Padres Win on Homer : Baseball: Shortstop Garry Templeton isn’t known for his power, but his second home run in two nights beats Montreal, 5-3.

The fist shot into the air as he approached first, and the Padres’ newest home-run hitter was on his way.

Garry Templeton, ladies and gentlemen.

It was the bottom of the eighth, Benito Santiago was on second with one out, and Templeton put the ball over the fence in left, depositing the Montreal Expos along with it. Craig Lefferts pitched a one-two-three ninth, and that was that. The Padres won, 5-3, in front of 27,965 in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

It was Templeton’s second home run in two days, and he couldn’t have picked a better time for it. The Padres had already overcome one Expo lead and, on a night when someone finally got to Ed Whitson, they were looking for a little offense.

“That’s not too bad for him,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said. “The thing about him is he gets a lot of clutch hits, and he can still play shortstop, too.”

Not that the Padres expect home runs from their shortstop. He has two this season. You can expect him to sparkle in the field, which he did in the fifth inning Friday when he made a diving grab of Dave Martinez’s bloop in shallow center field.

But the Padres are learning that things don’t always happen as you think they will.

Exhibit A: Look around. This is a team that was expected by many to win the NL West. Granted, Mother’s Day is still a day away, but the Padres have been frustrated most of the season.

Exhibit B: Bip Roberts. He was zero for four with a walk Friday, but he has four homers this season and had five doubles in two games before Friday.

And now Templeton. He hit Drew Hall’s first pitch, and there wasn’t much doubt about where it was going to land.

“You can’t look to hit a home run in that situation, you just have to try and hit the ball hard,” Templeton said. “I’ve always had bad luck against Montreal. I’ve always hit the ball hard against them but always right at someone.”

He’s right. Last year, he batted .219 against the Expos. Career, he’s at .237. But none of that mattered Friday.

All the Padres knew was this: They have found about every way imaginable to lose this season. This was a way to win.

“When you hit a home run or a big hit late in a ballgame, especially with all of the bad luck this club has had, there’s a lot of excitement in it,” Templeton said. “It’s key hits like that that tend to pick the club up. When we come out (tonight), maybe it won’t be me, maybe it will be someone else who gets the big hit.”

Templeton’s bat wasn’t the only one that contributed. Tony Gwynn and Roberto Alomar have been hot lately, and both stayed that way.

Gwynn went three for four. He is 14 for 35 in his past eight games, a cool .400.

Alomar was two for four, giving him 14 hits in his past 24 at-bats. That’s .583.

But this one wasn’t easy. The Expos came in leading the major leagues in stolen bases (54), and they had won five in a row and six of seven. They scored two in the first and added another in the fourth.

And they had another chance in the eighth, an inning that could have sent the Padres home losers.

Enter Lefferts.

The situation couldn’t have been much more clear when Lefferts got the call. As he started his trademark sprint from the left field bullpen, this is what he was running to: Tied game, 3-3. Two out. Bases loaded with Expos. Eighth inning.

Lefferts quickly threw two called strikes past shortstop Spike Owen.

Then he threw three consecutive balls. Full count.

Lefferts stared in at the plate, and Owen dug in. In came Lefferts with another pitch. Owen fouled it off. Another pitch, another foul.

Then, Lefferts threw pitch No. 8. Owen swung. He missed. Inning over.

Standing ovation.

It was quite an inning. Greg Harris started it in place of Whitson and immediately got himself into trouble. In two-thirds of an inning, he walked three--one intentionally--and allowed a hit. The biggest reason he didn’t allow a run was because of a nifty double play turned by Santiago and Alomar, begun when Santiago grabbed a Wallach foul on the first-base side of home plate. He threw to Alomar, who made a sliding catch on his way toward first and tagged out Galarraga.

Whitson had given way to pinch-hitter Jerald Clark in the seventh. In seven innings, Whitson allowed three runs--two earned and five hits. He walked two and struck out six.

Whitson started the game first in the NL in complete games (three) and sixth in earned-run average (1.98). The Expos weren’t impressed. They immediately got two runs in the first inning and had Whitson working harder than usual that early.

DeLino DeShields led off with a single to right and, two batters later, Tim Raines sliced another ball to right. DeShields moved to third, and Raines took second when Gwynn threw home.

They both scored on Andres Galarraga’s grounder to first. The ball hit the bag, but Joe Carter picked it up, made the tag on Galarraga . . . and dropped the ball. Both runners scored, one of them charged as an earned-run against Whitson.

And he still wasn’t out of it. Galarraga stole second, and Tim Wallach walked. But Whitson struck out Larry Walker and Nelson Santovenia to end the inning.

Here came the Padres.

One out. Gwynn and Alomar singled without the ball ever leaving the infield. Gwynn’s bounced off Mark Gardner in the direction of Owen. Safe.

Alomar’s was a perfectly placed ground ball on a hit-and-run. Owen broke toward second to cover, and Alomar punched the ball to short. Owen backtracked and got it but not in time to get anyone.

Carter and Fred Lynn singled, and Santiago followed them with a sacrifice fly to right. By the time it ended, Gwynn, Alomar and Carter had scored, and the Padres led, 3-2.

The Expos made it 3-3 in the fourth when Owen deposited a Whitson pitch into the right-field stands. It was Owens’ second homer of the year.

Padre Notes

A vendor lost his balance and fell down some stairs in the stands behind home plate in the top of the sixth and was carried away on a stretcher. Stadium security personnel said he hit his elbow on a railing and twisted an ankle. He was taken to Kaiser Hospital for precautionary x-ray because an usher thought the vendor had hit his head. . . . Tuesday’s Padre-Philadelphia game has been moved to 7:35 p.m. because ESPN has selected it as the network’s main West Coast game. . . . The status of first baseman Jack Clark, who has a strained lower back, remains uncertain. Clark did not dress Friday, and Padre Manager Jack McKeon is not sure when he will return. “My honest opinion is, if we can get him in this home stand, we’ll be all right. I don’t know . . . it’s going to take him a couple of days to get back in the groove now.” Clark injured his back last Saturday in Chicago. Friday’s game was the first of nine games at home for the Padres. . . . More on the injury front: Two Expos will return to the lineup this weekend against the Padres. Rookie outfielder Marquis Grissom sat out Friday, but Expo Manager Buck Rodgers said he will likely return tonight. Grissom broke his nose Wednesday against the Dodgers when a ball hit by Eddie Murray bounced off the fence and hit him. Grissom also missed Thursday’s game. “We’ll give him an extra day off,” Rodgers said before Friday’s game. “(Ed) Whitson is pitching, and (Grissom) still has a little bit of pain when he is jarred.” Expo right-hander Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd will start Sunday’s game against Eric Show. Boyd missed his last start because of numbness in the middle finger on his pitching hand. . . . Someone put a sign up, during batting practice, in the tunnel leading from the Padre clubhouse to the dugout: “Bip the Ripper.” Entering Friday’s game, Bip Roberts had five doubles in the past two games, and he has four home runs this season. Roberts said he had no idea who put the sign up. . . . The Padres play 21 of their next 30 games at home.