Successful Seventh Helps Hurst to First : Key Inning: Pitcher’s ability to work out of a jam late was the key to winning after an 0-3 start.

It’s the mark of a baseball craftsman that he can make the pitches he has to make when he doesn’t have his best stuff.

So it was with the Padres’ Bruce Hurst Wednesday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. He finally got his first victory of the season after three defeats and a no-decision, and he owed his success to a masterful job of pitching in the seventh inning.

The Padres had just rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead over the St. Louis Cardinals on home runs by Jack Clark and Bip Roberts, but Hurst then promptly ran into trouble. Rookie catcher Todd Zeile led off with a double, and with one out, Rex Hudler beat out a bouncer en route to a four-for-four day.

That Hurst was able to escape unscathed was a tribute to his ability to avoid mistakes with the game on the line. He struck out pinch-hitter Milt Thompson and retired Vince Coleman on a fly to center fielder Joe Carter, then let Craig Lefferts finish his 4-3 victory.

Hudler hit a home run off Lefferts with two out in the ninth, but that didn’t matter because Benito Santiago had tripled in the eighth and scored an insurance run on Garry Templeton’s sacrifice fly--or, to be more precise, sacrifice foul.

On the surface, Thompson’s strikeout was the big out in the pivotal seventh. At the time, the Cardinals had runners on first and third with one out. But while Hurst didn’t downplay that out, he said that striking out Jose Oquendo between the hits by Zeile and Hudler was even more important.

“Oquendo was the key out, because it kept the runner (Zeile) from going to third,” Hurst said. “It meant they could put the ball in play twice and not score any runs. If he (Oquendo) advances the runner, they can get a fly ball and tie the score.

“I was surprised, because Oquendo is a pesky little guy, and he’s hard to strike out. I don’t think I got him because of any design of mine. He just swung over the pitch.”

The pitch Oquendo missed was a changeup, and so were the ones with which Hurst retired Thompson and Coleman.

“It’s funny, because I didn’t throw many changeups in the inning,” Hurst said. “I might have made one other one to Oquendo and a couple to Coleman, but the only one I threw to Thompson was the one he struck out on.”

Hurst thought Hudler, acquired by the Cardinals from the Montreal Expos April 24, might have made the second out of the inning if the Padres hadn’t underestimated his speed. As it was, second baseman Roberto Alomar almost made the play after fielding the ball well to his right.

Hudler stole 15 bases for the Expos (155 at-bats) last season, but Hurst said, “I didn’t realize he was that fast.”

Pitcher Jose De Leon was the next scheduled batter, and Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog went against the book when he sent up left-handed Thompson to face left-handed Hurst.

As usual, though, Herzog had a logical reason for his strategy: Thompson had six hits in nine times at bat against Hurst last season, Hurst’s first in the National League.

“Besides that, Thompson generally doesn’t strike out, and he’s hard to double up,” Herzog said. “The first pitch was a good pitch for him to hit, a high fastball, but he fouled it off.”

After that, the count went to 1-2 before Hurst fooled Thompson with another of his tantalizing change-ups.

“I was fortunate enough to make a good pitch on him,” Hurst said. “He’s a hitter.”

There was still the matter of disposing of fleet left-fielder Coleman, and while he was batting, Hurst made things tougher for himself with a wild pitch. The ball didn’t go far enough for Zeile to score, but Hudler went to second with the potential lead run.

Coleman worked the count to 3-2 before biting on still another changeup and flying out.

“When I was with the Red Sox,” Hurst said, “Tom Seaver used to say there were three to five outs that have to be made in every game. I guess you could say those were three of them today.”

Despite the victory, Hurst chastised himself for giving Zeile a fat pitch to open the key inning. Zeile also had doubled in the fourth to drive in Tom Brunansky with the second St. Louis run.

“I didn’t do a good job against Zeile,” Hurst said. “He certainly proved he was a good hitter. After that, I had to go to work.”