National League Roundup : Cards, Behind Cox, Drop Sloppy-Fielding Padres Out of First Place, 7-3

It was just a little more than a year ago that St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog sent promising Danny Cox back to the minors in order to get the tall right-hander straightened out. Cox, a 24-year-old rookie was 2-9 at the time.

The 6-6 Cox has not been back with the Cardinals a full season, but he has become one of the top pitchers in the league. Obviously, Herzog made the right move.

With the help of timely hitting by Tommy Herr and Jack Clark and some sloppy fielding by San Diego, Cox pitched the Cardinals to a 7-3 victory over the Padres Saturday night at St. Louis.

In improving his record to 11-4 for the season, Cox helped the Cards knock the Padres out of first place in the West, dropping them half a game behind the surging Dodgers.

The Padres have lost four of their last five and the Dodgers have made up 6 1/2 games in a hurry, since June 29, in fact. Once again poor fielding played a part in the Padres demise.

Rookie Ed Wojna breezed through the first two innings, but Ozzie Smith, often a Cardinal catalyst, opened the third with a single. A walk, a wild throw by Garry Templeton, another error by Terry Kennedy and Herr’s double gave Cox a four-run cushion.

In the next inning Herr singled in a run and Clark doubled in two more to end the scoring for the Cardinals and give Cox a 7-1 lead.

The Padres picked up two more runs in the eighth when left fielder Vince Coleman got his glove on but could not hold Graig Nettles’ fly ball with two out and it went for a two-run single. At this point Herzog brought in Jeff Lahti to get the last four outs.

Before the game the Cardinals gave Herzog a new three-year contract through 1988. Although there has been criticism by Cardinal fans of some of Herzog’s moves over the years, he has been on a roll lately.

The handling of Cox is one of those good moves. Since returning from Louisville of the American Assn. last July 22, Cox has compiled an 18-6 record. Cox gives much of the credit to Louisville Manager Jim Fregosi, the former Angel, for helping to straighten him out.

“I wasn’t expecting to go down,” Cox told the UPI a couple of weeks ago, “but I’m glad I did. I was all confused and Herzog did the right thing. I was fortunate to get a chance to be with Fregosi. He helped me to get it together mentally. He got my head straightened out.”

The Cardinals will go into the second half of the season with their three hot pitchers, Cox, Joaquin Andujar and John Tudor, all well rested. When Andujar became angry at Padre Manager Dick Williams and declined to pitch in the All-Star game, it left the Cardinals, with the best pitching record in the league, without a pitcher in the game.

“I’m not worried about not going,” Cox said. “I already planned to go fishing. Maybe I’ll make it another year.”

Herzog gave the credit to his players and said it was really fun managing this team because they were young and played with considerable enthusiasm.

Atlanta 13, Philadelphia 5--The Braves’ one-two punch has started to hit and the club has won three in a row.

Bob Horner pounded out four extra base hits at Atlanta and Dale Murphy had two hits,including his major league-leading 23rd home run, a three-run blast, to lead the Braves’ 19-hit attack.

Horner hit two doubles, a triple and his 13th home run to help Rick Mahler improve his record to 13-7. The Braves built an 11-0 lead for Mahler in four innings and he just coasted.

Montreal 6, Cincinnati 3--Although bullpen ace Jeff Reardon was ejected for allegedly throwing at a batter at Cincinnati, the Expos managed to hold on and win.

Reardon came to the rescue of Bill Gullickson (8-6) in the eighth inning. The first batter Reardon, chosen as a member of the league’s pitching staff in the All-Star game, faced, Dave Parker, hit a home run.

When Reardon’s next pitch brushed back Wayne Krenchicki, umpire Joe West threw Reardon out.

Both benches had been warned after Mario Soto hit Mike Fitzgerald on the helmet in the seventh.

Although he denied that he intentionally hit Fitzgerald, Soto was in the process of losing his seventh consecutive game.

“They hit our guy in the head,” the angry Reardon said, “I miss their guy by a foot and I get tossed. I’m as mad as I’ve ever been.”

New York 10, Houston 1--The Mets continue to keep the pressure on the Cardinals. In this game at Houston, George Foster led them to their 11th win in the last 12 games.

Foster had four hits, including a three-run double, drove in four runs and scored another to pace the 14-hit attack.

The double with the bases full came in the four-run fifth inning that broke open the game.

Ed Lynch (7-5) pitched a six-hitter for his fifth complete game. He gave up the only run in the second when Jose Cruz singled, went to second on another hit and scored on Alan Ashby’s single.

Despite their recent surge the Mets remain 2 1/2 games behind the Cardinals.

San Francisco 4, Pittsburgh 1--Dave LaPoint found his changeup just in time at Pittsburgh and the Giants ended their six-game winning streak.

LaPoint gave up seven hits in four innings, then retired 15 batters in a row before giving a two-out single to Marvell Wynne in the ninth.

“I couldn’t get my changeup over and that’s why they got all the hits,” LaPoint said. “That’s my best pitch. I have to have it and eventually, it came around.”

Bob Brenly’s two-run home run in the fifth assured the hard-luck LaPoint his fourth victory. Although he has lost eight games, LaPoint has an ERA of 2.77.

The loser was Jose DeLeon (2-13). The Pirate pitcher has won only three of his last 25 decisions over two seasons.