A Little Goes Far for Padres : Baseball: Bunt hit the difference as Padres pick up 4-3 victory against Mets.

The National League’s most powerful and best hitting team won its seventh consecutive home game Sunday on a bunt single that dribbled all of 75 feet and a relay throw that traveled less than that.

Sure, Andy Benes pitched superbly and was the biggest overall factor, but the suddenly economical Padres beat the New York Mets, 4-3, in front of 13,080 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium because of Jerald Clark’s near-perfect bunt and Dick Schofield’s horrendous relay in a three-run fourth inning.

Clark’s bunt was the only hit in that three-run fourth inning and made a winner of Benes, who allowed only three hits and one run in seven innings and beat David Cone, who likewise allowed only three hits in seven innings.

“You gotta feel good when you beat someone like David Cone,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said.

But where was this luck a week ago?

The Padres, who were outscored, 27-6, during a five-game losing streak last week that dropped them out of playoff contention, swept this two-game series from the Mets, scoring eight runs on 11 hits and yielding five runs and nine hits.

And the biggest hit Sunday was the shortest.

“We pulled the element of surprise today,” Riddoch said. “Tried something a little bit different. We don’t normally bunt with Jerald Clark, and he made an outstanding bunt.”

Clark, who does not have a sacrifice bunt this season and had only one last year, said it was only the second time this year that Riddoch has called on him to bunt.

“The last home stand I got the (bunt) sign but I didn’t get the job done,” said Clark, adding: “I don’t do it enough to say whether I’m a good bunter or a bad bunter.”

For the Padres, who are ninth in the league in sacrifices (56) but first in home runs (106) and batting average (.260), it was a very timely bunt.

Gary Sheffield started the inning with a walk and a stolen base before Darrin Jackson was hit on the wrist by Cone (13-7).

Clark then squared to bunt and managed to push one toward first base about 15 feet from the foul line. Cone’s only play was to try to flip the ball with his glove to first baseman Eddie Murray. The problem was, Cone failed to field it cleanly, and Clark was credited with a single.

“That’s a joke,” Cone said. “It was an error all the way.”

Said Clark: “Either way, I don’t care. The main thing is I got the job done.”

With the bases then loaded, Phil Stephenson hit what appeared would be a double down the right-field line, but a diving Murray snared it on one hop, stepped on first and only one run scored, giving the Padres a 2-0 lead.

Kurt Stillwell then hit his second sacrifice fly of the game--the Padres are eighth in the NL in that category--and it resulted in two runs when shortstop Schofield erred on his relay from deep center field. Actually, Schofield had decided not to make the relay but the ball slipped out of his hand, dribbled toward the infield and an alert Clark trotted home to give the Padres a 4-0 lead.

The rest was up to the right-handed Benes, and he responded with his first victory since Aug. 6, despite pitching with a strained tendon in his right middle finger.

Benes, who injured the finger two months ago but re-aggravated it in his last start last week in Pittsburgh, yielded only harmless singles in the second and third innings and a double in the fifth that led to the Mets’ only run off him.

That double by Todd Hundley put runners on second and third with no outs, and Benes faced the same situation after Schofield reached on a run-scoring fielder’s-choice grounder to short and stole second.

Benes, however, escaped further damage by striking out Cone and Vince Coleman and getting Kevin Bass to line to left.

“In every game there are a few pitches a pitcher’s gotta make,” Benes said. “Today, that happened in the fifth inning.”

By making those clutch pitches, Benes improved to 10-11 and lowered his earned run average to 3.68. Benes is also 5-1 versus the Mets lifetime, and this was his fifth consecutive victory against them since losing to them in 1990.

Benes also matched Cone, the major leagues’ leading strikeout pitcher, with four strikeouts in seven innings. Benes is seventh in the NL in strikeouts but had struck out only two in his last 12 innings before Sunday.

Said Riddoch: “Andy pitched well. This had to be a good confidence builder for him.”

Larry Andersen and Randy Myers allowed one run each in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively. Myers picked up his 27th save.

Met right fielder Bobby Bonilla sent Myers’ first pitch five rows into the left field seats for his 16th homer of the year. Bonilla has now homered in four consecutive games, equaling a team record. The others to accomplish the feat were Dave Kingman (1981), Lee Mazzilli (‘80), Ron Swoboda (‘68) and Larry Elliott (‘64).

As for Sheffield, he went one for three and remained the NL’s leading hitter at .339. Sheffield is also tied for the NL lead in home runs (27) and runs batted in (87).

He’s tied for home runs with teammate Fred McGriff, but McGriff was given the day off Sunday.

Padre Attendance

Sunday: 13,080

1992 (62 dates): 1,408,473

1991 (62 dates): 1,504,340

Decrease: 95,867

1992 Average: 22,717