Padres, Hurst Foil Phillies in 1-0 Victory

On a night when Mike Schmidt, one of the greatest sluggers in baseball history, announced his retirement, the Padres and Philadelphia Phillies celebrated by playing as low a scoring game as the rules allow.

The final was 1-0 in favor of the Padres in another one of those one-run games the Padres seem partial to of late.

By now, the formula is tried and true.

Score whatever and whenever they can. Count on the starting pitcher to do everything short of a perfect game. Then call on relief pitcher Mark Davis, the major league leader in saves, to close out the game.

The pattern held again Monday night in front of 20,021 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The Padres nicked Philadelphia starter Larry McWilliams for a first-inning run, let Bruce Hurst come within an out of a four-hit shutout and then brought on Davis, who needed only two pitches to get Chris James to ground out to third and earn his 16th save in as many opportunities.

The victory, combined with the Dodgers’ loss to Montreal, moved the Padres into third place 2 1/2 games behind San Francisco and a 1 1/2 games behind Cincinnati.

“These games are too nerve-racking,” said Tony Gwynn, whose first-inning RBI single allowed the Padres to raise their record in one-run games to 14-5. “I’d rather we win 8-0.”

He is not alone. Hurst, like all the Padre starters, has had to make the most of very little.

Last time out, he received no offensive support in a 3-0 loss to the New York Mets. This time he had to reach deep just to hold on to his one-run lead.

He allowed only four hits, walked four and struck out six before yielding to Davis after allowing a two-out single to first baseman Ricky Jordan and an oh-so-close walk to right fielder Von Hayes on a 3-2 count that had Hurst leaving the mound talking to himself while Davis came in from the bullpen.

“I was mad at myself for letting the go-ahead run get on base,” said. “You get that far, you want to finish.”

But Padre Manager Jack McKeon said he did not hesitate to call on Davis.

“When you have someone like Davis out there, you have got to go to him,” McKeon said. “A guy like James can hurt you, with one pitch, he can hit it out of the ballpark.”

Davis threw James two curveballs, the second of which he bounced to third. That the final out came with James at the plate might have been the final twist in a game that was overshadowed by Schmidt’s pregame retirement announcement. James is the player the Phillies are counting on to replace Schmidt at third base.

But in his first chance to do that in a memorable way, he grounded out with runners on first and second. James, who became teary-eyed during Schmidt’s emotional announcement, apparently was nervous about the changeover.

“He is a hyper kid and I wanted to relax him,” Phillies Manager Nick Leyva said. “I told him, ‘Do the best you can and have fun.’ ”

That was a tough task on a night when Hurst might have been at his best since his one-hitter against Atlanta April 10. Until allowing the ninth-inning baserunners, he retired 12 of the previous 13 batters, and the only batter to reach base did so on Garry Templeton’s fielding error.

Still, there were some tense moments, especially in a crazy fourth inning in which Hurst picked Dickie Thon off first after a leadoff single and threw Juan Samuel out at the plate.

Samuel had reached first on a fielder’s choice. Jordan then singled to right, but Bip Roberts’ throw to third after a sliding Samuel sailed wide past the bag and bounced against the stands.

Jordan got up and headed for home, but Hurst ran over, picked up the ball and threw to catcher Benito Santiago, who tagged Samuel for an easy out.

That was the best example of what was a crazy night on the basepaths for both teams. There was a runner picked off first (Thon), a runner thrown out at the plate (Samuel), two runners caught stealing (Roberts and Santiago), and another (Gwynn) thrown out in a rundown after he took a wide turn around first after his RBI single to right.

“I didn’t think that one run would hold up,” Gwynn said.

But with a relaxed Hurst and a seemingly flawless Davis, the Padres were in fine hands.

Padre Notes

When Luis Salazar was hit by a fifth-inning pitch, it was only the second time a Padre batter had been hit this season. . . . It was the second 1-0 victory for the Padres. Eric Show and Mark Davis combined on the first April 26 at Pittsburgh. . . . The shutout was the fourth in seven games on the home stand and second Padre shutout victory. . . . Mark Davis is ahead of last year’s pace when he had 28 saves and did not get his 16th save until July 9.