PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Sheffield Not Pleased to Draw Intentional Walk From Giants

Padre third baseman Gary Sheffield stared in disbelief Tuesday afternoon at San Francisco Giant reliever Jim Pena in disbelief.

Here he was in the seventh inning of a one-run game, with Tony Fernandez at second base and first base open, and he was being intentionally walked. The crowd of 6,601 started booing, and Sheffield flicked his bat away in disgust.

“I was very surprised, especially this late in the season,” Sheffield said. “This late in the season, I didn’t think they’d intentionally walk anybody. I guess that just shows you the competitiveness of their manager.”

The move, which was made after Kurt Stillwell sacrificed, actually led to what proved to be the game-winning run when Darrin Jackson hit a sacrifice fly in the inning for a 2-1 Padre victory over the San Francisco Giants.

Considering that Sheffield is bidding for the triple crown, someone asked whether other teams will be trying to prevent him from reaching the achievement.

“You hate to think that way,” Sheffield said, “but there might be people out there like that who want to walk me so I can’t do it.

“But who’s to say that even if they don’t walk me, I’ll still do it.”

Sheffield, who went one for two Tuesday and is batting .332, as only four RBIs the last 19 games. He now is nine RBIs behind Darren Daulton of the Philadelphia Phillies, and still needs four RBIs to reach 100.

“It’s the hardest four RBIs I’ve ever had in my life,” Sheffield said.

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Padre center fielder Darrin Jackson made a game-saving catch in the ninth inning Tuesday when he caught Will Clark’s line drive against the center-field fence. He then spun around and doubled-up pinch-runner Darren Lewis, who had already rounded second base on his way to third.

“My original thought was,” Jackson said, “I just hope it isn’t a home run. It turned out perfectly.

“Usually when ball is hit like that, you can round second and get back. It just turned out to be a huge double play.”