Big Inning is Big News for Padres : Baseball: Fernandez hits three-run double in seventh to lead Padres past Expos, 4-3.

The Padres didn’t know what was happening to them. They were overcome Tuesday night by this strange, peculiar sensation. Who could blame them for not knowing how to act?

The Padres experienced a real, live offensive explosion. You know, the kind where you score more than one run in an inning.

The Padres scored four runs in the seventh inning Tuesday against the Montreal Expos for a stunning 4-3 come-from-behind victory.

They should have doused one another with champagne. There should have been TV cameras closing in for victory hugs. Someone should have raised his right index finger, saying hello to Mom on camera.

But they were too stunned to react. This is fairy-tale stuff. This is stuff they see on ESPN highlights. This happens to the other guys.

Never before in 1991 had the Padres overcome a three-run deficit that late in the game for a victory. Never before in the past 123 innings had the Padres scored more than two runs in an inning. Never before in the past eight games had they scored even four runs.

“It still wasn’t pretty,” said Merv Rettenmund, Padre batting coach. “We’re still not out of this thing. We haven’t done a thing in eight games (hitting .170). But, hey, we’ll take it.”

The Padres, whose offense seemingly was lost in the San Francisco baggage claim area two weeks ago, managed only five hits against the Expos, but it took only a double for them to forget about their offensive troubles for at least a night.

Shortstop Tony Fernandez, who last drove in a run June 12--spanning 107 at-bats and 28 games--stepped up to the plate in the seventh inning with the bases loaded.

The Padres had scored a run earlier in the inning when center fielder Marquis Grissom booted a ball hit by Tim Teufel, ending the Padres’ drought of 18 scoreless innings. Now, there were two outs, and struggling reliever Mel Rojas on the mound. Rojas had just walked Bip Roberts on four pitches, thrown a wild pitch, and fell behind in the count 2-and-0 to Fernandez.

Still, how could any Padre be optimistic knowing they were in a 1-for-27 (.037) skid with runners in scoring position? How could any Padre be optimistic knowing they had scored only six earned runs in their past seven games? How could any Padre be optimistic knowing this was the first time in 17 innings they managed to even reach third base? How could Fernandez be optimistic knowing he had only five RBIs batting left-handed this season?

“I just knew that we needed something there,” Fernandez said. “Everything’s been going so bad for us. We needed to change that.”

After Rojas finally threw a strike, prompting the crowd of 19,536 to provide a sarcastic ovation, Fernandez waited for the next pitch and swung.

“I think he took a little off the ball because he wanted to throw a strike,” Fernandez said.

The ball was hit sharply down the first-base line, and Fernandez and his teammates held their breath as Gold Glove first baseman Andres Galarraga dived . . . stretched out his glove . . . and watched the ball squirt past into the right-field corner.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Fernandez said. “I know how quick he is, I thought he’d get it. I wasn’t surprised he wasn’t playing me close to the line.”

There was Tim Teufel scoring from third, Shawn Abner scoring from second and Bip Roberts, sliding past catcher Mike Fitzgerald into home. The Padres, for the first time since June 11, had a three-run hit.

Oh, so that’s how you do it.

“There’s no question we needed that one,” Fernandez said, “especially the way things have been going. It’s been so hard this season, but what are you going to do?

“Maybe this will at least help our confidence.”

The victory--only the fifth in the past 18 games for the Padres (42-47)--allowed the Padres to move within 8 1/2 games of the Dodgers, who haven’t won a game since the All-Star break.

Perhaps no one was more grateful for Fernandez’s hit than Padre starter Bruce Hurst, who was removed from the game in the sixth for a pinch-hitter, and watched in awe as his teammates overcame the 3-0 deficit to provide him with his 10th victory of the season.

“Sometimes,” Hurst said, “you’ve got to make your own breaks, and that’s what we did tonight.”

The Padres naturally put a little suspense into the final three innings when Spike Owen was doubled off second on a line drive caught by right fielder Tony Gwynn in the seventh, and Grissom was stranded on third in the eighth.

“Sometimes, I think we amaze ourselves,” said Padre reliever Larry Andersen, who pitched the final two innings for his fourth save. “We’re a regular offensive machine.

“How do we do it?”