National League Roundup : Madlock Hits Two More Homers

Bill Madlock is doing a little advertising. The four-time National League batting champion is letting anyone who might be interested know that he is healthy once again.

Madlock, hampered by injuries for most of the last two seasons, recently gave the Pittsburgh Pirates permission to trade him. The Pirates, with the worst record in the majors (35-79), are in the process of unloading their high-salaried veterans and going with a youth movement.

The 34-year-old third baseman continued his assault on the New York Mets Sunday at Pittsburgh, hitting two home runs and two singles to lead the Pirates to a 5-0 victory. Don Robinson and Pat Clements combined on a five-hitter.

The lowly Pirates won two out of three from the Mets and Madlock hit four home runs in the series. He went 7 for 10, scored five runs and drove in six. The Mets salvaged the second game, 4-3, because, except for his home run, they were able to pitch around Madlock, walking him twice.

“This is as healthy as I’ve been all year,” Madlock, who underwent elbow and shoulder surgery last August, told the Associated Press. “Other than that, there is no way to explain it.

“I don’t expect to be around here much longer. I’ll just wait and see if they can make a trade.”

Robinson, who had to leave after six innings because of a strained right knee, won as a starter for the first time in more than two years.

The Mets, who remained tied for first with St. Louis in the East, blamed their problems on being flat and playing before small crowds. They average more than 34,000 at Shea Stadium, but Sunday’s 14,508 was the largest of this series.

“We were flat the whole series,” said Keith Hernandez, who went 4 for 11 in the series but failed to drive in a run. “Maybe it has to do with the excitement at Shea. These were three of the most boring games I’ve played in.”

San Diego 2-3, Atlanta 1-6--Dale Murphy hit a home run in each game of the doubleheader at San Diego to take over the major league lead and his 33rd, in the second game, triggered a four-run sixth inning rally.

Graig Nettles’ two-run homer in the first inning gave the Padres the opener, but with a chance to cut the Dodger lead in the West to seven games, their ace, LaMarr Hoyt flopped again in the second game.

Hoyt, who had an 11-game winning streak earlier in the season, gave up 11 hits and all the Braves’ runs in 5 innings and lost his fourth in a row.

Ken Oberkfell hit a two-run home run, his third home run of the season, in the sixth to help the Braves end a six-game losing streak.

Cincinnati 8, Houston 3--Nolan Ryan continued his string of flops and the remarkable Pete Rose had two more hits in this game at Houston.

Ryan had a no-hitter going into the sixth, but gave up five singles for four runs and was knocked out in the eighth. Ryan, who has not won since June 17, has lost eight in a row.

Rose, with five hits in two games, needs only 15 more to break Ty Cobb’s record.

Montreal 6, St. Louis 5--The Expos have served notice the race in the East is a three-team affair. Terry Francona bounced a single off third baseman Terry Pendleton’s glove with the bases loaded in the 10th at St. Louis to drive in two runs and move the Expos to within four games of first place.

Francona’s hit deprived Joaquin Andujar (19-7) of a chance to become the majors’ first pitcher to have back-to-back 20-victory seasons since Jim Palmer did it for Baltimore in 1977-78.

The Cardinals, who tied the game on Tommy Herr’s fifth home run in the eighth, rallied for one run in the bottom of the 10th. But bullpen ace Jeff Reardon, who walked in a run for the second day in a row, struck out Andy Van Slyke with the bases loaded for the final out.

Andujar gave up only six hits in 9 innings, but two of them were to Tim Raines, including a lead-off double in the 10th.

Philadelphia 9, Chicago 5--It sort of figured that when Mike Schmidt finally emerged from his season-long slump, it would be in his favorite ballpark--Wrigley Field.

Schmidt hit his 22nd home run of the season and his second in two days to help the Phillies win their second in a row. It was the 447th home run in his career. He has hit 64 of them against the Cubs, 42 of them at Wrigley.

Another Phillie who enjoys Wrigley is Juan Samuel. Samuel went 4 for 5 in this game and 10 for 15 in the three-game series. Three of the hits were home runs.

The Cubs, their entire starting pitching staff wiped out by injuries, had only three hits off Charles Hudson until they chased him in the ninth with four runs. The first run off Hudson was Ryne Sandberg’s 17th homer in the first.