Deshaies Gets to the Padres Just in Time : Baseball: Pitcher arrives from Las Vegas and shuts down the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-1.

The dog days of summer, normally reserved for August and September and places such as Atlanta and St. Louis, arrived here Thursday afternoon.

Fortunately for the Padres, so did Jim Deshaies.

Making his first major league appearance this season, Deshaies yielded only one run and three hits in 5 2/3 innings as the Padres survived a sweltering day and snapped a season-high, five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Helping the Padres (44-42) remain above .500, Dan Walters and Jerald Clark hit back-to-back, bases-empty home runs in the second inning and combined to produce another run in the fourth. Randy Myers recorded his first save (14th overall) since May 29.

Deshaies, however, was the unlikely hero.

Less than 24 hours before making his 1992 debut, Deshaies was in a movie theatre in Tucson, Ariz., with a few of his Las Vegas Stars teammates.

Uh, make that former teammates.

Upon returning from “Unlawful Entry,” Deshaies, 32, learned he had been called up by the Padres and was scheduled to pitch the opener of a four-game series with Philadelphia.

It was 3:30 p.m. Deshaies had a 5:18 p.m. flight.

“I was scurrying around just trying to get here (Wednesday), and I didn’t sleep very well,” Deshaies said.

Unlikely hero?

Since June 1986, during his rookie season with the Houston Astros, Deshaies had only one victory, two no-decisions and eight consecutive losses in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“Hey, whenever I’m here, the Padres win,” he noted.

Unlikely hero?

Deshaies took the mound under perhaps the worst weather conditions of the season at Jack Murphy Stadium and left 111 pitches later with one run in--on Dave Hollins’ 11th homer--and two runners on in the sixth inning.

He finished with eight strikeouts--three shy of his career high--and five walks.

“That’s too many pitches and too many walks in this kind of heat,” said Deshaies, who was admittedly and obviously pooped when removed.

“He pitched great, but his legs went out from under him,” Manager Greg Riddoch said.

Reliever Jose Melendez came in and retired Mariano Duncan to end the sixth inning. Myers then replaced Melendez with one out and one on in the eighth and two recently named All-Stars coming to bat.

Shaking off the routine chorus of boos from the 17,528 in the park, Myers got Kruk to fly to left, and Darren Daulton struck out for the third time.

In the ninth, Myers pitched into and out of a jam to hand the Phillies (36-49) their fifth consecutive loss and ninth in 11 games. For Myers, this was only his second save opportunity since June 2, and he lowered his earned-run average to 5.71.

Deshaies got all the runs he needed from Walters and Clark, who became the second pair of Padres to hit consecutive home runs. Tony Gwynn and Gary Sheffield hit back-to-back shots May 25 off Pittsburgh’s Zane Smith.

Walters’ towering blast to left, his third, and Clark’s liner over the left-center-field fence, his sixth, came against left-hander Terry Mulholland. One of the hottest pitchers in baseball, Mulholland (9-5) had won four in a row and nine of 10 since May 1.

Walters and Clark hooked up again in the fourth. After Walters hit a bouncer under the glove of shortstop Dale Sveum and hustled in for a double, Clark drove him in with a line single to right center.

Walters (two for three) had been in an 0-for-14 slump coming into the game, and Clark (two for three) raised his average to .214, the highest it has been since April 15.

“I’m getting more hits,” Clark said. “I’m more optimistic. I don’t want to say I’m out of it, because you know how this game is.”

Deshaies knows.

After averaging 12 victories during his first four seasons with the Astros, he slumped to 7-12 in 1990 and 5-12 last year.

And despite his performance Thursday, the Padres, who signed Deshaies to a Triple-A contract on April 28 after he was released by the Oakland Athletics on March 23, have not made a decision on his status as yet.

Starter? Middle reliever? Back to Las Vegas?

“All I’ve been told is I’m here at least until Sunday,” Deshaies said.