Padres Come Out Swinging, Beat Dodgers : Baseball: Gwynn has three hits and four RBIs to lead San Diego to 14-2 victory. Sheffield and Trlicek are ejected after incident.

SAN DIEGO —  For the Dodgers, a 10-day trip got off to a rocky start to say the least.

Thanks in part to San Diego’s Tony Gwinn, who had a home run and four runs batted, and scored three runs in the Padres’ best offensive showing since 1989, a 14-2 victory Thursday over the Dodgers at Jack Murphy Stadium.

And thanks to a bench-clearing incident in which Dodger pitcher Rick Trlicek and the Padres’ Gary Sheffield were both ejected.

Gwynn, who finished three for four while matching a career high in RBIs, hit his second homer of the season during a four-run third inning against Ramon Martinez (5-4). It came one out after a two-run shot by Ricky Gutierrez--his first major-league homer.

Sheffield--who was later ejected after being hit by relief pitcher Trlicek--added an RBI single in the decisive inning.

The scoring spree--which started what became the best showing since the Padres scored 17 runs against Pittsburgh on July 8, 1989--helped Wally Whitehurst (1-3) to his first victory since last Sept. 19.

The Padres also got a two-run pinch homer from Tim Teufel and a solo shot from Phil Plantierconsecutively off Todd Worrell in the eighth.

Sheffield, hit by a 3-1 pitch during a five-run sixth inning, charged the mound and tackled Trlicek as players from both benches came on the field. Order was restored a few minutes later, with Sheffield and Trlicek being ejected.

Gwynn--injured slightly and pulled from the game after the incident--hit a bases-loaded triple and Jeff Gardner followed with a single before Sheffield came to the plate two for three with a triple and two RBIs. In his last three games, Sheffield--fined for fighting New York catcher Todd Hundley earlier this season--has gone eight for 11 with four RBIs.

The victory was only the fifth in 17 games for San Diego, which a day earlier fired general manager Joe McIlvaine. The Dodgers, who swept a three-game series with the Padres last month in Los Angeles, lost for the third time in four outings.

Martinez had won three decisions in a row and was unbeaten in his previous seven starts since losing to Philadelphia on April 23.

Gutierrez hit an opposite-field homer off Martinez after a lead-off single by Kevin Higgins in the third. Then Gwynn lofted a fly ball to the warning track in left field for what should have been the second out, but the ball hopped off Darryl Strawberry’s glove and over the wall.

The Dodgers, starting a 10-game trip with four at San Diego, broke through in the fifth when Whitehurst walked Jose Offerman with the bases loaded to force in Eric Karros. Tim Wallach made it 6-2 in the sixth with his seventh homer.

The Padres had extended their lead to 6-1 against Trlicek in the fifth when Sheffield tripled in Gwynn, who had doubled, and scored on a grounder by Fred McGriff.

Whitehurst pitched 5 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits.

Martinez gave up five hits--all in the third inning--and left for a pinch hitter in the fifth.

Dodger Notes

The four-run third matched the total number of earned runs given up by Ramon Martinez over 24 innings in his previous three starts. It was his first loss in San Diego after going 3-0 with a 1.45 earned-run average over seven games. . . . Randy Smith, the Padres’ new general manager and the team’s former scouting director, introduced himself to the players during a pregame meeting. . . .