Maddux Helps the Padres in a Pinch Again : Baseball: He fires 4 2/3 shutout innings against Expos and becomes the winner when Padres rally.

Tony Gwynn calls him the Padres’ utility pitcher, and that only begins to tell the remarkable tale of right-hander Mike Maddux.

The man who had to beg the Padres for a job last winter has emerged as one of the more valuable players on their roster. His relief performance Thursday in the Padres’ 6-5 comeback victory over the Montreal Expos at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium boosted his record to 4-1 and trimmed his earned-run average to 2.17.

Maddux blanked the Expos on two hits over the last 4 2/3 innings, and his work paid off when Bip Roberts won the game with a two-run homer off Barry Jones with two out in the ninth inning.

“It was just another chapter in the Cinderella story of a guy who wasn’t going to make the team,” Manager Greg Riddoch said. “He’s an unsung guy in whatever success we’ve had. He’s been a long man, a short man, a starter and a slammer, and he’s been great in every role.”

Asked what the odds against Maddux might have been in spring training, Riddoch said, “About 1,000-1. I’ve never heard of a guy who wasn’t even a nonroster invitee making the team.”

Maddux, 29, older brother of staff ace Greg Maddux of the Chicago Cubs, was out of work when he contacted Padre General Manager Joe McIlvaine at a luncheon in Maddux’s hometown of Las Vegas in February. He had had abortive flings with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1986 through 1989 and the Dodgers last year, plus elbow operations the past two years. His career ERA was 4.68, and his baseball future was almost nonexistent.

Nobody paid much attention when Maddux handcuffed the Cubs in his first exhibition outing, but he went on to string together one excellent outing after another. Although basically a reliever, he made an emergency start June 8 against the Pittsburgh Pirates and shut out the National League East leaders on two hits for six innings.

In an earlier SOS situation, on April 22, Maddux replaced starter Greg Harris after Harris had thrown only one pitch against the San Francisco Giants. Harris had to leave because of an elbow problem that was to put him on the disabled list.

It was Harris whom Maddux rescued Thursday, and once he took over with one out in the fifth inning, the Expos quit hitting. Mike Fitzgerald hit into an inning-ending double play, then Maddux pitched three perfect innings before finally yielding two singles and a walk with two out in the ninth. He escaped by forcing Tim Wallach to bounce into a force-out.

“I lost a little sharpness, and that’s the first to go,” Maddux said. “On the first hit (by Delino DeShields), I threw a real cookie, right down the middle. I made a good pitch to Wallach, but that was it. I was down to a quarter of a tank of gas.”

The fact that Maddux was able to make one last good pitch when he had to was a tribute to the confidence he has gained from his sudden success.

“When they show confidence in you, it’s a big plus,” he said.

Maddux has pitched in 41 games, second only to Rich Rodriguez’s 42 on the Padre staff, and has yielded only 51 hits in 62 1/3 innings. He has not given up a run in 21 1/3 innings.

“I had a lot of movement on my pitches today, and I put the ball in the right place,” he said.

What turned around Maddux’s career?

“The surgery I had last October made the difference,” he said. “I had an operation the year before, but the trouble kind of came back. After the second one, I had greater velocity and more movement. Last year, everything I threw was straight.”

Maddux had a feeling Thursday that he would wind up a winner if he could keep the Expos from padding their 5-3 lead.

“We’ve got a tough lineup,” he said. “Teams don’t like to pitch to us, with all the thunder we have.”