Giants Rout Lefferts in Win Over Padres

The Padres dreaded this day might arrive and, after their 7-1 defeat Tuesday night to the San Francisco Giants, grudgingly acknowledge their worst fears are being realized.

Craig Lefferts, the surprise of the Padre pitching staff the first four months of the season, is beginning to stagger. He was hammered for the second consecutive start, yielding eight hits and five runs in only 3 2/3 innings.

Although anyone can have a bad outing, Lefferts has begun to show fatigue. He is yielding a 8.31 ERA in his last two starts, allowing 17 baserunners in only 8 2/3 innings. It’s the first time this season that he has had dismal back-to-back starts.

Lefferts (12-7 with a 3.64 ERA) simply is starting to show signs of wear in his transformation from reliever to starter. It’s quite understandable. He already has pitched a career-high 131 innings this season, throwing 1,816 pitches.

“You can tell he’s getting tired,” Padre catcher Benito Santiago said. “His pitches are up now. They weren’t before.”

For the first time this season, Lefferts’ velocity has dropped, hitters no longer are being fooled and his control has abandoned him.

He had gone the entire season without walking more than two batters in a game, including only one walk in a span of four starts. Now, all of a sudden, Lefferts has walked six batters in 8 2/3 innings.

“To be honest, my control has not been what it has been lately,” Lefferts said, “and that’s hurt me the most. I still feel pretty good. I think it’s just been my mechanics.

“It’s back to the drawing board.”

The Giants went down meekly in the first inning, but tormented Lefferts during the rest of his stay. They scored a run in the second inning on back-to-back doubles by Cory Snyder and Craig Colbert, added another on Kevin Bass’ two-out single in the third inning and put Lefferts away in the fourth.

Lefferts opened the fourth by walking No. 7 hitter Colbert on five pitches and yielding a single to Mike Benjamin. Lefferts then appeared he might escape the jam when pitcher John Burkett sacrificed Benjamin to second and Willie McGee grounded to third.

Instead, Robby Thompson hit a sharp grounder that hit Lefferts’ left thumb, allowing Colbert to score. And Will Clark put on the finishing touches by slashing a double to left-center field for a 5-1 Giant lead.

That was the end of Lefferts.

It also was the end of the Padres.

Although Burkett (8-6) entered the game with a 3.95 ERA, fifth-worst among National League pitchers with at least 100 innings, he allowed eight hits and one run in 7 2/3 innings. The only mistake he made was trying to throw a slider past Padre third baseman Gary Sheffield in the first inning.

He may never try it again.

Sheffield hit what the Padres were announcing to be a 468-foot homer into the left-center field seats, even saying it may have been the longest homer hit in the 24-year history of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Padre officials proclaimed it to have bounced off about the ninth row of seats in the second deck, only the 10th time a ball has reached that level.

There was only one problem.

It never reached the seats.

“It hit the guy wire,” Padre right fielder Gwynn said. “That ball didn’t even go 368 feet. Come on, it wasn’t even close. I’m telling the truth.”

Said Giant left fielder Chris James, who watched the flight of the ball: “It was just an ordinary homer. It ain’t no 468-foot homer.”

Indeed, several of the Padres confirmed the ball in fact did hit the guy wire between the two fouls poles before crashing onto the playing field. While the Padres announced it was the longest home run by a National League player this season, and second in the big leagues only to Rob Deer’s 483-foot blast at Tiger Stadium, the historic feat may be erased after a look of the videotape today.

“Whatever they say it was, I’ll take it,” Sheffield said, laughing. “I really didn’t see where it landed. I just know it hit something, and I lost sight of it.

“I’m just glad I’m ahead of Fred (McGriff) in distance.”

Said McGriff, listening to Sheffield: “Come on, he can’t even hit the ball 468 feet. They take care of Gary here. He hits a ball 420 feet, and they paint a seat for him.”

Sheffield, who has 20 homers for the season: “Hey, I’ll take it.”

Aside from a home run controversy, the defeat proved critical to the Padres (57-51), who are in danger of being left behind in the National League West race. The Padres trail the Atlanta Braves (62-42) by seven games and are 5 1/2 behind the second-place Cincinnati Reds.

“It’s going to be tough to get back in this thing,” Sheffield said, “because you’ve got two teams ahead of you. We’ve got to get within two games of the lead before we can even start thinking about a pennant race.”

Indeed, if the Braves continue at the current pace, the Padres will have to go 39-15 the remainder of the season just to finish in a tie for the division title. Of course, it doesn’t help that since July 4 the Padres have gone 8-13 against teams other than the Philadelphia Phillies. They’ve lost 1 1/2 games in the standings just since the All-Star break.

“Atlanta scares me because they’ve whipped up on us all year,” said Gwynn, noting the Padres’ 2-7 record against the Braves. “You look at the last six games we’ve played against Atlanta, and they’ve shoved it down our throats.

“We feel like we can contend with Cincinnati, but Atlanta is very difficult. If you don’t get to their starters, you can be in big trouble.”