Hernandez Atones for Miscue

In front of 55,454 in the San Diego Padres’ home opener, Carlos Hernandez committed an embarrassing baserunning blunder that killed a potential rally.

Four innings later, in the ninth, he bounded down the first-base line, watching his tying, two-run homer sail into the first row of seats in left-center field. San Diego went on to beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2, on Greg Vaughn’s sacrifice fly in the 10th inning Tuesday, the Padres’ third comeback victory in the season’s first seven games.

“Carlos came through huge for us, because it sure didn’t look good there,” Manager Bruce Bochy said.

In the fifth, Hernandez was tagged out because he didn’t catch umpire Jim Quick’s reversal of a play at second. Hernandez slid into the bag on Chris Gomez’s shot that shortstop Barry Larkin snagged and threw to Bret Boone.

Quick ruled Hernandez out, but changed his call when Boone dropped the ball. Hernandez, facing center field, wasn’t aware of the reversal and started walking to the dugout. Prompted by pitcher Pete Harnisch, Boone ran over and tagged Hernandez.

“Yeah, I worry about that, because I don’t play that kind of game,” Hernandez said. “I saw him when he called me out and I just walked away. Then, boom, he went to tag me and I was surprised, ‘What’s going on here?’ I never see, I never hear anything because of how many people in the stadium. I really got mad.”

Hernandez redeemed himself when he hit the first pitch he saw from Jeff Shaw in the ninth for his first homer. Wally Joyner was aboard on a one-out single.

Tony Gwynn singled off Shaw leading off the 10th. One out later, Joyner singled Gwynn to third. Vaughn followed with his fly to left, and Gwynn scored standing up.

New York 3, Chicago 2--Al Leiter hit a two-run double for his first extra-base hit in 122 career at-bats and got his first victory for the Mets at Chicago.

Butch Huskey homered for the Mets off Jeremi Gonzalez, who gave up three runs in six innings.

After the game, Huskey said he had to listen to a barrage of verbal insults from bleacher fans.

Huskey, who is black, would not repeat the taunts but said they were racial in nature.

“Stuff like that should be on ‘Jerry Springer,’ ” Huskey said. “It’s not very ethical. I don’t care what anyone says, you’re going to hear that stuff. You just have to be able to laugh and try to have fun with them.”

Philadelphia 9, Florida 8--Doug Glanville hit a run-scoring single with two out in the 10th inning and the Phillies won their home opener.

The Phillies trailed, 8-4, in the fifth inning, but rallied to drop the World Series champion Marlins to 1-7. Derrek Lee hit a grand slam and drove in five runs for Florida.

Mark Lewis walked with one out in the 10th against rookie Jesus Sanchez and moved to third on Bob Abreu’s single.

After Alex Arias was walked intentionally, pinch-hitter Rex Hudler struck out. Glanville followed with his game-winner for his third RBI of the game.

Atlanta 11, Pittsburgh 3--Chipper Jones filled the outfield seats in Three Rivers Stadium even faster than the Pirates’ sellout crowd did.

Jones homered twice in the first three innings, even as some late-arriving fans were settling in for the Pirates’ home opener, and Tom Glavine pitched seven shutout innings at Pittsburgh.

Jones’ homers--to left field in the first, and into the center-field seats in the third--were off Jason Schmidt and gave Atlanta a 4-0 lead in the third. Jones also walked, singled, reached on a throwing error and drove in five runs in his five plate appearances.

Milwaukee 6, Montreal 4--On the day National League baseball returned to Milwaukee for the first time in 33 years, the Brewers won with some American League long ball.

Jeromy Burnitz and Jose Valentin homered and the Brewers won their sixth straight, beating the winless Expos at Milwaukee.

The Expos fell to 0-7, their worst start in their 30-year history.

Home run king Hank Aaron threw out the first ball, a one-hopper to the plate during pregame ceremonies. It was the first NL game in Milwaukee since Sept. 22, 1965, when the Braves lost to the Dodgers in 11 innings. They moved to Atlanta the next season.

Milwaukee’s Scott Karl gave up two earned runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings.

St. Louis 12, Colorado 11--Mark McGwire didn’t terrorize Coors Field in the Rockies’ opener. But the Cardinals won anyway.

Tom Lampkin homered and drove in four runs, and St. Louis had nine extra-base hits.

St. Louis built a 9-1 lead off Pedro Astacio and Mike DeJean, withstood a seven-run sixth inning and the Cardinals scored three more runs in the seventh.

McGwire went homerless but drove in two runs with a groundout and sacrifice fly.

Ellis Burks had two homers to raise his league-leading total to five.