National League Roundup : Soto Too Much for Weary Cubs, 1-0

Mario Soto held the Chicago Cubs to two singles Wednesday at Cincinnati and pitched the Reds to a 1-0 victory to improve his record to 7-3.

The teams scored 24 runs and hammered out 34 hits Tuesday night, but the only run in this battle between Dick Ruthven and Soto came on a sacrifice fly by Dave Parker in the third inning.

Manager Jim Frey of the Cubs felt his team was worn out from the three-hour scramble the night before, conceding that it was made more difficult because they had to face Soto.

Soto, who will be 29 in July, has learned that it isn’t essential to pitch complete games. When he has a lead in the late innings, he plans on bowing out. But what he really thrives on are close, tight games.

“I concentrate more in a tight game because every pitch I make is critical,” he said. “In a 1-0 game, you have to be very careful. I was pitching very, very carefully today. One bad pitch can change the whole game.

“I give up lots of home runs, so in a game like this I have to think about that a lot. I can’t afford to make the kind of pitch that can be hit out in this kind of game.”

Soto gave up a single to Ryne Sandberg with one out in the first inning and another to Keith Moreland in the fourth. He struck out nine and walked four. It was his fourth complete game this season. Two of the others were 2-1 victories. He also has lost a 1-0 game and a 2-1 decision.

“The only time I lost my concentration in this one,” Soto said, “was in the sixth inning when I gave up two walks in a row. Davey (Concepcion) came in to talk to me and helped me settle down.”

Concepcion said he gave Soto a pep talk in his native Spanish language.

“I could tell he was mad at the umpire for not calling strikes,” Concepcion said. “I told him that when he gets mad like that he gets in trouble. I told him to concentrate on the next batters and we’ll win it.”

Soto followed his friend’s advice. He struck out Leon Durham and Ron Cey to end the Cubs’ last threat.

Frey thought that when the Cubs blew leads of 6-0 and 10-5 and lost, 13-11, in the slugfest, it gave them mental fatigue.

“Last night is what you call a ‘downer’ for the club,” Frey said. “Bouncing back 12 hours later would be tough enough against anybody, against Soto, it was impossible.”

Atlanta 5, St. Louis 3--The combination of Dale Murphy hitting home runs and Bruce Sutter protecting leads was enough to make the Braves the favorite in the West.

At Atlanta, Murphy hit his 13th home run and Sutter, facing his old mates for the first time since signing with the Braves as a free agent, pitched two hitless innings. However, it was only the Braves’ second win in eight games and they had lost seven in a row to the Cardinals.

The Cardinal runs were home runs by Andy Van Slyke, Tommy Herr and pinch-hitter Tito Landrum.

It was Murphy’s second home run in two nights and tied him with Tony Armas of Boston for the major league lead.

New York 4, San Francisco 3--Dave LaPoint held the Mets to a Gary Carter single through seven innings at San Francisco and had a 3-0 lead, but when he gave up a double and single to start the eighth, he was gone.

Maybe, the Giants gave him the hook too soon, because the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead. The big hit of the four-run Mets’ eighth was a two-run double by Carter.

The victory enabled the Mets to increase their lead in the East to 1 1/2 games and gave the Giants a 6-15 record in one-run games.

“When you start losing one-run games early in the season,” Giants’ catcher Bob Brenly said, “they just seem to snowball and you learn to lose.

“On the other hand, when you are winning close ones, everyone in the dugout is alert and ready to do his part. Right now the guys just start looking at each other.

Houston 8, Pittsburgh 3--The Pirates would be happy if they never saw Nolan Ryan again. In this game at Houston, baseball’s strikeout king beat the Pirates for the ninth time in a row. The Pirates haven’t beaten him since 1971.

The Pirates had their nemesis on the ropes, leading, 3-1, going into the bottom of the seventh. But, the Astros, in the process of batting for Ryan, scored seven runs, four of them on a grand slam by Jim Pankovits.

Ryan, who struck out eight to move within 50 of 4,000, gave up only four hits in seven innings and raised his record to 5-2. He had a one-hitter until the seventh when three hits produced two runs.

Montreal 2, San Diego 1--Andre Dawson, who drove in the winning run at San Diego Tuesday night, led off the ninth inning with a home run to break a 1-1 tie and beat the Padres for the second game in a row.

Rookie Tim Burke pitched the eighth inning to gain his first victory and Jeff Reardon pitched the ninth to earn his 14th save.

Joe Hesketh held the Padres to five hits in seven innings.