AROUND THE MAJORS : Umps Lose Track, Padres Keep Batting

In a colossal blunder by umpires, the San Diego Padres almost got four outs Thursday in the seventh inning of their 10-3 victory over the Montreal Expos at San Diego.

And these weren’t even baseball’s newly hired umps.

Reggie Sanders struck out for the third out and headed back to the dugout, but the umpires didn’t notice and the Expos didn’t leave the field.

So Phil Nevin went to the plate and ran the count to 2-and-1 against Montreal pitcher Ted Lilly before someone in the Expo dugout called over plate umpire Jerry Layne and told him the problem.

The umpiring crew included Jeff Kellogg, Paul Schrieber, Tim Timmons and Layne. Timmons is a triple-A ump working in vacation relief--the other three were members of the National League staff at the start of the year.

Layne said he thought there were three outs, but his indicator only showed two. He said he had asked catcher Chris Widger, and he thought there were two.

“In my mind I thought it was three, but when nobody flinched, I thought, ‘Not everybody can be wrong,’ is my theory,” said Layne, a full-time umpire since 1989. “My theory didn’t work.

“I was mad at myself more than anything. I was upset that it happened. You know what, it’s nothing but pure embarrassment.”

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National League umpire Steve Rippley said he has decided against retirement and will resume work this weekend. . . . The Atlanta Braves acquired third baseman Freddy Garcia from the Pittsburgh Pirates in a trade minor league pitcher Greg Dukeman. . . . Jim Shearer, the 28-year-old architect who caught Mark McGwire’s 500th home run ball, has decided to sell it during an Oct. 30 auction in Las Vegas that also will include Mickey Mantle’s 500th home run ball.