Schilling Gets Phillies a Victory Over Padres : Baseball: His six-hit shutout breaks Philadelphia’s drought against the Padres this season.

It was bound to happen sometime. Carl Lewis doesn’t win every race. Michael Jordan doesn’t score 40 every night.

And the Padres can’t always beat the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Padres finally lost Wednesday night to the Phillies, 4-0, in front of 26,062 at Veterans Stadium.

It’s hard to figure out which was more astonishing: that it took more than two months and seven games for the Phillies to beat the Padres, or that it’s the first time in July the Phillies have beaten someone other than the Dodgers.

Of course, considering the Phillies have used 15 players this season that weren’t even on their 40-man roster at the beginning of spring training, perhaps it is easy to understand.

The Phillies, in last place in the National League East, had lost 16 of their past 21 games. But behind starter Curt Schilling, the Phillies stopped the Padres’ four-game winning streak, and left them six games behind the division-leading Atlanta Braves and 5 1/2 in back of the Cincinnati Reds.

“We can’t worry about splitting series anymore, we’ve got to start sweeping teams,” said Padre third baseman Gary Sheffield, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games with two singles. “We can’t even think we’re in a pennant race because we’re too far back. Now, if we get within two games I’ll feel it, but six games is a different story.

“Those are two great teams ahead of us. If you match our lineup to anyone else’s, we should be win. But we’ve got to score a lot of runs to go with our pitching.”

Schilling (8-6, 2.57 ERA), quietly emerging as one of the finest starters in the league, limited the Padres to six hits in his third shutout of the season.

“It’s the best stuff I’ve ever had,” Schilling said. “It was test for me personally because they have a lot of good hitters out there. They’re a fastball-hitting club, and I came at them all night.”

Said Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn, who had two hits despite experiencing more back pain: “He’s the type of pitcher you like to see. He comes right at you. He just says, ‘Here it is, hit it.’ ”

The Padres (51-45), though, couldn’t. They didn’t even have a runner reach second base until the seventh inning.

Gwynn singled to right, and Sheffield followed with another. The Padres had runners on first and second. No outs. Fred McGriff was at the plate. Darrin Jackson was on deck.

Schilling struck out McGriff on three pitches.

He struck out Jackson on three pitches.

And he survived when right fielder Wes Chamberlain made a spectacular leaping catch into the right-field fence, robbing Benito Santiago of at least a two-run double.

“We could have broken it open right there and gotten back into it,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said. “That was a great catch.

“What can you say, it was just one of those nights where we got beat by a good pitcher.”

Said Phillie Manager Jim Fregosi: “When you hold a team like that down, it’s really something. You look at that lineup, my God. That middle of the lineup (Gwynn, Sheffield and McGriff) is as good a trio that’s been around for a while.

“I used to think (Jesse) Barfield, (Lloyd) Moseby and (George) Bell were great when they were young with Toronto. But those three are really something.

“Plus, they’ve got Tony Fernandez getting on base and Santiago hitting behind McGriff.”

The Padres’ lack of support left starter Andy Benes (7-9) frustrated once again. He has won only twice since May 22, spanning 12 starts.

Certainly, Benes pitched well enough to win, allowing six hits and three runs in seven innings. It was the ninth time during this famine that he has allowed three or fewer runs.

But the Padres have this nasty habit of not scoring when Benes is pitching. The Padres have been shut out in Benes’ last two starts.

“I’m just in one of those modes where if I make a mistake the game’s over,” Benes said. “Look at tonight; we weren’t gonna win anyway, even if it was 1-0. If we can just win four games in between my starts, we have a chance.

“There’s really nothing you can do about it right now but stay positive.”

Benes opened the game with a 1-2-3 first inning, but struggled virtually in every inning thereafter. He threw 80 pitches through the first five innings, and allowed at least one runner in all but two innings.

The Phillies jumped on Benes in the second inning when John Kruk led off with a single to right, raising his batting average to a league-leading .353 by the end of the game. Catcher Darren Daulton followed with a towering home run to right field for his 62nd and 63rd RBIs of the season. He now trails Sheffield by only one RBI for the league lead.

In the third, Benes gave up a one-out double into the left-center gap to Mariano Duncan. He induced a ground ball from Dave Hollins, but surrendered another run when Kruk hit a double that skipped past McGriff for a 3-0 Phillies’ lead.

Benes flirted with danger the rest of the time he pitched, but the way Schilling was pitching, it hardly mattered.

“Poor Andy,” Riddoch said. “The guy is snakebit. He makes one mistake, and ends up paying for it.”