Harris Saves the Bullpen as Padres Wallop Expos : Baseball: Right-hander gets team’s first complete game of season in 7-2 victory.

Randy Myers mentioned it to Greg Harris on Wednesday. He said that since Harris was pitching, the Padres were giving Myers the day off.

He laughed. He was kidding. Myers has blown three of Harris’ leads already this spring, and sometimes you laugh to keep from crying.

As it turned out, Harris gave Myers the night off.

Harris went the distance as the Padres defeated Montreal, 7-2. It was the first victory of the season for Harris (1-1) and the first complete game of the season for the Padres.

“You hear a lot about Andy Benes,” Padre Manager Greg Riddoch said. “But Greg Harris is every bit as up-and-coming. He has potential, and you feel like he’s going to blossom into one of the better pitchers in the league.

“He started off great, but he hasn’t gotten the breaks.”

The Padres (12-10) moved from fourth place to first in the NL West in front of only 9,704--the smallest crowd of the season.

Maybe they are driving away fans with relentless, ridiculous sound effects on balls fouled into the stands--are these ballgames or David Letterman routines?--and with an inane video they occasionally show splicing the Padres with Hammer’s “2 Legit 2 Quit” video.

Whatever, the sparse gathering was treated to Fred McGriff’s annual triple--he had one each in 1990 and 1991; Gary Sheffield’s three hits and Tony Gwynn’s two.

And remember the days when .100 looked nearly impossible for Benito Santiago? He now has an eight-game hitting streak and is batting .238.

But overall, the night belonged to Harris.

“He’s pitched good enough that he could have won all of his games,” Riddoch said. “I’m glad he finally got what he deserved.”

Although he entered the game sixth in the NL in earned-run average (2.08), Harris (1-1) earned his first victory since Oct. 2 in Los Angeles.

He opened the season with a loss in Cincinnati and then was involved in three consecutive no-decisions. In those three games, Harris pitched 21 innings and allowed only three earned runs.

And in two of those games, Harris left with four-run, ninth-inning leads. Myers blew each.

That explains why the Padres were feeling so good after this game. And it helps explain the broad smile that crossed General Manager Joe McIlvaine’s face as he sidled up to Harris’ locker.

“How many pitches?” McIlvaine asked.

“Don’t know,” Harris replied.

(The answer was 126--79 for strikes.)

“Feel strong the whole way?” McIlvaine wondered.

Harris shook his head no.

“You pitched tonight,” McIlvaine said, grinning broadly.

Harris allowed nine hits and struck out five. He walked one.

“I didn’t feel great,” Harris said. “Fortunately, the defense made some plays early that got me out of some jams. I didn’t have real good stuff. I really didn’t. I was behind a lot of hitters.”

But Harris was happy with the complete game, pleased he could save the bullpen some work and relieved to get his first victory.

“I don’t feel like I was owed one but, in a sense, I guess you can say that,” he said. “The tough one is the first one. You like to get out of the gate fast.”

Aside from Larry Walker’s two bases-empty homers, there weren’t many highlights for Montreal.

In fact, the Expos have had no highlights under the lights: They are 0-12 in night games.