National League Roundup : Templeton Leads Padres Past Hapless Pirates

A healthy Garry Templeton is helping the San Diego Padres maintain control in the National League West.

The talented shortstop, hampered by knee problems for two years, went 3 for 3 Thursday at Pittsburgh and drove in four runs to lead the Padres to an easy 9-1 victory over the woeful Pirates and increase the Padres’ lead to five games.

Only 10,102 fans were on hand for the Fourth of July game, and they spent most of the afternoon booing the Pirates, who appeared to be just going through the motions.

Templeton isn’t just going through the motions. His double in the sixth with the bases loaded broke open a tight game and made it easy for Eric Show to breeze to his seventh victory.

However, the inning should have been over before Templeton came to bat. With two out and one on, Steve Garvey hit a ground ball that appeared to be an easy play for shortstop Sammy Khalifa, but he threw the ball far over the head of first baseman Jason Thompson. Soon, Rick Rhoden, instead of trailing, 1-0, was behind, 6-0.

While stretching his hitting streak to eight games, Templeton has raised his average to .302. He has driven in 33 runs, only two fewer than he did all last season. Following arthroscopic surgery after the 1983 season, Templeton batted only .258. The year before, his knee problems contributed to a .263 season.

“I think the reason I feel so good and am doing so well is because I can put weight on my knee and turn on it,” Templeton said. “I used to have to make a lot of adjustments, and I was swinging with my arms. I feel healthy and a lot more confident.”

The Pirates, who have the worst record in the league (25-50), also have the worst attendance, only 424,810 for 38 dates. They did nothing to make Manager Chuck Tanner’s 56th birthday a good one.

“I don’t like the way we’re playing,” Tanner said after his club lost for the 10th time in the last 13 games. “I had a meeting with my coaches to try to figure out what we can do to get our players to play better. The error killed us.”

Most of the booing was directed at Pirate infielder Jim Morrison, who recently called for the financially ailing team to move to another city.

San Francisco 6, Chicago 4--With an 18-m.p.h. wind blowing out at Chicago, Bob Brenly fooled everyone by trying to bunt in the second inning. The Giants’ catcher came to his senses the next time up and used the wind to help him hit a two-run homer that led the Giants to their third win in the last four games.

“(Steve) Trout threw me a couple of nasty sliders,” Brenly explained, “and with the grass so high, I didn’t think I could get the ball through the infield. I decided to try to move Jeff Leonard (who had doubled) to third. I did it (bunt) on my own.”

The Giants, who dropped the Cubs five games behind St. Louis in the East, had 14 hits but hit into five double plays.

Philadelphia 3, Cincinnati 1--Mario Soto settled down after serving up home run balls to Juan Samuel and Von Hayes in the first inning at Philadelphia, but it was too late to do him any good.

The right-hander gave up three runs and eight hits as he lost his fifth game in a row for the first time since 1977, his rookie season. The other Philadelphia run came on Ozzie Virgil’s home run in the sixth.

Kevin Gross, shaking off the effects of a cold, pitched a three-hitter to improve his record to 7-7. He held Cincinnati Manager Pete Rose hitless in three at-bats. Rose still needs 38 hits to break Ty Cobb’s career record.

The only run off Gross came in the fourth, when Dave Parker tripled and scored on Dave Concepcion’s fly ball.

Montreal 9, Houston 3--The Expos scored six runs after two were out in the 12th inning at Houston, capping the outburst with a three-run homer by Tim Wallach.