, and he dialed the phone and dialed long distance.

The homer, the 10th of the season for Sheffield, which ties his career high, also extended Sheffield’s hitting streak to a major league leading 18 games. It’s the longest hitting streak by a Padre since Benito Santiago’s 34-game hitting streak during his rookie season in 1987.

“The way he’s hitting,” Padre first baseman Fred McGriff said, “I can’t see it stopping. Really. Everything he’s doing is perfect right now.

“I just love standing in the on-deck circle and watching him.”