SAN DIEGO – With Babe Ruth in his rearview mirror, Rickey Henderson has Ty Cobb on his radar screen.

Henderson became baseball's all-time walks leader with 2,063 Wednesday night, taking sole possession of the record he shared with Ruth for a day.

Next up for Henderson is the pursuit of Cobb's record of 2,245 runs. Henderson, 42, needs 67 runs to own that mark, too.

"If I'm getting on base and scoring a lot of runs, then I'm helping my team win ballgames," Henderson said after setting the walks record against Jose Mesa in San Diego's 5-3 loss to Philadelphia. "And that's the key to playing baseball, period, based on what I do, is trying to score as many runs as you can."

Henderson, baseball's career steals leader and considered the greatest leadoff batter ever, said the runs record would be the capper to his career.

But he and the Padres are struggling, and that record could be a ways off.

Henderson is hitting just .136 (3-for-22) with three walks, and has scored just one run in nine games since joining the Padres from Triple-A Portland on April 17. His career on-base percentage is .404; this season, it's .269.

Henderson got a late start because he signed a minor league contract with just two weeks left in spring training.

The Padres, meanwhile, have little power and the third-highest ERA in the NL. They've lost nine of 10 going into Thursday's game against Philadelphia, including Wednesday night's 5-3 defeat.

Henderson drew his historic walk on a 3-1 pitch from Mesa leading off the ninth inning Wednesday night.

After a short celebration, Henderson was thrown out by catcher Mike Lieberthal trying to steal second. That extended another of Henderson's big-league records -- getting gunned down 327 times.

Henderson had a single Wednesday night, leaving him 83 hits short of becoming the 25th player in history to get 3,000 hits.

Padres fans seemed underwhelmed by Henderson's record pursuit. In the consecutive games in which he tied and broke Ruth's record, the Padres drew their two lowest crowds of the year, 13,872 and 12,573.