Santiago Hits ‘Em His Way : Four Singles Spark Padres’ 8-2 Rout of Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA â€”  It has taken him eight games, but Benito Santiago has formulated and expressed his response to those who would try to change the way he swings his bat.

Get off my back.

Santiago, benched a couple of weeks ago because of hitting impatience and a .208 average, made his announcement Friday in the form of a career-high four hits, with three RBIs, in leading the Padres to an 8-2 decision over Philadelphia in front of 28,224 at Veterans Stadium.

Santiago wasn’t particularly patient--he swung at the first pitch he was thrown and many thereafter. He wasn’t particularly pretty--each hit was a single that was not so much smashed as skidded.

But that was his point. For the past eight games, in which he has gone 11 for 35 (.314) with 10 RBIs, that has been his point.

Asking him to bat from a textbook is like asking him to bat with a textbook. You want the best out of Benito, he was saying, you let him be Benito.

“I’m tired of people saying, ‘Why does he swing like that?’ � Santiago said. “Sometimes I just have to walk away from all that. Some people try to help me, and I appreciate it--but they put too much in my mind.

“I am the same person I was when I was four for 49. I am just finding the ball now. That’s the way I am. I will hit. Give me time, I will hit.�

And when that happens, well, the Padres have now won four in a row and are suddenly back above .500 at 22-21, just two games behind first-place Cincinnati in the National League West.

Granted, the Phillies are one of this summer’s worst examples of a major league team and are even worse without future Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt, who will miss this series with tendinitis in his left elbow. Counting Friday night, in their past five games, they have been outscored, 38-10. And of the four pitchers they used Friday, only starter and loser Larry McWilliams checks in with an ERA of under 4.00.

But these are teams that Padres used to struggle with. McWilliams entered with a career 2.81 ERA against them, and Padre starter Ed Whitson had a 5.14 ERA against a team that had hit him harder than any other.

But the offense pounded McWilliams for five runs in 4 2/3 innings. And Whitson, on his 34th birthday (a day he shares with Eric Show and Luis Salazar) threw his second complete game. He scattered nine singles and a double in allowing just two earned runs, lowering his ERA to 2.39 while improving to 6-2, easily making him the team’s best starter.

“I’m feeling in command of all my pitches, I’m feeling as good as I ever have,� Whitson said.

“Our guys are learning,� Manager Jack McKeon said.

Like Santiago. On May 5, in a 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Bob Walk, Santiago went zero for four, at one point swinging at seven consecutive pitches. When McKeon finally ordered him to take a pitch in the ninth inning--and that was a fastball down he middle--Santiago became so frustrated that after he grounded out, he was tossed a water cooler and stormed into the clubhouse.

At the time he was hiting .208 with nine RBIs in 91 at-bats. McKeon had seen enough. He benched Santiago for the next three games, spanning four days, during which Santiago and McKeon had two closed-door meetings.

“Benny is going to be Benny, I understand that,� McKeon said. “But sometimes things are going to happen to him, and he’s going to be out of sync. And when that happens, we’re going to rest him. And if he doesn’t like it, well, that’s the way it’s going to be.�

He didn’t like it. At the time he said, “I’m not doing any of this on purpose. Why don’t they leave me alone? I knew what I was doing in 1987 (when he swung into a rookie record 34-game hitting streak). I know what I’m doing now.�

But in this case, McKeon apparently knew was he was doing, too. Because to make Santiago sit was to make him think. And Santiago says that with thought comes sanity.

“Sometimes when I get mad, I go crazy and say things I don’t want to say,� Santiago said. “To sit me down, it helped me. I stayed out of trouble. I learned.�

He didn’t learn to alter his stance or style or even his selectivity.

“I learned to relax,� he said. “I learned to remember how I did it.�

So after Carmelo Martinez had doubled in a couple of runs in the first inning--also doubling his RBI total this month--Santiago remember how to hit a first-pitch single, scoring Martinez.

He was in the middle of another Padre run in the fourth, hitting a one-out single to left and later scoring on Garry Templeton’s bloop double. In the fifth, Santiago hit another grounder to left to knock in another run. Finally, Santiago’s one-out single scored the Padres’ seventh run in the seventh, and then Santiago scored the game’s final run on Jerald Clark’s ensuing single, the rookie’s first hit in 15 at-bats this year.

It wasn’t just Santiago’s night to make news offensively. A pick-off throw to first in the first inning was so sudden that batter Tommy Herr backed into the ball, and it ricocheted off his bat and was ruled dead.

“I have never seen that before,� Santiago said with a smile. “I thought, ‘I just do my job, give me a break.’ �

Padre Notes

Outfielder John Kruk is available to return from the disabled list today, 15 days after he injured his right hip diving for a line drive off the bat of Chicago’s Andre Dawson. He is finished with all treatment from trainer Dick Dent and appears physically ready, but don’t look for it to happen until Sunday. Since tonight’s Phillies pitcher is a left-hander, Don Carman, left-handed hitting Kruk likely wouldn’t be used anyway, and it will give Manager Jack McKeon a chance to have a last look at Jerald Clark, the outfielder likely to be demoted upon Kruk’s return. When Kruk does come back, don’t be surprised if he initially has to take a seat behind left-handed hitting outfielder Marvell Wynne (hitting .289). Kruk, remember, was only hitting .186 with five RBIS at the time of his injury.