Lefferts Shuts Out Cubs, 3-0 : Baseball: Padre starter wins 13th game, but might be traded soon.

Craig Lefferts recorded his 13th victory in a 3-0 victory Wednesday night over the Chicago Cubs. It might be his last as a Padre.

With the major-league trading deadline only four days away, Lefferts’ name continues to find its way into conversations such as this one: Lefferts will be traded to the Oakland Athletics for a minor-league prospect by the end of the week.

“If it happens, it happens,” Lefferts said after beating the Cubs in front of 18,028 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. “I’ve been traded before. I’m not thinking trade. I’m thinking chances to win here.

“I haven’t really heard much. I haven’t seen my name in print at all. But (the talk) is going to happen this time of year . . . Rumors are rumors. Somebody says something, and the next thing you know, it’s a rumor. Ninety-nine percent of all rumors don’t ever come to fruition.”

This one, however, should probably be classified as more than a rumor. A number of scouts, including at least one from Oakland, were in attendance at Wednesday’s game for the purpose of watching Lefferts.

And why not?

With Bob Welch on the disabled list and Rick Honeycutt nursing a sore hip, Oakland needs help in its starting rotation--the kind of help Lefferts could provide.

Lefferts is not only a versatile pitcher--having working as starter and both a short and long reliever in his career--but he is also playoff tested.

In 1984, he won two games in the National League Championship Series and later picked up the only World Series save in Padre history.

In 1987, after being traded to the San Francisco Giants on July 4, he appeared in three games of the Giants’ NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals. In ‘89, there were two more NLCS appearances and three more World Series innings when the Giants lost to the A’s.

But that, of course, was all as a reliever. Lefferts is now a starter but still effective.

Including seven shutout innings against the Cubs, Lefferts improved to 13-8 and lowered his earned run average to 3.52. He yielded six hits and walked three but pitched brilliantly when he needed to the most.

“I had pretty good stuff,” he said. “My control was a little off but my curve was working well. I had had a little trouble with that pitch lately.”

The trouble came in the sixth inning, when the Cubs’ Mark Grace and Andre Dawson pieced together back-to-back singles and Lefferts walked Steve Buechele to load the bases with two outs. Lefferts got out of it by getting Luis Salazar to fly to right.

The Padre defense also helped Lefferts’ cause. Craig Shipley, starting at third base in place of Gary Sheffield, made two outstanding plays, each time robbing Ryne Sandberg of at least a double.

After Jose Melendez pitched the eighth inning, Randy Myers retired the side in order in the ninth and picked up his 29th save. It was also his 16th consecutive conversion of a save opportunity.

The victim of all this was Chicago right-hander Greg Maddux, who fell to 15-10 after allowing seven hits and three earned runs in six innings.

Maddux faced the minimum nine batters in the first three innings, but Tony Fernandez greeted him with a sharp stand-up triple to right-center to lead off the fourth inning.

Tony Gwynn made it 1-0 Padres, depositing Maddux’s next pitch in nearly the same spot Fernandez did for a double. That was all the Padres got that inning though, as Benito Santiago grounded to short, Fred McGriff popped to short and Darrin Jackson flied to left.

The Padres got two insurance runs in the fifth inning.