Padres Begin Home Stand With Victory : Baseball: Clark, Hurst spark 5-3 decision that snaps Giants’ streak.

SAN DIEGO â€”  The Padres looked at home Friday night in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, and we’re not talking about their crisp white uniforms or the familiar faces on the DiamondVision scoreboard.

No, the team with the worst home record in the league--15-20 as it opened a six-game home stand--stepped onto the field and promptly ended the San Francisco Giants’ six-game winning streak, 5-3, in front of 23,524.

While the Padres were at it, they ended their own three-game losing streak.

There were plenty of smiles to go around, but starter Bruce Hurst and left fielder Jerald Clark hogged most of the handshakes.

Hurst (9-4) out-pitched Giant starter Don Robinson (3-6), who was an emergency replacement for John Burkett, sidelined by back spasms.

Hurst left for a pinch-hitter after eight innings, allowing three runs on five hits, striking out four and walking four. He has won his past two starts and barely missed getting his second consecutive complete game. Larry Andersen pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save.

Clark knocked in two runs with a single in the fifth and added a bases-empty home run in the seventh. He has hit safely in nine of his past 13 games, batting .325 (13 for 40) with four home runs, three doubles and 14 RBIs.

Despite the ends of the Giants’ winning streak and the Padres’ losing streak, there were two constants on the night:

- What week would be complete without a Padre roster move? After the game, the Padres optioned pitcher Tim Scott to Las Vegas (triple-A) and activated Ed Whitson from the disabled list. Whitson, who was on the disabled list with elbow tendinitis, will start tonight’s game.

As far as the roster goes, keep in mind: Second baseman Tim Teufel left Friday’s game for a pinch-runner in the sixth with a pulled groin. His status is listed as day-to-day.

- What Padre-Giant game would be complete without a Kevin Mitchell home run? Mitchell crashed a sixth-inning, 0-and-2 pitch into the left-field seats for his 12th home run of the season. He has five homers in seven games against the Padres this season--off four different starters. Friday’s was his second homer off Hurst.

And this is a guy coming off of arthroscopic knee surgery who was starting only his first game since June 2.

“I ain’t 100% yet,� Mitchell said. “I’ve still got a long way to go.�

He said his knee still catches at times, and he added that his quadricep is still weak.

Of course, he also said before the game that he probably would play only five innings. Being that the homer came in the sixth, Hurst can only wish as much.

Mitchell missed 20 games but has returned in style. His first game back was Wednesday--he was used as a pinch-hitter--and he hit a home run in the 11th inning to beat the Dodgers.

Mitchell started in left field Friday, putting him, first baseman Will Clark and third baseman Matt Williams in the starting lineup at the same time for the first time since June 2. And the three of them have been in the same starting lineup for only 34 of San Francisco’s 73 games.

“Tonight is the first time I’ve had Williams, Mitch and Clark in the lineup in, I think, about five years,� Giant Manager Roger Craig said.

With Clark batting third, Mitchell fourth and Williams fifth, opposing pitchers are forced to tiptoe through the middle of the Giant lineup.

“With them hitting back to back, you can pitch around one, you can pitch around two, but you can’t pitch around all three of them,�Craig said. “You might get one out, but one of them is going to get you.�

Mitchell got the Padres, but it wasn’t enough. The six-game winning streak, though, was the Giants’ longest of the year.

“We’ve been getting the key hits and the key plays, and doing things we haven’t done before,� Giant Manager Roger Craig said. “All year long, I don’t think we’ve been blown out. In something like 43% of our games, we’ve scored two runs or less. And if somebody told me we would be 10th in the league (actually, 11th) in runs scored, I wouldn’t have believed it.

“We started out with our pitching not good, then we didn’t play good defense, then we didn’t score any runs.�

Perhaps the biggest thing that has gone wrong with the Giants is health, or a lack of it. Going into Friday’s game, Giant players on the disabled list had missed a total of 193 games.

And Robinson couldn’t get the job done in place of Burkett. The Padres chased him by scratching for four runs in the fifth.

The fearsome Padre inning: Three singles, a double, two walks (one intentional) and an error.

Teufel led off with a double and, two batters later, scored when Hurst singled to left.

Hurst took second when Mitchell’s throw home bounced wildly after hitting Teufel, and then took third when Thomas Howard beat out a bunt. Howard stole second and, with two out and Tony Gwynn at the plate, Craig visited the mound and came up with an interesting piece of strategy: Robinson intentionally walked Gwynn, loading the bases for Fred McGriff.

It backfired. After going 1-and-2 on McGriff, Robinson walked him, allowing Hurst to score to make it 2-0. Clark followed with a single to left, driving home two more runners.

The Padres enjoyed it for about five minutes. Mitchell’s three-run homer came in the top of the sixth, and things were back to normal.

But Jerald Clark gave the Padres a little room with his seventh-inning homer off Francisco Oliveras.

It was a victory the Padres needed. Considering how hot the Giants have been, and that the first-place Dodgers arrive next week, some Padres are considering this their most difficult home stand of the season.