Padres Pestered into Submission : Baseball: Butler bunts and runs the Dodgers to a 7-2 victory.

Brett Butler delivers much more punishment to his opposition than he does to a baseball.

The way he slaps and bunts at the ball, the Los Angeles Dodgers could easily box the thing up and pass it off as brand new after each of his at-bats.

But by the time he is done stealing bases here, taking extra bases there and causing errors in between, Dodger opponents sometimes seem to melt into the night air.

That was the case Saturday, as the Dodgers dropped the Padres, 7-2, behind Butler’s three hits, two stolen bases and precision baserunning.

“We can’t get him out,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said. “But four or five other clubs have been in here before us who couldn’t get him out, either.”

All in all, it wasn’t one of the Padres’ better nights:

* They nearly lost Tony Gwynn, who spent the hour before game time getting treatment on his right ankle after stepping on a right-field sprinkler in the early part of batting practice. He went 1 for 4.

* They did lose shortstop Tony Fernandez, who was ejected before many of the 33,078 in Dodger Stadium had settled in. After being called out on strikes to start the game, Fernandez returned to the Padre dugout, critiqued home plate umpire Ed Rapuano’s judgment, and was promptly tossed.

* They lost ground on the two teams ahead of them in the NL West, both of whom won Saturday. They now trail first-place Cincinnati by 5 1/2 games and second-place Atlanta by five.

* Their starting pitcher, Andy Benes, was about ready to lose his sanity. The Padres (56-49) were nearly shut out for the third time in his past four starts. They managed two meaningless runs in the ninth, though, to avoid that embarrassment.

The Dodgers might be last in the NL West, 17 games off the pace, but there is one important reason they can never be quickly dismissed.

He bats second.

Brett Morgan Butler.

Forget the smog. It’s Butler, who has a 16-game hitting streak, that has been making the Padres nauseous in Los Angeles.

In three games, he is batting .636 (seven for 11) with three walks and six runs scored. Padre pitchers have tried working him inside, outside, high and low. Nothing has succeeded.

His 16-game hitting streak is the second-longest in the NL this season behind Gary Sheffield’s 18-gamer.

“He’s an uncommon person,” Riddoch said. “He does things others don’t do. He’s willing to do things the common person won’t do. That’s why you stay 14 years instead of 10.”

Actually, Butler is in his 11th major league season--and second summer in Los Angeles. The Dodgers signed him as a free agent after San Francisco let him walk, and people are still attempting to figure out how in the world the Giants could justify dumping him without seriously courting him.

“He’s one of the smarter and better players in the league,” Riddoch said. “When he steps into the box, you know he’s a tough out.”

The shenanigans Butler pulled Saturday evening are no different than the things he has been pulling for the past month. He batted .442 in July with three doubles, two triples, a home run and 12 RBIs. He collected 22 walks, 18 stolen bases and scored 23 runs. He had a .547 on-base percentage and a .547 slugging percentage.

“Everything seems to be coming together,” Butler said. “I’m focused, seeing the ball well and my confidence is high. I haven’t really changed anything.

“I’m choking up a little more, but that’s it.”

You can usually find the guy smack in the middle of a big inning, and that was where Benes and the Padres located him.

Butler, who batted in the second spot only four times before the All-Star break but consistently since, followed Jose Offerman’s first-inning single with a sharp single to left, moving Offerman into scoring position at second.

Eric Young bunted Offerman to third and a wild throw by Gary Sheffield throw on the play allowed Offerman to score and Young to take second.

The Dodgers led, 1-0.

Two innings later, with one out and none on, Butler laid down a perfect drag bunt to the right side of the infield and easily beat it out--his 29th bunt hit of the summer.

The bunt forced Kurt Stillwell to go to first with a quick, off-balance throw, which was wild. And while Stillwell was getting charged with the Padres’ second error, Butler took second. The Padres have now been charged with four errors on Dodger bunts in their past two games.

Three batters later, Eric Davis--who would leave the game after suffering a bruised left hand while being hit by a pitch in the sixth--sliced a single to left and Butler scored, giving the Dodgers a 2-0 lead.

“I prefer the (No.) 1 hole,” Butler said, “but I’m able to utilize my bunting ability a little more batting second.”

In the sixth, Butler aggressively went from first to third on a single to shallow center. Four batters later, he scored on a Henry Rodriguez sacrifice fly.

By then it was 7-0, Dodgers, and Benes (8-10) was long gone.

Benes was banished after giving up three runs and five hits in the fifth inning alone. The numbers he took with him were damning: five runs and 10 hits in only 4 1/3 innings.

“Andy had pretty good pop but just didn’t have location,” Riddoch said.