Sheffield Puts Awards in Perspective : Baseball: Padre hitter would rather have a title-winning season than some rare baseball hardware.

Padre third baseman Gary Sheffield realizes he is in pursuit of a triple crown and understands what the achievement would mean to his career and the entire Padre organization.

It would be a publicity bonanza for the struggling Padre franchise, which is expected to lose close to $10 million this season. There hasn’t been a triple crown winner in the National League in 55 years. No Padre has ever been remotely close.

But while he fields questions about a triple crown and collects endorsements from peers saying he should win the National League’s Most Valuable Player award, Sheffield feels a rage of competitiveness.

Sheffield could care less about winning the MVP award. It doesn’t matter to him if another 55 years pass without a triple crown winner.

Sheffield is more concerned about winning than filling his trophy case.

He spent parts of four seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, who never finished higher than third during his stay. Only once were they involved in a pennant race.

After spending four months with the Padres, Sheffield is distraught as the season disintegrates before his eyes.

The Padres enter tonight’s game against the New York Mets at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium with a five-game losing streak, which ties their season high. The Padres have fallen to a season-high 10 games behind the Atlanta Braves. After starting the season 7-2, they are 57-55.

“There’s no excuse for us not to be winning this division,” Sheffield said. “Come on, we should be 18 games over .500 with the team we have. We should have 70-something wins by now.

“People talk about the Braves, but we should be winning as many games as them. We can match them player for player, and everybody knows it. Really, I think we even have better players. But there’s something going on around here, and I can’t figure it out.

“You can see the fear in the eyes of the other managers when they see us, but in games, the other managers always seem to be pulling the right strings. You can see it. They’re hitting-and-running. They’re bunting. They’re stealing.

“They find the ways to win, doing the things that don’t always show up in the box scores.

“We’re just not doing those things.”

The Padres are having trouble late. They are 6-12 when they are tied entering the ninth inning and are 4-10 in extra-inning games.

Although the Padres are 25-14 in one-run games, the statistic is a bit misleading. There have been 10 games in which the Padre bullpen has inherited a lead of two or more runs in late innings that they turned into one-run victories--including seven by Randy Myers.

“It just doesn’t add up,” Sheffield said. “There’s no way this should be happening, but it keeps going on.

“You look at our team, and we have the power. We have the hitting. We have the pitching.

“Why aren’t we winning?”

At a time when the Padres are searching for answers, Sheffield must try to focus on his game. He is batting .211 over the last five games with only two RBIs.

“It’s just real tough to get motivated right now,” Sheffield said. “Before, it was an automatic thing. You were just so pumped up because you were in the race.

“But ever since that game last Saturday, man, things just haven’t been the same.”

The Padres blew a 4-2 lead in the eighth inning Saturday against the Cincinnati Reds, losing 5-4, and in the five games since, they have been outscored 27-6.

“To be so close to the Braves, and now being out so far, it’s tough to handle,” Sheffield said. “We were so relaxed going into that game, had a lead and knew we were going to win.

“Then, boom, we lose.

“That was a crusher. You work so hard to be champs, and then to have crushing losses like those, it just wears you down.”

Sheffield enters the last quarter of the season hoping to regain his concentration. He is hitting .337 with 25 homers and 85 RBIs, but he doesn’t want to squander the final 41 games of the season.

“It’s tough right now,” Sheffield said, “because it’s almost like it takes two at-bats now just to get refocused in the game. I know I’m going to keep helping the team the best I can. If I’m healthy, I’ll be out there.

“I need to take every game personal, and try not to hard to worry about what’s going on.

“It’s a shame that it’s had to come down to this. Believe me, it never should have happened.”