Hurst Amazing Against Mets : Baseball: He shuts them out for second time in a week, firing a one-hitter in the Padres’ 3-0 victory.

Padre shortstop Tony Fernandez watched the videotape over and over, wondering if he could have done anything differently. Catcher Benito Santiago questioned whether he should have called for a different pitch. Reserve Dann Bilardello was even blamed for jinxing it from the bench.

Only a few precious feet Monday night prevented Padre starter Bruce Hurst from pitching the first no-hitter in Padre history. He instead settled for the second one-hitter of his career, a 3-0 victory over the New York Mets at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Chico Walker, a teammate of Hurst’s in his first professional season at Elmira, N.Y, in 1976, beat out a one-out grounder to Fernandez in the sixth inning for a hit.

Walker hit a first-pitch changeup deep in the hole to the right of Fernandez. Walker easily beat out the throw that skipped past first baseman Fred McGriff.

McGriff picked up the ball after it caromed off the retaining wall, noticed that Walker turned the wrong way after crossing the bag, and nonchalantly tagged him out. It was the last time the Mets would reach first base the remainder of the game.

“Maybe I could have done something different, I don’t know,” said Fernandez.

Said Walker: “No way. As soon as I hit it, I knew I was going to beat it out.”

It was the 15th one-hitter in Padre history. Hurst also threw a one-hitter in the second start of his Padre career on April 10, 1989.

“Hey, I haven’t thrown a no-hitter since high school, anyway,” Hurst said. “I’ll just take the shutout.”

Hurst, who went two years between shutouts, has two in the past six days. Hurst pitched a six-hit shutout against the Mets in New York last week.

“He was (ticking) me off; he made it look too easy,” said Mets starter Dwight Gooden (3-4), whose teammates have failed to score in three of his starts this season.

Said Mel Stottlemyre, Met pitching coach: “There was no middle of the plate with him. Everything was on the corners.”

The Padres never even altered the game plan from Hurst’s last game against the Mets. He kept the Mets in check by throwing inside, then fooled with pitches dancing on the outside.

“Benny called a beautiful game,” Hurst said. “He was just fabulous. He made it a whole lot of fun tonight.”

Certainly, something about the Mets brings out the best in Padre folkore. The Padres’ last one-hitter was July 14, 1991, also against the Mets when Greg Harris and Craig Lefferts combined for a 2-1 victory.

Still, no one dominates the Mets like Hurst. He has won his last seven starts against the Mets, and has more difficulty pitching between starts than to the guys in blue pinstripes.

This year alone, Hurst is 2-0 with 18 shutout innings against the Mets, and 1-3 with a 4.81 ERA against the rest of the world.

“I can’t explain it,” Hurst said. “They’ve changed the personnel so many times over the years, even from last year, and it continues.

“But they have so much power in the lineup they can explode at any time.”

You could have fooled the crowd of 16,348 that witnessed the event.

Hurst allowed only four balls out of the infield the entire game, striking out seven with two walks, retiring the last 10 batters he faced.

“I just kept the ball down,” Hurst said. “Everything was working. My tempo. My rhythm. Everything.

“Everything was going so smooth, I didn’t even realize I had a no-hitter.”

Bilardello didn’t realize it either, teammate Larry Andersen said, until he he blurted from the bench in the sixth inning, “Hey, Bruce has got a no-hitter.”

Said Padre third baseman Gary Sheffield, who made an array of dazzling fielding plays: “I didn’t even know it until I looked up at the scoreboard in the eighth inning. The crowd started getting into it so much, I was wondering what was going on.”

The rest of the National League West might be wondering the same about the Padres. Their fifth consecutive victory puts them in a virtual tie for first place, only .003 behind the San Francisco Giants.

Sound strange? The last time they were in first place at this late a date was July 12, 1985.

The Padres, meanwhile, got the only offense they needed in the first inning when Santiago and Tim Teufel delivered back-to-back RBI singles.