Padres Stumble Again : Baseball: Benes ineffective in 6-3 loss to St. Louis Cardinals.

The invitations will be formally sent out today and Thursday, when major league baseball names its All-Star teams. The food has been ordered, the fridge stocked, the festivities planned.

But there is one little problem. With the biggest week of the season in San Diego next week, the Padres apparently will play the part of the host who greets guests with funny-nose glasses.

The Padres, not so much slumping as sliding down an ice-covered hill on a grease-covered sled, lost their fourth consecutive game Tuesday night, 6-3, at the hands--beaks?--of the St. Louis Cardinals.

And it is looking more and more as if the All-Star game will be the last big baseball game played in San Diego this season.

Darrin Jackson had a career-high four hits in front of 19,112 in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, but starting pitcher Andy Benes (6-7) was chased after only 4 1/3 innings.

What a time for a pratfall.

Cincinnati, in first place in the NL West, has won six consecutive games, but the Padres have lost four in a row. The Padres are a season-high 8 1/2 games out; Cincinnati has picked up four games in four days on the Padres--five games in six days.

And the Padres are in the middle of an 11-game home stand leading into the All-Star break. This is when they are supposed to gain ground.

Isn’t it?

Instead, they have lost six of seven games on the home stand.

“We just keep playing, just keep working at it,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said.

Cincinnati, 25-8 at home, plays 48 of its final 81 games at Riverfront Stadium. The Padres play 42 of 78 on the road.

The Padres on Tuesday got 10 hits off of four different Cardinal pitchers but only managed three runs.

“It’s too bad that the All-Star break doesn’t start (today) so we could catch up on our injuries,” Riddoch said. “We’ve got quite a few guys with nagging injuries, and they’re playing with them.”

Third basemen Gary Sheffield sat out Tuesday with a sprained left middle finger. And Riddoch said five Padres who were in the lineup played with nagging injuries: Tony Gwynn and Kevin Ward (sore backs), Tony Fernandez (sore hand), Tim Teufel (sore shoulder and leg) and Kurt Stillwell (sore hand and arm).

But even a healthy Padre team would have had trouble on this night because Benes surrendered five runs and eight hits during his brief stay.

Like his team, things are only getting worse for Benes. He has not won since June 17, and he has won only once since May 22--10 starts ago.

Much of the streak has occurred while Benes has pitched well--he allowed three or fewer earned runs in six of the nine starts.

But that wasn’t the case Tuesday.

“It’s just a matter of getting back to a good mechanical groove,” Benes said. “Until I’m good mechanically, it’s tough to have good results when you’re throwing the ball and not doing things right, not getting in a good position to throw.”

Said Riddoch: “He threw hittable pitches, that’s all.”

Benes allowed runs in the third, fourth and fifth before leaving with the Padres trailing, 5-1.

“I guess I’ve got one more chance (Sunday) and then there’s the (All-Star) break,” Benes said. “It had better be better than this was tonight.”

Benes’ lack of effectiveness especially hurt the Padres because, on this night, they had figured out Cardinal starter Donovan Osborne (7-4). Osborne, 10th in the NL with a 2.71 ERA entering the game, mostly handcuffed the Padres through four innings, the only damage being Darrin Jackson’s first-inning home run.

But Osborne got into trouble in the fifth and was removed with one out in the sixth after having allowed three runs and eight hits. Lee Smith collected 20th save, leaving he and Cincinnati’s Norm Charlton tied for the NL lead.

Benes’ effort also didn’t help the Padres’ struggling bullpen. With Tim Scott having pitched the past two evenings and Jose Melendez working two of the past three days, Riddoch was reluctant to use them.

So Mike Maddux, who has closed several times recently in the Padres’ bullpen-by-committee system, was summoned in the fifth inning. Rich Rodriguez started the sixth, Larry Andersen came on in the eighth.

“We’ve been using the bullpen a lot,” Riddoch said.

Jackson, whose last four-hit game came Aug. 2, 1991, at Atlanta, homered in the first and singled in the fourth, sixth and eighth. He had one RBI.

The Padres scored first on Jackson’s first-inning, full-count homer, his 10th of the season. But after that, it got real quiet real fast for the Padres.

And it took only a couple of innings for the Cardinals to unwind. In the third, Ray Lankford followed an Osborne single and an Ozzie Smith walk with a double down the left-field line. Osborne and Smith scored and Lankford was thrown out trying to sneak into third. That ended the inning with the Cardinals ahead, 2-1.

It quickly became 3-1 in the fourth, and could have been even worse. Benes hit Andres Galarraga with a pitch to start the inning, and Todd Zeile and Felix Jose followed with singles. Jose’s, on a 0-and-2 pitch, drove in Galarraga. Benes was able to get three consecutive fly balls to end the inning.

But then came the fifth. Benes surrendered a lead-off single to Milt Thompson, got Smith to ground to shortstop--and then gave up another double to Lankford.

This time Lankford stayed at second, and Thompson scored. And the next batter, Galarraga, doubled Lankford home and finished off Benes.