Padres Get Strength From Loss : Baseball: Giants batter thin pitching to win 11-9 in 10 innings. But San Diego takes heart from rally.

SAN DIEGO — It took one afternoon at the ballpark Thursday for the Padres to feel a bit proud, prove they can not be taken lightly and wonder aloud if their hitting really is this good or their pitching really is this bad.

The Padres, sending their fans on an emotional roller-coaster ride, lost 11-9 in 10 innings to the San Francisco Giants when they finally could not keep up with . . . can you believe it, Giant pitching.

“We kept saying the whole series,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said, “ ‘If we get in their bullpen, we got them. We got them.’

“Well, we got in their bullpen, but they got into ours, too.”

The Padres, who sent the game into extra innings on Marty Barrett’s two-out, full-count, ninth-inning home run, simply ran out of pitching.

Craig Lefferts, who pitched nine of the past 10 days, went out in the 10th to try to quiet the storm but gave up run-scoring singles to Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell.

“I really didn’t want to put Lefty out there,” Riddoch said. “He’s tired. He shouldn’t have been out there. But he took one on the chin for us.”

Riddoch went to his bullpen 10 times in the three-game series, but after reliever Larry Andersen developed a stiff neck Tuesday, Riddoch needed help. Andersen attempted to warm up in the ninth inning Thursday but was unable to pitch, leaving Lefferts to face Giants for a third consecutive day.

And, Lefferts will tell you, if it’s difficult facing the Giants when you feel great, it’s downright scary when your arm’s about to drop.

When the Padres show up this morning at Dodger Stadium, they’ll find a new teammate. The Padres called up left-handed reliever Steve Rosenberg from their triple-A Las Vegas team and optioned outfielder Thomas Howard to Las Vegas.

The Padres also discussed placing Andersen on the disabled list, even bringing him into the office after the game for his opinion. Andersen, who can not turn his neck to the left, left the decision to the Padres.

“I’m hoping I can get some kind of cortisone pill that will help,” Andersen said. “I keep thinking it will get better, but the last two days, nothing’s happened. I think it’s possible I’ll be ready again in two days. But I don’t want to say that and then be out for two weeks. All I know is that I’m helping nobody this way.

“It’s so damn frustrating, too, because we’re using these guys three days in a row because of me.”

Perhaps most frustrating of all for the Padres was that they came close to sweeping the Giants. They hadn’t swept the Giants in a three-game series at Jack Murphy Stadium since 1984, and not since 1969 have the Giants been swept in a season-opening series.

“I think we got a little bit of respect from the Giants now,” said Padre second baseman Bip Roberts, who equalled his career-high with four hits. “They still can say what they want to say, but they know they have to play us for nine innings. It’s not a seven-inning game any more.”

Did the Padres perhaps send a message to the Giants and the National League West?

“I don’t know if you can do that in three days,” Riddoch said, “but we sent a message to ourselves.”

Who’d have thought that the Padres could muscle up with the Giants?

But there they were Tuesday night, trailing the Giants in the eighth inning and scoring four runs to put the game away. There they were Wednesday, pitching inside to Mitchell and creating a bench-clearing fracas. And they were Thursday, trailing the Giants, 8-2, after 5 1/2 innings, and coming within a single of winning the game in the ninth.

These are the Padres?

“It’s a different attitude around here,” Roberts said. “That’s for sure. I don’t know if we would have quit before, but we haven’t won too many games when we’ve trailed that late.”

The Padres, trailing, 8-2, against starter Mike LaCoss, scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to maintain a little suspense. They had a chance to take the lead, with runners on first and third with two outs, but Fred McGriff flied out.

The Giants scored another run in the seventh. In the eighth, McGriff once again was up with two runners on and two outs. This time, Dave Righetti, in his National League debut, struck him out.

In the ninth, Benito Santaigo and Jerald Clark made the first two outs. Then Jim Presley and Shawn Abner followed with singles.

Still, no one seemed too concerned. Lefferts got up in the bullpen just to play catch. No one in the Giant bullpen bothered to warm up. And the Padres sent up pinch-hitter Marty Barrett, whose last homer was May 18, 1989 against the Angels.

* MORE PITCHING

The Padres brought up left-hander Steve Rosenberg from Las Vegas, and sent down outfielder Thomas Howard. Story, Padre Update. C11A