Lefferts Makes Believers Out of the Astros : Baseball: Former reliever continues to impress as he leads Padres to 5-1 win.

Some people pick up the daily newspapers and cannot believe the latest thing Dan Quayle has said.

Others pick up the newspaper, grab the sports section, and cannot believe the name high up on the list of NL victory leaders.

Number two with a bullet, ladies and gentlemen, the quiet, former reliever; the guy who, when dressed in Padre home whites out on the mound, looks kind of like a pillow with an arm . . .

Craig Lefferts.

After pitching eight strong innings in the Padres’ 5-1 victory over Houston Wednesday, Lefferts (7-4) moved into a tie with Pittsburgh’s Randy Tomlin for second in the NL in victories. The two trail only Atlanta’s Tom Glavine (9-3).

Lefferts, who is being supported by an average of 6.4 runs per outing this season, was helped again by the potent Padre offense. Fred McGriff hit his second home run in two games--14th of the season--and collected three RBIs, Tim Teufel doubled home two more runs and reliever Larry Andersen, who worked the ninth, made his first appearance since April 27.

And Lefferts, yawn, won another. He is on a pace to win 19 games this year.

Where once the talk centered on whether Lefferts could successfully make the conversion from starter to reliever, he has suddenly become the Padres’ most consistent starter. It wasn’t that long ago that the Giants’ Will Clark, one of Lefferts’ former teammates in San Francisco, suggested that the biggest question facing Lefferts was whether he could pitch more than a couple of innings.

Clark wasn’t alone. Until Lefferts made his first start this season, he had made 542 consecutive relief appearances. An inning here, a couple of innings there.

“I knew the biggest key for me to be successful was going to be endurance,” Lefferts said. “That and being able to work through the lineup the third and possibly a fourth time.

“I’ve progressed each time. My endurance, I can go a whole game. I couldn’t early.

“And the third and fourth times through the lineup, I’ve improved working inside on right-handed hitters with a cut fastball.”

For those whom the Astros lulled to sleep Wednesday, Lefferts’ endurance could be easily judged simply by the reaction of the crowd of 13,082 in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium when Craig Shipley batted for him in the bottom of the eighth.

They booed.

“I don’t know,” Shipley shrugged. “I just go up and hit when they tell me to.”

Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said he pulled Lefferts, who has never pitched a complete game, after eight because the Padres sent six batters to the plate in the seventh and the long wait caused Lefferts to stiffen up.

Lefferts said he had to throw a couple of extra fastballs while warming up to start the eighth but added that he could have continued.

“I could have gone out there, but that’s their decision,” Lefferts said. “It was a good opportunity to get Larry in.”

Lefferts had thrown only 81 pitches and left after allowing a run and six hits in eight innings. He has now allowed two or fewer earned runs in seven of his past nine starts, and his ever-decreasing ERA is down to 3.63.

Believe it or not, Lefferts has become a model of consistency.

“That part is great,” Riddoch said. “He was not a guy you would have anticipated. . . . (Greg) Harris, (Bruce) Hurst, and (Andy) Benes were solid (coming into the season), but you couldn’t put a notch on how consistent (Lefferts) would be.

“I think he’s proven to everybody that he had the desire to pitch (as a starter) and has done it. He’s been as consistent as anybody we have had.

“If he hadn’t pitched the way he has pitched, I don’t know where we’d be.”

Lefferts has won six of his past eight decisions and, had the Padres chosen to let him start the ninth, it would have been the second consecutive outing in which he pitched into the ninth.

No Astro got past first base in the first six innings, and Lefferts retired nine of 10 batters during one stretch from the third through the sixth innings.

“You know, I think consistency has got to be the key for me,” Lefferts said. “Not only game to game, but to be consistent around the plate with my control.

“That was pretty much the story today. I was consistent. I stayed around the plate and I moved the ball in and out.”

McGriff, meanwhile, mostly moved the ball out. He deposited a Butch Henry pitch over the right-center field fence in the third to put the Padres ahead, 2-0, and added a run-scoring double in the fifth.

McGriff couldn’t even remember whether the home run came on a breaking ball or a change-up, causing Hurst, dressing nearby, to feign indignation.

“(The pitcher) is out there busting his fanny trying to trick you with pitches, and he doesn’t even care,” Hurst said. “That’s weak.”

The Padres drove Henry (1-5) from the game in the fifth--after McGriff’s double--en route to completing a three-game sweep of Houston. And with Cincinnati losing to San Francisco on Wednesday, the second-place Padres crept to within 1 1/2 games of the Reds.

They are still awaiting their first victory from their No. 5 spot in the pitching rotation, and they have placed Harris on the disabled list with back problems, and yet the Padres embark on a 10-game trip today to Atlanta, Houston and San Francisco in pretty good shape in the NL West.

Thanks, in large part to Lefferts. Who would have figured?

“I feel like when he goes out there, we have a good chance to win,” Riddoch said.