RANDY Jones, 1976 Cy Young Award winner, stood in the back of the San Diego press box and, on consecutive days, watched Mets’ Glendon Rusch throw 88 pitches in three innings and Pat Mahomes throw 89 pitches in three innings.

Jones once threw a 68-pitch complete game. His quickest start was 1 hour, 27 minutes, and his average start that season was 1 hour, 55 minutes. Jones threw 25 complete games in 1976. The Padres headed into the weekend with two complete games.

“It’s driving me nuts,” Jones said. “I could pitch two games in the time it takes to play one now.”

Taking his lead from Boog Powell, Jones established the Randy Jones Ballpark barbecue six years ago. It stands to reason the longer the games, the more sandwiches Jones sells. He’ll take the shorter games anyway, thank you.

“Expansion has diluted the pitching, and the strike zone is very, very small,” Jones said. “If you are consistently around the plate, you’ll get the calls. Look at [Greg] Maddux and [Tom] Glavine [of the Braves]. If you’re not consistent, it’s a very small strike zone.”

Met reliever Dennis Cook, who walked five batters in 12/3 innings and jawed at plate umpire Gerry Davis, normally a respected ball-and-strike ump, made a good point in saying pitchers are unfairly criticized these days.

“Everyone always talks about how the pitching stinks,” Cook said. “How do we know that if the umpires don’t call a strike a strike?”