Riddoch Makes Wrong Choice : Padres: Manager stayed with starter Bruce Hurst in the eighth inning, but rookie Larry Walker hit a three-run homer to give the Expos a 4-2 victory.

Greg Riddoch walked up the dugout steps, out onto the field, and just as he was about to reach the pitching mound Sunday afternoon to take starter Bruce Hurst out of the game . . .

He changed his mind.

Hurst was staying in.

For the first time since becoming manager of the Padres seven weeks ago, Riddoch went to the mound without asking for the ball.

Don’t expect to see that occurrence again any time soon.

Moments later, Riddoch was slumped on the bench, watching Larry Walker hit a three-run homer over the right-field fence off Hurst, leaving the Padres with a 4-2 defeat to the Montreal Expos.

“I saw Tony (Gwynn) going back, and back,” Riddoch said, “and I really thought he had a chance to catch it against the fence.

“The next feeling I had was my heart bouncing off the bottom of my stomach. And, believe me, that’s the worst feeling in the world.”

The defeat in front of the crowd of 27,650 at Olympic Stadium was almost a carbon copy of opening day, which actually sent Hurst (8-9) into a tailspin from which he has yet to fully recover.

It was on a sunny afternoon April 9 at Dodger Stadium when Hurst took a 2-1 lead into the eighth inning, put two runners on base, was allowed to stay in the game and promptly gave up a three-run homer to Hubie Brooks, resulting in a 4-2 defeat.

Instead of vanishing, the ugly trend has only flourished.

The Padres have lost five games this season in the sixth inning or later on home runs allowed by Hurst, each time wiping out at least a one-run lead.

“You have to learn how to win games,” Hurst said, “and I haven’t learned how to so well this year.

“That’s the part that’s disappointing because it’s all my fault. I’m the one responsible. I’m the one who threw the pitch. I’m the one who let everyone down.”

Actually, Hurst had plenty of help in losing this one, starting with dreadful offense, negligent defense and a manager who wishes he had stuck with his own gut feeling.

The Padres somehow had survived all of their mental and physical mistakes, with Hurst bailing them out time after time, but in the eighth, everything unraveled at once.

Junior Noboa led off with a sharp ground ball in the hole, and shortstop Garry Templeton was only able to stop it, without making a play. Tim Raines followed with a ground-ball single almost to the same location.

Greg Harris and Craig Lefferts were feverishly warming up, and when they saw Riddoch walk to the mound, they figured that Harris was coming in to face right-handed hitters Tim Wallach and Andre Galarraga and that Lefferts would face left-handed Walker, then finish out the ninth.

That indeed was the plan . . . temporarily.

“You know, I went out to take him out,” Riddoch said, “but when I did, my stomach told me, ‘Hey, we got the perfect matchup. He’s going to get these guys out.’ ”

When Riddoch went to the mound, instead of asking for the ball, he fooled everyone by saying, “How are we going to get them out?”

Hurst: “We’ll fork(-ball) them to death.”

Riddoch went back to the bench actually feeling good about his decision. He knows as well as anyone that Hurst is tougher on right-handed hitters (.220) than lefties (.276), and between Wallach, Galarraga and Walker, they had combined to hit just two balls out of the infield the entire day.

When Wallach hit a shallow fly ball to center for the first out, and Galarraga struck out on three pitches for the second, Riddoch remembers sitting in the dugout, thinking, “This has worked out perfect; where can I pat myself on the back?”

Up stepped Walker, who struck out twice and lined out to right in his first three at-bats against Hurst, and was mired in a seven-for-46 slump (.152).

“We had him so fooled his last time up,” Padre catcher Mark Parent said, “that we were sure he’d just look at the first pitch.”

Instead, Walker saw a forkball fluttering over the plate, a little bit inside and a tad high.

It looked good enough to Walker. He hit a towering fly ball that looked immediately as if it would barely stay inside the fence, or just clear it.

“I really didn’t think it was going over,” Gwynn said. “I was getting ready to make the play, but I couldn’t, because the thing went over the wall.”

The home run left Hurst, who was 3-0 with a 1.17 ERA in his last six starts, with his first defeat since July 19. But, of course, when your offense has scored just eight runs in the past 52 innings against the Expos, you’ve got big problems.

Two of those outings were against Kevin Gross (8-10), who not only has gone 11 consecutive starts without winning a game, he entered the game having allowed 19 earned runs in his past 20 innings.

So what do the Padres do?

They knocked Gross around for nine hits and obtained two walks. But when he left after five innings, the Padres had only a 2-1 lead to show for it.

“You can’t let a pitcher like Gross get away like that,” Parent said. “When you got a guy struggling like that, you’ve got to take advantage.”

Instead, the Padres, in particular second baseman Roberto Alomar, made it as difficult as possible for Hurst. In the first inning, Alomar failed to throw home on a pickoff play, allowing Marquis Grissom to score. In the seventh inning, he dropped a throw from first baseman Phil Stephenson, putting runners at second and third with no outs. And in the ninth he ended the game by grounding into a double play.

“You know, the teams who win all the time,” Riddoch said, “there are reasons for their success. Those are the teams that do the little things right, who execute the fundamentals.

“Right now, we’re not one of those teams.”

Padre Notes

The Toronto Blue Jays, according to sources, are interested in acquiring Padre pitcher Eric Show in exchange for one or two prospects from their minor-league system. The Blue Jays shunned earlier advances by the Padres concerning Show, but according to Blue Jay club officials, have had a change of heart and are interested in acquiring him before the Aug. 31 deadline when playoff rosters must be submitted. . . . The Padres are certain they will call up second baseman Paul Faries from their triple-A club in Las Vegas when they return home Sept. 1. Faries has stolen 42 bases this season. Also expected to join the Padres are outfielder Thomas Howard and infielder Joey Cora.

Memories were resurrected for several Padre players when they watched replays of Cecil Fielder’s home run over the left-field roof Saturday at Tiger Stadium. That’s impressive, to be sure, but Dennis Rasmussen and Mike Pagliarulo remember a mammoth shot that left everybody awestruck. It was the opening day of the 1987 season when they were members of the New York Yankees, they said, and playing on a cold and blustery day in Detroit. In the first inning, with Rasmussen on the mound, Larry Herndon hit a home run to dead center that bounced off the upper facade. Just how impressive was the homer? The center field fence is 440 feet away from home plate. “I think everyone that was at the game that day will always remember that one,” Rasmussen said.

Montreal shortstops incredibly have committed just six errors in 126 games this season, handling 563 chances. . . . The Expos’ rookie pitchers this season have combined for 19 victories and three saves. . . . The Padres will conclude their four-game series against the Expos at 4:35 p.m. (PDT) today. Ed Whitson (10-7) and Oil Can Boyd (7-4) are the scheduled starters. The Padres then will play a two-game series at Shea Stadium against the New York Mets.