Harris’ One-Hitter Snaps Padre Skid : Baseball: San Diego pitcher keeps a teammate and the Mets guessing through eight innings in a 2-1 victory.

Padre pitcher Greg Harris was panicking Sunday afternoon. The team bus was leaving, and reporters kept him so preoccupied he never had a chance to shower.

He quickly shed his uniform, ran in, then ran out of the shower room, started to dress, and realized that a teammate had stolen his underwear.

Of all the times for someone to pull a stunt like this.

Harris then stopped, and laughed, realizing that there are sacrifices he has to make after pitching the greatest game of his big-league career. He beat the New York Mets, 2-1, in front of 46,836 at Shea Stadium.

He kept everyone but his teammates in suspense with a no-hitter through seven innings before Mackey Sasser broke it up with a double in the eighth. That was the only hit he allowed before leaving with one out in the ninth. Craig Lefferts, not wanting to spoil the moment, preserved the victory.

It left the Padres absolutely giddy.

Who could blame them? The Padres (41-46), who had not won a game in nine days, snapped a five-game losing streak, and won for only the fourth time in the past 16 games.

“It’s like the World Series to us,” said Padre reliever Larry Andersen.”

Said Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn: “Yeah, we really crushed them, didn’t we. They won’t want to mess around with us anymore.”

The Padres still consider it a moral victory just reaching second base these days, but at this point, they’re not going to be proud. Besides, this was a game that belonged to Harris, who has persevered through this troubled season, and was just six outs away from fame.

It wasn’t until the fifth inning that Harris started thinking about a no-hitter. He knew he hadn’t given up any hits, but there still was half the game left.

“But when the seventh inning rolled around,” Harris said, “I thought, ‘Hey, I got a chance to throw a no-hitter. I’ve really got a chance. I can’t believe it.’ ”

The seventh inning brought the heart of the Mets’ order to the plate, but Harris’ only flaw was a one-out walk to Gregg Jefferies, his third of the game.

When Harris took the mound in the eighth, he started to become a bit skittish. The crowd, realizing what was going on, became boisterous. No one wanted to make the mistake and blow Harris’ chance to become the first Padre to throw a no-hitter.

The first batter in the eighth was Sasser, who was playing right field and not catching for the first time. Catcher Dann Bilardello, not trying to be fancy, kept calling for a mixture of pitches just as he had done all game. Soon the count was full.

The next pitch was a fastball . . . foul ball.

Changeup . . . foul ball.

Curveball . . . foul ball.

“When a guy’s fouling off three, four, five pitches like that,” Bilardello said, “he’s pretty locked in.”

The next pitch was another fastball, and Sasser hit it toward the gap in right-center between Gwynn and center fielder Thomas Howard.

“As soon as I saw it leave the bat,” Bilardello said, “I said, ‘Oh-no. Then I saw Thomas running, and I remembered a catch he made in San Francisco, and I thought he had a chance.”

But the ball landed in between them, bouncing over the wall for a ground-rule double.

It must sure must have been tough to see a no-hitter being broken up like that, someone asked Howard.

Howard: “What do you mean?”

Reporter: Harris had a no-hitter.

Howard: “I didn’t know that, man. How long did he have it?”

Reporter: Sasser’s double was the hit that ended it.

Howard: “Damn, you’re kidding me. I didn’t know that. If I had known that, I would have dove for it. I wouldn’t have caught it, but I would have dove. That sure explains a lot of things.”

Reporter: What do you mean?

Howard: “Well, when I went to bat the next inning, a bunch of fans were yelling at me, saying, ‘You blew his no-hitter. You blew his no-hitter.’ I didn’t know what they were talking about.’ ”

Said Padre first baseman Fred McGriff, standing within earshot: “I can’t believe it. Oh man, you got to get fined for that one. You didn’t know. That’s unbelievable.”

Howard: “Hey man, I’m just telling the truth.”

Howard’s lack of awareness was not as preposterous as it sounds considering the Mets scored an unearned run in the fourth inning, and Harris had walked three batters. Bilardello didn’t realize the no-hitter either until he entered the game in the fifth for Benito Santiago, who was hit in the groin area.

But certainly, the significance of the double was not lost on Harris, who pounded his glove, called for the ball from Bilardello, and went back to the mound.

“I just said, ‘Let’s go, let’s get with it now,’ “said Harris. “The fun was over. Now it was time to go to work.

“Just because the thrill of getting a no-hitter was gone, I didn’t want to lose the game too.”

Harris came back and induced a groundout by pinch-hitter Garry Templeton. That moved pinch-runner Keith Miller to third. The next batter was Tommy Herr, needing only a sacrifice fly to score the tying run. Harris struck him out on a slider. And the inning ended when pinch-hitter Kelvin Torve grounded out.

Although fatigued, Harris wanted to finish the game, and looked like he might have a shot simply on adrenaline alone. Padre Manager Greg Riddoch vowed to himself that he’d allow Harris to pitch the ninth, but once a runner got aboard, he was coming out of the game.

Harris retired Darryl Boston on a groundout to first, but after he walked Dave Magadan on five pitches, Riddoch came to the mound, and signalled for Lefferts before giving Harris a chance to persuade him otherwise. Two batters later, and Lefferts had his first save since June 22, and the Mets’ 10-game winning streak came to a halt.

Sure, there wasn’t a no-hitter. There wasn’t even a complete-game one-hitter, which would have been the 14th in Padre history. But it was a victory, Harris’ first since April 12 after spending nearly three months on the disabled list with elbow tendinitis.

“My gosh, we needed that win so bad today,” said Harris, 2-1, “that’s what it made so enjoyable. To get swept here would have been a nightmare.”

The Padres batted only .179 in the series. They struck out 37 times. And they scored only five earned runs.

But they squeezed out an unearned run in the fifth inning set up by Ron Darling’s throwing error, and McGriff hit a 435-foot homer in the sixth inning, providing the Padres all they needed.

“We’re still having a whole lot of trouble scoring runs,” Gwynn said, “but trust me, we’ll take it.

“Man, will we ever.”