Montreal Batters Padres : Baseball: Benes struggles again, and Expos gain a 9-3 victory.

SAN DIEGO —  The Padre clubhouse emptied quickly Thursday afternoon. Tony Gwynn needed to call his parents. Darrin Jackson hoped to contact his in-laws. Rich Rodriguez wanted to find solace.

The Padres lost to the Montreal Expos, 9-3, in front of 31,139 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium in a baseball game that was an afterthought before it even started.

Civic unrest in Los Angeles played on everybody’s mind.

It didn’t seem to matter that Padre starter Andy Benes (2-2) struggled once again, surrendering seven earned runs for the second successive outing. He has given up 14 runs in 10 2/3 innings in his last two starts. By contrast, he had given up only 12 runs in his previous 13 starts, spanning 96 innings.

It didn’t matter that Gwynn went hitless in five at-bats, and for the first time since June 13, 1989, struck out twice in the same game.

It didn’t matter that Expo starter Ken Hill (2-2) limited the top five hitters in the Padre lineup to three singles without an RBI.

And it didn’t matter that Padre Manager Greg Riddoch was ejected from the game in the seventh inning by second-base umpire Bruce Froemming for arguing a pickoff call.

“What’s going on in L.A. puts it all in perspective,” said Gwynn, who grew up in Long Beach. “You don’t worry about an oh-for-five. You go out and try to do your job, but man, it’s hard. It’s a war zone up there.

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of my parents in Long Beach, but I can’t get through.”

There was no one in the Padre clubhouse more terrified than Jackson. His in-laws live in the neighborhood of Washington and Crenshaw. He and his wife, Darlene, sat in fear in front of their TV set in the wee hours Thursday morning, watching Darlene’s neighborhood being torched and looted.

“It’s not a safe neighborhood in the first place,” Jackson said, his voice quivering, “but now. . . .

“We have no idea what’s going on. The phone lines are dead. We’re very, very worried, to say the least. The whole situation was depressing from the start, and it’s just getting worse.

“I still can’t believe it. I still can’t believe they (the policemen charged in the Rodney King beating) weren’t found guilty. When the news came on TV, Tony Gwynn and me looked at each other, and said, ‘Oh-oh.’

“We knew there’d be big trouble.”

Reliever Rich Rodriguez, who gave up two of the Expos’ six extra-base hits, offered no excuses for his performance, but clearly was devastated by the news. He grew up in East Los Angeles, and is a member of the DARE program, speaking frequently to troubled youths and gang members in L.A.

“It’s making me sick,” Rodriguez said. “All the community service work has gone by the boards. Everything’s been wiped clean. It’s sending a message to the rest of the country, and it’s the wrong message.

“The people in L.A. had a chance to make a statement and protest peacefully about police brutality. They could say, ‘I told you so.’ But instead, it’s turned ugly, and everybody’s watching.

“Nobody’s right in this thing. The cops weren’t right. The jurors weren’t right. And this isn’t right.

“It’s like the rioting in Watts, it’s happening all over again.”

Certainly, the Padres played Thursday as if their minds were on more important matters than baseball, with the sixth inning typifying how the day fared.

Benes’ exhilaration over his two-out single in the fifth inning that tied the game, 1-1, quickly dissipated in the sixth.

Delino DeShields, who equaled his career-high with four hits, opened the inning with a single to left. John VanderWal flied to left for the first out. But Larry Walker, who treats the Padre pitching staff as if they’re throwing batting practice, sent Benes’ next pitch into the right-field seats. It was Walker’s eighth homer against the Padres, raising his three-year career batting average to .344 against the Padres.

Benes struck out Tim Wallach for out No. 2, but catcher Benito Santiago, believing it was the end of the inning, rolled the ball back to the mound and started toward the dugout. Wishful thinking.

Bret Barberie kept the inning alive by hitting a single off Benes’ glove, and catcher Darrin Fletcher followed by slamming an 0-1 pitch over the right-field wall.

Just like that, Benes allowed two homers in a span of four batters. He had not yielded a homer in the previous 33 innings he pitched this season, and it was the first time since May 30, 1990, that he gave up multiple homers to a National League East team.

“It’s easy to get down when things don’t go well,” Benes said, “but I learned my lesson from last year. If this was last year, I probably would be buying new furniture in the clubhouse. I would have destroyed everything in it, and gone home (mad).