Padres Frustrate, But Can’t Beat Braves : Baseball: Atlanta wins, 6-4, after the Padres squander a lead quickly. Benes and the relief corps struggle again.

The Atlanta Braves flipped helmets in the air and smashed their bats against dugout walls.

Imagine how the Padres must have felt Friday night losing to the Braves, 6-4, in front of 39,884 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

“We must have given them a hundred opportunities,” Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said. “Every time we looked up they had guys on base, but they weren’t scoring. It was unbelievable.”

With Randy Myers locked up in the bullpen, it was Mike Maddux’s turn to blow a game. He turned a 4-3 advantage in the eighth inning into a two-run deficit.

The Padres, who had clawed their way to a 4-3 lead on Dan Walters’ hit off the foot of Atlanta starter Tom Glavine in the top of the eighth, lost it quickly. Pinch-hitter Deion Sanders led off the eighth by prancing around the bases after hitting a 2-and-0 fastball into the right field seats.

“That killed us,” Gwynn said. “After all we went through just to get that one run, boom, the game’s tied. You can’t give a team that many opportunities and expect to win. Not the Braves. And not in this park.”

Next up was Otis Nixon, who made a perfect bunt for a single. He then stole second and advanced to third on Terry Pendleton’s single to center.

Padre Manager Greg Riddoch brought Larry Andersen to face Ron Gant, who hit one through Andersen’s legs to score Nixon for the game-winner. Brian Hunter drove in Pendleton for another run on a fielder’s choice off Myers.

The Braves (31-29), who have won 11 of their past 13 games, managed to win despite:

* Loading the bases in four of the first seven innings with less than two outs . . . and scoring only one run.

* Sending seven batters to the plate with the bases loaded and hitting the ball out of the infield only once, which resulted in a double-play.

* Glavine, the 1991 Cy Young winner, surrendering 10 hits and four earned runs in 7 2/3 innings.

“It was like Game 6 of the World Series all over again,” Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said. “We had all of the opportunities and couldn’t score.”

Said Riddoch: “It seemed like we were in trouble the whole night. You can’t keep living off a threat and surviving.”

The most frustrating aspect of all for the Padres was that it was a game they were only six outs from winning--and still lost thanks to the bullpen.

“Right now we haven’t had anybody do the job in that (closers’) spot,” Riddoch said, “and nobody did the job tonight.”

If Myers had been effective lately, would he have started the eighth to face Sanders, who bats left handed?

“I can’t look back and say that would have been automatic,” Riddoch said. “Maybe if I had a (Rob) Dibble or a (Todd) Worrell, or somebody like that, sure.”

Said Myers, who eventually came into the game when the Braves took a 5-4 lead: “Sure, I would have loved to come into that situation and see what happened. Maybe if Deion just gets a base and not a homer and you see Larry and I come in earlier. But it didn’t work that way.

“I just look at it as a loss. I’d rather pitch lousy and win than pitch good and lose.”

Padre starter Andy Benes, who struggled, could have avoided the need for any bullpen help if he had been effective. He lasted 5 1/3 innings. He is winless in his last four starts.

Benes wrenched his back Thursday morning while placing his 3-year-old son, Andrew, into the car on his way to the airport. The pitcher underwent treatment Friday to loosen his back muscles, and pronounced himself fit. Although he did not use his injury as an alibi, it was no secret that it severely affected his control.

Benes wound up walking five batters. He had walked only five batters in his previous five starts combined, and had walked more than one batter in just two of his previous 12 starts.

“I just couldn’t put the ball where I wanted to,” Benes said. “Every time I looked up, there were two or three runners on base. I don’t know how I got out of some of those jams.

He opened the game by allowing singles to Nixon, Pendleton and Gant. He avoided a fourth consecutive hit--he walked David Justice.

Quickly, Benes was looking at a situation in which the Braves had already scored one run, loaded the bases, and still had no outs.

Rich Rodriguez warmed up quickly as pitching coach Mike Roarke tried to calm Benes. Benes regained his composure, hoping to keep the Braves from blowing the game open.

Sid Bream struck out on four pitches. Greg Olson struck out on five pitches. Mark Lemke, working the count to 3-and-2, grounded out to second.

It happened again in the second inning, this time, loading the bases with one out. What does Benes do for an encore? He induces a double-play grounder by Gant.

Benes was in and out of trouble so much Friday that he threw 91 pitches through the first five innings, reaching a full count on five different batters.