Pirates Solve Benes, Padres

The visiting clubhouse was nearly empty late Tuesday night at Three Rivers Stadium. The Padres’ team bus departed long ago. Every player and coach had showered, dressed and departed . . . except one.

More than an hour after the conclusion of the Padres’ 5-1 defeat to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Padre starter Andy Benes emerged.

He walked slowly back to his locker, looking more like a man condemned than a 24-year-old who was branded with the responsibility of being the ace of the Padre pitching staff.

While lofty predictions were made this spring that Benes would be a 20-game winner, he sits today with a 9-11 record and a 3.78 ERA.

This hardly was what anyone envisioned when he opened the season with a 2-0 record and 0.39 ERA in his first three starts. Few ever thought the Padres would be 10-16 in his 26 starts this season.

“I’m not going to lie to anyone,” Benes said, “it’s been frustrating. My time will come, hopefully sooner than later.

“It’s just not a whole lot of fun waiting for that time.”

In the meantime, the Padres (64-55) appear that they’ll be waiting at least another year for a pennant race again. They have lost three consecutive games and four of their last five, dropping a season-high nine games behind the Atlanta Braves.

“It looks bad, real bad,” Padre catcher Benito Santiago said. “We waited so long for this, and worked so hard, and now this has happened.”

Is it even possible for this team to overcome a nine-game deficit, and 10 games back in the loss column, with only 43 games remaining?

“It’s manageable,” said Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said, “but I don’t think it seems plausible.”

Said one Padre regular: “When we blew that game Saturday (a 5-4 defeat to Cincinnati), that killed us. We battled and battled the whole game, and to lose that because of some moves by the manager, that hurt us real bad.

“To me, we’re still trying to recover from that.”

Discontent with and second-guessing of Padre Manager Greg Riddoch might be reaching new heights, according to several veterans.

“We’ve got too much talent to be where we are,” one veteran said. “Believe me, everyone’s asking what’s going on here. I even had an umpire tonight asking the same thing.”

But in what quickly is becoming a lost season, perhaps there’s no greater mystery than Benes, who has won only four games the last three months.

Some scouts believe he has lost velocity on his fastball, which perhaps has credence considering Benes has struck out only three batters in his last two starts. Some believe his delivery is out of whack. Others wonder if it’s simply a matter of losing confidence.

“If there was something drastically wrong, we’d know,” said Mike Roarke, Padre pitching coach. “It’s not anything in particular. We just want to make sure he doesn’t get too discouraged.

“Really, the best thing for him would be to have that one good game where he puts everything together, and then maybe things would fall into place.”

Maybe the Padres ought to try getting Benes a lead. He has not pitched with a lead in his last two starts, and the Padres have scored two or fewer runs in 12 of his 26 starts.

His control betrayed him Tuesday. Although he allowed only four hits, he mixed in five walks in losing to the Pirates for the first time since April 28, 1990.

“I don’t what it is,” Benes said. “It seems like I’m in one of those situations where if I make a bad pitch, the game gets out of hand.

“I know I haven’t been very sharp, but I haven’t pitched in the best of luck, either.”

The Padres managed to tie the game at 1 in the third inning when Gary Sheffield drove in his league-leading 85th run of the season, and his 19th in the last 17 games. But the Padres could do no more against Pirate left-hander Randy Tomlin (12-7), who entered the game with a 10.13 ERA against the Padres in two starts this season.

In the third, Benes walked leadoff hitter Alex Cole, who has the distinction of being the last player former Padre General Manager Jack McKeon traded way.

The Padres then were reminded of Cole’s strengths. Jay Bell sacrificed Cole to second, and Cole did the rest. He took off for third base on a steal attempt, watched Santiago’s throw sail into left field and scored standing up.

The Pirates broke the game open in the fifth when Bell reached first on an infield single. Andy Van Slyke, who’s having the finest offensive season of his career, tripled into the right-field corner for one run and scored on Bonds’ sacrifice fly to the right field fence.

The Pirates had a 4-1 lead, and four innings later, had their first victory of the season against the Padres after six consecutive defeats.

“I think the Pirates wanted to prove they could at least play with us,” Gwynn said. “I’m not going to sit here and go off the deep end because we lost three in a row, but we’re running into teams who are fighting for something.

“It’s pretty simple. We’re getting outplayed.”