Padres Depart Meekly : Baseball: The Pittsburgh Pirates win, 7-1, to end the Padres’ week that was not.

The Padres looked as if they were zombies Thursday walking out of the clubhouse for the trip home. They had glazed eyes and monotone voices.

In one week, culminating with their 7-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Padres’ world turned upside down.

The team’s front office stopped all playoff planning. No longer is there talk of trades for the pennant stretch.

A week ago, the Padres believed they could win the National League West. Now they are wondering how everything could go so wrong, so fast.

The Padres returned home from Atlanta, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh with a 2-6 record, a five-game losing streak. They have lost six of their last seven games.

“It hit us so fast,” said Padre starter Jim Deshaies. “It was like, ‘Boom, it’s over.’ Atlanta is playing so well, nobody can afford to stumble.

“Well, we hit the ground pretty good.”

The Padres dropped 5 1/2 games in the standings in a week, falling 10 games behind the Braves.

The most painful thing, the players say, is that it never should have happened.

This is too good of a team, the Padre players say, to be only seven games above .500 (64-57). This is too good of a team, they insist, to be only two games above .500 since April 15.

Although no player has publicly criticized Padre Manager Greg Riddoch for the club’s troubles, players privately admit there is a strong current of discontent.

“It’s no secret why we’re losing,” said one Padre, “and everyone in here knows it. He’s killing us. He’s a nice guy, but you’ve got to respect a manager, and that’s not happening.

“It’s not just me talking, you can go to almost every guy in this clubhouse and get the same thing. I know (General Manager Joe) McIlvaine sees it, but the way it sounds, the owners don’t.”

The Padre ownership has recommended that McIlvaine sign Riddoch to a two-year extension. Although McIlvaine continues to wait, there’s a strong belief he’ll do as they wish.

“For us to be losing,” Padre third baseman Gary Sheffield said, “this shouldn’t be happening. We should be winning. I don’t understand it.”

Said Padre first baseman Fred McGriff: “When it comes down to the nitty-gritty, we’re losing the close games. Everyone’s making the right moves on us. On paper, we can play with anyone. But in the close games, we seem to find a way to lose.

“We’ve got a great ballclub here, but there’s something that separates the winners from us.”

The Padres say their season came to a halt Saturday night, when the Padres blew a 4-2 lead in the eighth inning to Cincinnati. Riddoch was second-guessed on several moves in the late innings. The Padres hardly have been the same team since.

That game triggered the Padres’ losing streak, leaving them almost lifeless as they’ve been outscored, 27-6, without taking a lead in a single inning.

“That was the swing game of the trip right there,” Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said. “That was the game that put us out of our mode, and we haven’t played well since that day. It took a lot out of all of us.

“Right now, what can I say, we’re just struggling to find ourselves.”

The Pirates certainly saw a different team from the one that beat them the first six times the teams played this season. The Pirates, losers of three out of four to the Braves before this series, swept the Padres for the first time at Three Rivers Stadium since May 12-14, 1987.

They shut down the Padre offense in the three games. The Padres were limited to four runs, a .220 batting average, and only four extra-base hits. It was their lowest run production of any series this season.

Pirate starter Danny Jackson, who surrendered five runs in the first inning to the Braves in his last start, yielded only five hits and one run in seven innings to the Padres.

The Padres stayed in the game for 6 1/2 innings behind starter Craig Lefferts (12-8), who yielded seven hits and three runs in six innings. They trailed 3-1 after 6 1/2 innings, but the Pirates then sent 10 batters to the plate, scoring four runs in the seventh off relievers Tim Scott and Jose Melendez. Rich Rodriguez kept it from getting out of hand by retiring Jeff King with the bases loaded.

“We’re just going to have to go home and regroup,” Riddoch said. “The Pirates are hot right now. The last time we were here, everyone said the Pirates were washed up. Hey, the whole thing is predicated on pitching.

“I’m not disappointed with the way we’ve played. They played hard. . . . We feel we’re on the verge of being a very competitive team. We feel like we’re a team of the future, and in a few years, we have a chance to go to the prom.”

The Padres believe they should have gone to the playoffs this season. On the long journey home Thursday, they believe there won’t be an invitation this fall.

“Every night we had to be ready to play on this trip,” McGriff said, “and that didn’t happen. We hard our chances, but we just didn’t do the little things to win the close games. It didn’t just happen this trip. It’s happened all year.

“The question we all have now is, ‘Where do we go from here?’ ”