Dodgers’ Hershiser Completes a Bad Weekend for Padres : Baseball: Padres lose, 4-1, go home with one victory in four-game series.

They were starting to drag, Manager Greg Riddoch thought, so he canceled the Padres’ batting practice on Sunday and moved the departure of the team bus from the hotel back an hour.

What he didn’t do was figure out a way to avoid Orel Hershiser.

The Padres waved a few bats at the former Dodger ace, but that was about as far as it got. Hershiser, in a 4-1 victory, pitched his first complete game since Aug. 18, 1989, in front of 34,584.

In losing for the third time in four games at Dodger Stadium this week, the Padres never had a chance. Hershiser (8-9) retired the final 13 Padres in order en route to his 59th career complete game, his first since undergoing shoulder surgery in 1990.

He was quick, he was tidy and he was lethal. And in the end, the Padres still hadn’t figured him out.

“I don’t think he had his best stuff today,” Riddoch said. “I think we helped him out by swinging at bad pitches.”

Said Tony Gwynn: “Greg wasn’t up there hitting, obviously. Hershiser isn’t overpowering, but he’s still smart. He knows what pitches to throw, the locations, the angles. . . . Regardless, if he throws like he did in 1988 or now, you still have to give him credit.”

And Fred McGriff: “I guess we’re going to have to let (Riddoch) go up there. The guy threw good. That’s part of the game.

“His job is to get us out. I thought he threw the ball well. He was always around the plate, and if he does that, he’s going to get you to chase pitches. You’ve got to go up there hacking.”

Gwynn finished 1 for 4; McGriff was 0 for 4 and dropped below the .300 mark (.299) for the first time since May 8.

But they weren’t alone. The Padres mustered only five hits and sent only one runner past second--Kurt Stillwell, who in the fifth scored the Padres’ only run.

Hershiser was so much in control that he didn’t even take offense at Riddoch’s remarks. Maybe the Padres did swing at some bad pitches, he said--but for a reason.

“When you have a good outing, sometimes that happens,” Hershiser said. “I don’t think (Riddoch) was saying that in a derogatory manner. I don’t think many major leaguers have good outings without having people swing at bad pitches. The idea is to make pitches look like strikes.”

While Hershiser was offering an eloquent explanation, the Padres didn’t know where to begin. Their problems this weekend involved more than Hershiser’s trickery.

They arrived in Los Angeles having won eight of 11 and five games out of first place. But the Dodger Stadium walls started closing in on the Padres as soon as they arrived.

They lost in 10 innings on Thursday . . . They brought catcher Tom Lampkin in from triple-A Las Vegas on Friday because they thought there was a legitimate chance that they would trade Benito Santiago . . . Larry Andersen strained a hamstring on Friday (he’s fine now) . . . Tony Gwynn sprained an ankle Saturday (fine, also) . . . Tony Fernandez was ejected in the first inning on Saturday.

And Dodger center fielder Brett Butler batted .533 (8 for 13) against them with three walks and six runs scored. His fifth-inning single Sunday extended his hitting streak to 17 games.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m happy to get out of here,” Gwynn said.

Padre starter Jim Deshaies (1-2) turned in his fourth solid outing since joining the Padres, holding the Dodgers to two runs and five hits in six innings.

But two runs were two too many. They came in the second, when Deshaies walked Eric Karros to start the inning. Mitch Webster followed with a double to right, then Todd Benzinger singled and Carlos Hernandez followed that with another single.