Padres Waiting for Season’s End : Baseball: In 7-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants, Padres show signs frustration, resignation.

Tick, tick, tick . . .

Time bomb? Death watch?

You want morbid, the Padres are your team.

You want a pennant contender, find another town.

Manager Greg Riddoch, laid out like a rat on a laboratory table, made it through another day Monday, directing the Padres’ fourth consecutive loss, 7-1 to the San Francisco Giants, in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The knives are in Riddoch’s flesh; it should be only a matter of time before General Manager Joe McIlvaine twists them.

As the season’s final two weeks are played out, the Padres only are attempting to sneak out the back door without too much blood being shed.

Players enter and leave the clubhouse quietly. Voices are hushed. Minds are suspicious.

Catcher Benito Santiago casually strolled into the Padre clubhouse a few minutes before 5. It was the second day of his banishment--he was told on Sunday that he will be benched for the season while the Padres take a look at their other catchers in preparation for next year.

Right fielder Tony Gwynn tried to play but, once again, his left knee ached too badly. After taking a few ground balls and fly balls, he gave a thumbs down sign to Riddoch and walked slowly off the field.

Gwynn might as well have been motioning to not only Riddoch, but 1992 in general.

Riddoch, left dangling, faces the guillotine any day. There had been speculation that it would happened Monday, because McIlvaine went on record over the weekend in Cincinnati as saying his mind is made up regarding Riddoch’s fate and he is only waiting until he thinks the timing is right.

But when players began arriving in the Padre clubhouse Monday afternoon, there was Riddoch.

“I don’t know my situation,” Riddoch said during batting practice. “I don’t know what I’ll be doing.”

Asked if it has been difficult not knowing whether he will be back, Riddoch shrugged.

“It’s been that way for 2 1/2 years,” he said in reference to his one-year contracts.

He said he has no regrets. He feels good about the job he has done.

“Sure,” he said. “You do your best. What else is there? I’ve done as good as I can.”

His answers were short. Yes, he has spoken with McIlvaine recently, he said. McIlvaine was on the team flight home Sunday evening from Cincinnati. No, he said, he does not know when he will learn his Padre fate. Before the end of the season, not until the end of the season, who knows?

“What am I going to do about it?” he said. “Dwell on it and it’s going to change? It’s not going to change.”

This is a team waiting for the whip to come down--whether it is Riddoch’s firing, the turning loose of a flood of free agents, major winter trades, whatever. One NL scout said over the weekend that it looks as if the Padres have given up. Riddoch acknowledged that motivation is a hard-to-find commodity these days when the team takes the field.

“I’m not that good that I an walk out and just motivate,” he said. “There are a lot of distractions right now, like saying that we’re not going to sign free agents. And (Craig) Lefferts is gone. That could all be a little distracting.”

Plus, like squirrels preparing for the winter, the players are expecting Riddoch’s dismissal any day.

“All of it combined is distracting,” Riddoch said.

They are solidly in third place and, at this point, off-season plans are about as important as what is happening on the field during the next two weeks.

Except, of course, to Gwynn, who refuses to give up on this season despite a sprained knee that has allowed him to play only four innings in the past 12 games.

“It just ain’t ready yet,” he said. “The ligament is doing a lot better, I have good strength, good movement, but it just ain’t ready.”

Gwynn met with Dr. Jan Fronek, team physician, before the game. Fronek assured Gwynn he doesn’t need surgery. Gwynn said the main problem is he cannot run.

“Plain and simple: When I can run, I can play,” Gwynn said. “I’ll try to play. Hey, it might not get better until after the season ends. I don’t know.”

Regardless, Gwynn said he will not end his season prematurely if he can help it.

“It won’t come to the point where I want to shut it down,” he said. “It might come to the point where people want to shut it down for me . . .

“I’m tired of talking about it, to tell you the truth.”

Whether he was tired of talking about his knee or the season, nobody asked.

As for the game, the Padres lost it in the sixth despite Fred McGriff’s 4-for-4 effort, when starter Jim Deshaies (4-6) allowed four runs--including catcher Craig Colbert’s first major league homer. Colbert’s was a two-run homer, and it came five batters after Robby Thompson had led off the inning with a homer.

By the end of the inning, in front of 30,225--it was unused ticket night--the Padres were well on their way to their 10th loss in 13 games.

Tick, tick, tick . . .

Triple Crown Watch

* Batting Average

Gary Sheffield, Padres: .331

Andy Van Slyke, Pittsburgh: .327

John Kruk, Philadelphia: .327

* Home Runs

Fred McGriff, Padres: 34

Gary Sheffield, Padres: 32

Barry Bonds, Pittsburgh: 30

* Runs Batted In

Darren Daulton, Philadelphia: 105

Terry Pendleton, Atlanta: 100

Gary Sheffield, Padres: 96

Fred McGriff, Padres: 96