Padres Simply Going Through the Motions? : Baseball: Cincinnati beats them again, 5-2, but Riddoch defends his players.

The Padres detest any insinuation, but after they lost, 5-2, Saturday to the Cincinnati Reds in another lackluster effort, one National League scout at Riverfront Stadium made this damning observation:

“To me, they’re playing like a team that (will) get their manager fired,” the scout said. “It’s not the same team I saw earlier in the season, I can tell you that.”

The Padres have lost four of their last five games, eight of 11 and 18 of 31.

Have the Padres quit under Manager Greg Riddoch?

“I don’t believe that,” Riddoch said. “There’s a lot of clubs going through what we’re doing. When you’ve been doing something for eight months--have only two weeks left--and you know you’re not going to win the championship. . . . it’s only human nature not to act the same.

“There have also been a lot of distractions.”

The slide has added up to slippage in the standings. Instead of challenging the Atlanta Braves for first place or pushing the Reds for second, the Padres are trying to stave off the Houston Astros for third place.

The Padres (77-70) have dropped to 3 1/2 games behind the Reds, and were only 5 1/2 games ahead of the Astros after they beat the Braves on Saturday.

“Right now,” Padre reliever Larry Andersen said, “we’re kind of dead.”

Certainly, the Padres have shown little signs of life the past month as they plummeted out of the pennant race. They appear to be taking Riddoch’s job with them.

Riddoch could be fired as early as Monday, although Joe McIlvaine, Padre general manager, continued to be mum about Riddoch’s status.

There has been little enthusiasm the past few weeks. When Red left fielder Bip Roberts stole second and third base in the fifth inning, it equaled the Padres’ stolen base total the past 226 innings--excluding Jerald Clark’s steal of home when the Dodgers forgot to call time out.

Padre shortstop Tony Fernandez, who was in the starting lineup, didn’t arrive at Riverfront Stadium until 1 hour 10 minutes before game time. In fact, his arrival was 1 1/2 hours after the last of his teammates had filtered into the clubhouse.

Riddoch, however, appeared disinterested. Since the Padres were taking only optional batting practice, Riddoch said, there was no mandatory deadline for being dressed.

Still, the Padres have gone 10 games without scoring more than four runs. And this time, they were shut down by some pitcher named Bobby Ayala.

Although Ayala had never pitched above double-A Chattanooga in his five-year career until this month, he pitched seven shutout innings against the Padres before tiring in the eighth.

Indeed, while the Padre players say they disregard Riddoch’s tenuous position when they take the field, it has been the burning topic of conversation since the All-Star break.

“I really feel for Greg,” Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said. “It’s been difficult the last 1 1/2 months for him. We’ve been talking about it a lot in here, and it gets on your nerves after a while. Everyone wonders when it’s going to happen.

“We have to be professionals about it. We can’t let it affect us, just like Greg can’t let it affect him. It’s out of our hands. They’re going to do what they want to do.

“But I can’t buy anyone quitting, or anyone not giving their best. I don’t see anyone tanking it. I don’t see it at all.”

If nothing else, Gwynn’s absence alone has hampered the Padres. They have gone 3-7 since he sprained the medial collateral ligament of his left knee, and his replacements batted .081 during his absence.

He was in the lineup for the first time since Sept. 8. Yet, he bounced back to the pitcher twice, and his knee stiffened, forcing him to leave after 4 1/2 innings.

“I wasn’t doing anyone any good while I was out there,” Gwynn said. “For a few innings, it felt great. Then, I don’t know if it was the turf or what, it stiffened up. I ran well, and was bending it, but it just started biting.

“Hopefully, I’ll be OK when we get back to San Diego.”

Gwynn conceded that his absence has affected the rest of the lineup. Third baseman Gary Sheffield, who is hitting .231 against the Reds this season, has only three RBIs since Gwynn’s injury. Cleanup hitter Fred McGriff is without a homer during the stretch.

“I know it’s been hard on those guys,” Gwynn said. “They’ve been going after Gary pretty good, and Freddy’s not getting anything to hit.

“We’re going through a tough time.”

But the time is now, Andersen said, for the Padres to look at themselves in the mirror and realize that a dismal finish reflects poorly only upon themselves. It’s cheating everyone in the organization, he said, to surrender their hopes for second place and the extra $6,000 per man that goes with it.

“I guess everybody has times like this when they’re out of it,” Andersen said. “You just have to kick yourself in the butt.

“If you don’t want to do it for yourself, make the effort for the trainers, coaches and young players. The six grand makes a difference to them.”

Perhaps even more to a certain manager.