Giants Hand Padres’ Benes Bitter Setback : Baseball: A 4-1 loss to San Francisco gives the right-hander a 4-9 record. Padres muster only two hits off Don Robinson.

SAN FRANCISCO —  If Padre pitcher Andy Benes were Leonardo da Vinci, he’d have run out of paint during the Mona Lisa. If he were Pavarotti, he’d come down with laryngitis at Carnegie Hall. If he were Cecil B. DeMille, there’d be an actors’ strike.

It’s nothing personal, but when Benes jumps into a cab going to the ballpark these days, it’s pretty tough finding a teammate who wants to share a ride.

“I don’t want to say anything to get him mad,” said Padre outfielder Shawn Abner, Benes’ best friend, “but it’s like he’s jinxed or something. Something bad always happens.”

So it hardly came as a surprise Saturday afternoon that Benes pitched a no-hitter for four innings, allowed one runner to reach second base through six innings and still wound up the loser, 4-1, to the San Francisco Giants in front of 27,706 at Candlestick Park.

“Sometimes,” Benes said, “I can’t believe it myself.

“There’s got to be an underlying reason why this is happening, doesn’t there?”

Even though Benes pitched his second complete game of the season, a six-hitter, it figures that he’d be the one on the mound when:

- Giant starter Don Robinson picks this day to pitch one of the greatest games of his career: 8 1/2 innings, two hits, one run.

- Umpire Jerry Layne makes a disputed call in the seventh, ruling that left fielder Jerald Clark trapped a fly ball. The protested call turned the game around.

- The Padres act as if it’s mandatory to swing at every pitch, getting a season-low two hits, with only only two baserunners reaching second base.

“There’s only two good things that happened today,” Benes said. “I don’t have to pitch any more in the first half. And that’s only the first half, we’ve still got the second half to play.”

The Padres (40-42), despite posting their best first-half record since 1986, still assured themselves of being in fourth place and entering the All-Star break below .500 for the fifth consecutive season.

And unless the second half improves, there could be a whole lot of changes in the clubhouse. Joe McIlvaine, Padre general manager, is scheduled to leave today for Toronto and the All-Star festivities, where he will contact teams about possible trades. He’d like to strengthen the bench, he said, and will begin by activating Phil Stephenson during the All-Star break.

But the one ingredient he can’t acquire is a good-old fashioned dose of luck for Benes.

He has won only four of his past 24 starts dating back to last season and has a 4-12 record during the stretch. The Padres have won only five of his 17 starts. But his statistics are hardly atrocious. He has made 11 starts in which he has pitched at least six innings, allowing three or fewer runs, but he has a 4-9 record with a 4.24 ERA this season.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if were winning these games,” Benes said, “but we’re losing them. I keep saying I’m not going to let it bother me, but who am I kidding?

“I can’t stand it.”

Because of this frustration, you might find Benes on your neighborhood beach during the All-Star break. He’ll be one with the stereo headphones in his ears, a cold one in his hand and his mind on anything but baseball.

“It’s a safe assumption I’m not going to be thinking about baseball the next 2 1/2 days,” Benes said. “I don’t want to have anything to do with baseball. I won’t even watch the All-Star game, unless it’s to watch our guys hit or something.”

Saturday’s game epitomized everything that has tortured him in this miserable first half.

Benes was virtually untouchable through the first four innings, allowing only four balls to be hit out of the infield. But Robinson, whose claim to fame is that he’s had more than 100 cortisone injections in his body over his 14-year career, was just as dominant, also throwing a no-hitter through four innings.

Robinson’s bid, however, ended when Padre catcher Benito Santiago hit a home run over the left field fence, his third in his past 15 at-bats after having only one in his previous 100 at-bats.

It would be the Padres’ only until Tony Gwynn’s two-out hit in the ninth inning, which prevented Robinson from throwing the second one-hitter of his career. He didn’t even get credit for a two-hitter since Giant Manager Roger Craig called upon Dave Righetti for the final out.

“Actually, I’m glad they did get another hit,” Robinson said. “It’d be a shame to give up a shutout and a no-hitter all in one pitch.”

Benes’ no-hitter ended in the bottom of the fifth when Kevin Mitchell led off with a single. Matt Williams grounded into a double play, but Benes’ lead vanished four pitches later when Robby Thompson homered to left field.

The game remained tied until the seventh, but, exactly like Benes’ season, everything started to unravel:

He gave up a leadoff single to Will Clark. Kevin Mitchell then hit what appeared to be a double-play ball to shortstop Tony Fernandez, but instead of flipping the ball to second baseman Paul Faries, Fernandez ran to the bag himself. Too late. Clark slid in safely, and Fernandez could only throw to first for one out. Benes maintained his composure and struck out Williams.

Needing only one more out, Benes threw a slider to Thompson and started to walk off the field when he saw Thompson hit a looping fly ball to left. Left fielder Jerald Clark got a late jump, ran toward the ball and attempted to make a shoestring catch.

The ball landed in his glove, Clark raised it high in the air, but was shocked to see Layne spread his arms, saying the ball was trapped.

“I know I caught the ball,” Clark said, “but the umpire said I missed it by six inches. Come on. I got under it and caught it. If I thought I short-hopped it, I would have come up, throwing home.”

Said Benes: “It was a (bad) call. God and everyone else saw it. It’s on film. I can’t believe it.”

The Giants went onto score another run in the inning on a pinch-hit single by Mark Leonard. Clark added a solo homer in the eighth.

“The only thing I can do is look at it like golf,” Benes said. “You play 18 holes. You can have a bad first nine, but there’s still the second nine.

“And when I play golf, I never have a consistent 18.”

Fore.