PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK / BOB NIGHTENGALE : Starter Benes Says He’s Not Happy About Departures of Veterans

Padre starter Andy Benes, angered by ownership’s plans to slash the payroll, implored the Padres Friday to keep the team intact for another season.

“Maybe we should be part of the expansion draft, the way everything is sounding around here,” Benes said. “I know it’s tough financially, but if you win, it will bring in income, not finishing in fourth or fifth place.

“Hopefully, we’ll make some positive steps or it’s going to be a real nightmare around here.”

Benes is upset at reports that the Padres plan to allow catcher Benito Santiago and reliever Randy Myers to leave through free agency and plan to trade shortstop Tony Fernandez and starter Bruce Hurst.

“That is what’s scary,” Benes said, “I don’t know who’s stable around here, except for Tony (Gwynn), Fred (McGriff) and Gary (Sheffield). The way people are talking, they might not even be here. Who knows if any of us are coming back.

“If we don’t keep the nucleus we have here, and tear the team apart, it’s going to be a long year for everyone that’s still here.

“We have a great manager now, and the opportunity to win a lot of games. But if we take away parts of our team, and don’t add to it, it doesn’t matter what we’ll do.

“We won’t win.”

Benes, who yielded seven hits and four earned runs in the Padres’ 4-1 defeat to the Atlanta Braves in Game 1, finishes the season with a 13-14 record and 3.35 ERA.

It was the 17th time in Benes’ 34 starts this season that the Padres scored two or fewer runs. He allowed three or fewer runs in 24 of his starts.

Padre reliever Larry Andersen, 39, on why he shaved off his mustache: “They said they were going with younger guys next year so I’m trying to fool them.”

Padre outfielder Phil Stephenson, who had the distinction of having the longest slump by a Padre hitter this season, finally ended his skid with a pinch-hit single to center in the second game of the doubleheader.

Stephenson had gone the months of August and September without a hit.

The gruesome numbers: zero for 35, hitless since July 19, dropping his batting average to .147.

Padre shortstop Tony Fernandez extended his season-high hitting streak to 17 games in the first game of the doubleheader with a ninth-inning infield single.

He is just one game shy of his career high set in 1987 with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Smoltz won the National League strikeout title Friday when he struck out Andy Benes. It was Smoltz’s 215th strikeout of the season, surpassing David Cone, who was traded a month ago from the New York Mets to the Toronto Blue Jays.