Templeton Slams Viola, Boosts Hurst : Padres: Big hit in second inning leads to a 6-3 victory, ends an undefeated beginning for one pitcher and gives some much-welcomed support to another.

Here they came, one by one, down the third-base line.

Benito Santiago first, followed by Shawn Abner, then Mike Pagliarulo, and, finally, man-of-the-minute Garry Templeton.

A few seconds earlier, Templeton, the creaky-kneed Padre shortstop, took on New York Met pitcher Frank Viola, his perfect 7-0 record and league-leading 0.87 earned-run average and came out of it with a grand slam.

This was the second inning of an eventual 6-3 Padre victory, and now the four were crossing the plate, and now they were slapping hands with Bruce Hurst.

Which was perfect.

Hurst was standing a few feet away from the plate because he was, as the say, the scheduled hitter. But if you could have looked over the entire Padre roster and picked out someone, anyone, to bat next, well, you may as well have picked Hurst just so he could stand there and shake their hands.

The Padres have had several weaknesses this season, and one of them has been scoring runs for Hurst (3-4). Before Friday, they were averaging 3.1 runs a game when Hurst pitched. In his four losses this season, they have scored five runs.

And with Viola on the mound for the Mets, the crowd of 26,905 in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium was set for a low-scoring, pitchers’ duel.

“It was one of those things,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said. “Sometimes you go in with a 7-0 record, but the odds are with the other club. We hit him (Viola) pretty good, got a few breaks and took advantage of them.”

Guess who is 2-0 now against Viola? Yep, the Padres. Since coming to the National League from Minnesota last summer, Viola has yet to beat them. In his only other start against the Padres, he lost, 6-2, at Shea Stadium last Aug. 17.

The Padres rattled Viola Friday for eight hits and six runs. Met fielders rattled him some more with four errors.

And then there was Templeton.

It was his third homer of the season and the third grand slam of his career. His previous two grand slams had come against Houston, the last one coming last Sept. 11 off Houston’s Danny Darwin.

It was just the Padres’ second grand slam against the Mets in club history. The first came May 30, 1975, when Willie McCovey hit one off of Bob Apodaca.

“I was hoping he’d get a base hit,” McKeon said. “The last thing running through my mind was a grand slam.”

It came with one out on a 1-1 pitch, during an inning that started innocently enough with a ground out and a single. But it quickly turned into disaster for the Mets.

The single came from Santiago, a slice to center.

Abner was next. He worked the count to 2-2, then hit a towering fly into center. Kevin Miller took a step back, froze, then began to sprint in. The ball dropped. Santiago, a few steps from second, turned and made it to third, and Abner scrambled to second.

Viola came a bit too far inside to Pagliarulo, the next batter, and the ball grazed his hand.

The bases were loaded. The count on Templeton went to 1-1. Then, Templeton sent the pitchers’ duel over the left-field fence.

“In that situation, I felt he was going to give me his strength, and that’s his change-up,” Templeton said. “I was sitting on an off-speed pitch. When you’re the eighth guy (in the batting order), pitchers don’t have a tendency to come at you.”

He now has 17 runs-batted in, and the four in one game ties a career high.

“I’m a little more patient at the plate in situations where you’ve got to drive in runs,” he said. “I’m staying back and trying to hit the ball hard.”

As for Hurst, it wasn’t a vintage performance, but what did it matter? The Padres have already lost a few this season when Hurst was throwing well, so credit this one to the law of averages.

“I didn’t pitch well,” he said. “I got a lot of balls up in the strike zone.”

Hurst started the game by striking out the first three Met batters--Gregg Jefferies, Miller and Howard Johnson. His breaking ball was dipping, and his fastball was moving.

But who can explain pitchers? He came out in the second and looked like somebody else. He gave up two singles, two walks and a run in the second, a home run to Kevin McReynolds in the third, three hits and a run in the fourth.

Then, in the fifth, the Mets loaded the bases with none out. They were trailing, 4-3, and Darryl Strawberry was grabbing his bat and thinking of all the possibilities the inning held.

He fouled to Santiago.

“I was basically trying to get a ground ball,” Hurst said. “All I was trying to work for was to get out of it with a tied score. Shoot, he popped it up. I don’t know if that was my doing or his.”

Hurst got the ground ball on the next batter, Mike Marshall. It went to Templeton, who started a double play.

That was enough for Hurst. In five innings, he gave up three runs, seven hits and four walks. He struck out five.

Greg Harris started the sixth, and Craig Lefferts came on in the eighth to earn his fourth save.

The Mets, trailing, 5-3, put runners on first and third with none out in the eighth when Strawberry singled and then Marshall grounded to Roberto Alomar, whose throw to second was high and wound up in center field.

Enter Lefferts. He struck out Kevin Elster and, on the third strike, Santiago threw to second to trap Marshall, who was attempting to steal. Marshall stopped and headed back toward first, but Templeton threw to Joe Carter to get him.

Before that, the Mets pecked away but could never get more than one run in an inning.

At the time of Templeton’s grand slam, they already had one run, which came in the second when Viola singled softly up the middle. Templeton dove behind second, got a glove on the ball but just deflected it. McReynolds scored from third.

McReynolds scored again in the third when he sent a two out, 3-1 pitch into the left-field seats.

Padre Notes

Mike Pagliarulo’s 12-game batting streak came to an end. He was zero for three. The streak tied Benito Santiago’s for the longest in the National League this season. . . . A few Padres were using a new hitting contraption during batting practice before Friday’s game. It’s called “Solohitter,” and it was sitting next to the batting tee by the Padre dugout. It features a ball suspended from metal bars by three nylon ropes. The height of the ball is adjustable, and its main advantage over a tee seems to be that you don’t have to bend over and pick the ball up after hitting it. Because it is suspended by nylon, it comes back into place on its own. “You can use it by yourself without wearing yourself out,” said Amos Otis, Padre batting coach. “If you hit 50 balls off the tee, you have to bend over and pick 50 balls up. When you swing hard and then bend over, it wears you out. This comes back automatically.” . . . First baseman Jack Clark hadn’t played in 11 games entering Friday’s game with the Mets, but he still was tied for the National League lead in walks with 24. Montreal’s DeLino DeShields and Philadelphia’s Von Hayes also have 24 walks. . . . The Mets placed catcher Barry Lyons on the 15-day disabled list Friday--retroactive to May 16--and recalled catcher Todd Hundley from Jackson (double-A) of the Texas League. Lyons has had leg problems this season and was examined Thursday by Dr. Paul Hirshman, a Padre team physician. Hirshman thought the leg troubles could be traced to lower back problems. Hundley started and batted eighth Friday. Hundley, 20, is the son of former major league catcher Randy Hundley, who spent time with the Giants (1964-65), Cubs (1966-1973, 1977-78), Twins (1974) and Padres (1975). . . . There will be a Military Night Fireworks show after tonight’s game in honor of Armed Forces Day. The Padres’ Andy Benes (3-3) pitches against David Cone (0-2). . . . Padre Manager Jack McKeon returned from Las Vegas Friday morning after spending Wednesday night and the off day Thursday watching the Padres’ triple-A affiliate play Phoenix, San Francisco’s triple-A team. Las Vegas lost twice, and Greg Booker, McKeon’s son-in-law, got a save in each game. . . . Tony Gwynn and his family will be at the San Diego Zoo at 9 a.m. today to officially welcome the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to San Diego. He will present a ceremonial Key to the Reptile House to the Turtles, who will be at the zoo from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. until Monday.