PADRES ARE BAD, BUT THEY'RE STILL BETTER THAN THE DODGERS.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

SAN DIEGO - Ever thought you'd found the seemingly perfect gift for someone, only to discover they just won't take it?

Now think bigger scale. Think the National League West just being absolutely handed to the San Diego Padres - only for them to act like it's Roseanne Barr come back to sing the national anthem.

Every team in the NL West has fallen over itself the past two months trying to hand the Padres the division. It's an ugly losing contest, and the tightest race in baseball.

The real killer is the Padres are good. Check that, they were good, or should be good, or could be good again at any moment.

Only right now they are mostly good at disappointing. Extremely skilled at losing.

When the Padres lost Saturday night to the Reds, it was their 11th defeat in their past 12 games. Since jumping out to a 33-19 mark at the end of May, they've gone 18-34.

San Diego is a team with nice balance, with good starting pitching and the division's only healthy closer - and it can't take control of the weakest division in baseball.

``It really is mystifying,'' said Padres second baseman Mark Loretta, a former St. Francis High of La Canada Flintridge standout. ``It's kind of inexplicable, really.

``But if you dwell on the past, you're in real trouble. We just need to get a couple of good wins and get our confidence going, get that good feeling like we had at the beginning of the season when we felt like we were going to win every night.

``This game goes in cycles. We just happen to be down for an extended period of time - a spin cycle.''

The most remarkable aspect of the Padres' play is that they've been stinking to high heaven and still remain atop the division. They lead with a 51-53 mark, one game better than the Diamondbacks and four better than the Dodgers.

``It's been a strange year in this division,'' said former Dodger and current Padre Dave Roberts. ``People keep talking about no one wants the division. But right now we're in first place, and regardless of how badly we're playing, we control our own destiny. We're just going to try and go hard for the last two months of the season.''

Yep, it's their new slogan: We may be terrible, but we're still better than you.

``There's no sense in trying to explain it or figure it out, other than we just need to play better from here on out,'' Loretta said. ``Looking back, it's easy to say if we'd only played .500 ball after May we'd have a 15-game lead or something. But that doesn't do much good for us now.''

Equally as bad as their recent string of losses on the field have been, the Padres' losses off the field have in many ways been worse. Catcher Ramon Hernandez recently had wrist surgery and is out for the year. Right-hander Adam Eaton has been out six weeks with a finger injury. Loretta missed two months after finger surgery. Recently traded Phil Nevin was out a month.

Don't expect sympathy from the Dodgers, or any other NL West team. Injuries have been a divisional theme, but it's hit the Padres so hard, they almost harbor a Dodgers 'B' team. On Saturday night they started three former Dodgers, right-hander Pedro Astacio, catcher David Ross and Eric Young, who started in center in place of the slumping Roberts.

Then there's newly acquired Chan Ho Park and Paul Quantrill, and, on the disabled list, pitchers Rudy Seanez and Andy Ashby.

Quantrill was picked up July 2 off waivers from the Yankees. A month into his Padres career, Quantrill already sounds like his seasoned teammates.

``I think part of it is we're just not clicking as a group,'' Quantrill said. ``We don't seem to have the swagger about us we probably should have, especially being in first place most of the year.''

Right now the Padres are a lost team, sinking so hard and so fast they can't begin to offer an explanation for their blight, like a boxer who's taken one too many knocks to the noggin.

But they know full well sooner or later somebody in the NL West will likely make a move.

``I think a lot of us understand it's time to step up,'' Quantrill said. ``We're very fortunate with the baseball we've played that we're still in first place.''

Another week, and they may not be feeling so fortunate.

There's also this: The Padres are 4-8 against the Dodgers this season, and they still have six games remaining against L.A., including the final three of the season.

No team ever has won a division with a losing record, although the Rangers were 52-62 and leading the A.L. West in 1994 when the strike wiped out the season.

``You don't want to stumble into the playoffs and make it by default,'' Quantrill said. ``You need to start playing some good baseball.''

The Padres have been saying that for two months now. A gift can only wait for so long.

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