National League Roundup : No Gossage; Astros Cook Padres’ Goose in 9th

It was a perfect spot for Rich Gossage. The San Diego Padres were holding a 3-1 lead over the Astros going into the ninth inning Saturday night at Houston.

There was no Gossage because the ace of the bullpen underwent arthroscopic knee surgery earlier in the week and will be out at least three weeks.

Eric Show, who had pitched eight solid innings, and Craig Lefferts couldn’t fill Gossage’s role as Mark Bailey’s two-run single climaxed a three-run rally that gave the Astros a 4-3 victory and dropped the Padres six games behind the Dodgers.

It has been an amazing turnaround in the National League West.

On the morning of July 5 the Padres had everything going for them. They had a five-game lead over the Dodgers and appeared to be in great shape for the second half of the season.

But, the Dodgers, an inept team for almost a half-season, started getting some hitting to go with their quality pitching. At the same time, little things started going wrong with the Padres.

Kevin McReynolds and Steve Garvey stopped hitting, and batting champion Tony Gwynn was in and out of the lineup with a nagging wrist injury. Of the Padre starting pitchers, only LaMarr Hoyt was showing consistently good pitching.

In 30 days there was an 11-game switch between the clubs. While the slumping Padres were winning only 9 of 27 games, the Dodgers were winning 20 out of 27.

The second loss in a row to the Astros was typical of the way things have been going for the Padres.

At the start they caught Nolan Ryan without his good fastball. They reached the strikeout king for eight hits and two walks in the first three innings but managed only three runs.

Ryan settled down and retired the last 10 batters he faced. In seven innings he struck out eight batters to run his lifetime total to 4,027. After the fourth inning the Padres did not have a baserunner.

The way Show was pitching, it didn’t seem to matter. After giving up a run on four singles in the first inning, he was in charge until the ninth.

Jose Cruz opened the ninth with a single, and Jerry Mumphrey singled to knock out Show. The first batter Lefferts faced, Glenn Davis, doubled off the wall in left-center to cut the lead to a run and put runners on second and third. After an intentional walk to Kevin Bass, Bailey broke up the game with a drive to right-center.

New York 5, Chicago 4--Most players complain about the shadows that fall over home plate late in the afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Howard Johnson had no reason to complain when he came up in the 10th inning with two out. He promptly hit his seventh home run to give the Mets the victory.

“It was a matter of patience,” Johnson told UPI. “I wasn’t trying for a homer. I just wanted to get a base hit, steal and have somebody drive me home.”

The Mets outhit the Cubs, 15-5, but they had to rally to tie in the ninth after two were out on an infield hit by Wally Backman and a double by Keith Hernandez.

The Cubs, trailing, 3-2, tried a unique squeeze in the eighth with the bases loaded, and it worked for two runs. Chris Speier laid down the bunt, first baseman Hernandez fielded it and made a perfect throw to first. However, nobody was covering, and the throw went down the line as two runs scored.

“We were surprised,” Met Manager Davey Johnson said. “I don’t think I ever saw a squeeze in that situation. I wasn’t expecting it. You can’t fault Hernandez. He did the right thing.”

Philadelphia 6, St. Louis 4--Derrel Thomas doubled in two runs with two out in the 10th inning at St. Louis to give the Phillies the victory in a game twice delayed by rain.

Willie McGee’s two-out triple in the ninth, his fourth hit of the game, drove in the tying run after the second delay of almost an hour stopped the game in the top of the ninth.

The defeat cut the Cardinals’ lead in the East over the Mets to 1 1/2 games.

San Francisco 7, Atlanta 5--One of the bright spots in a dismal season for the Giants has been rookie third baseman Chris Brown. In this game at Atlanta, Brown hit a grand slam in the third inning to power the Giants to victory.

Mike Krukow improved his record to 7-8 but sprained his ankle and had to leave after five innings.

Montreal 6, Pittsburgh 5--Mike Fitzgerald and Hubie Brooks each drove in two runs at Pittsburgh, and Bert Roberge pitched well in relief to lead the Expos.

Jeff Reardon came on to get the last two outs of the game to earn his career-high 27th save, tops in the majors.