National League Roundup : Gooden Strikes Out 16 in 3-0 Win, Surpasses 200 for the Season--Again

A return to night ball was all Dwight Gooden needed to regain his best form.

The 20-year-old right-hander struck out 16 Tuesday night at New York and pitched a seven-hitter as the Mets beat San Francisco, 3-0. It was his 13th consecutive victory.

The 16 strikeouts, high in the majors this season, enabled Gooden to became the first pitcher in National League history to strike out more than 200 batters in each of his first two seasons.

His 19th victory enabled the Mets to move 1 1/2 games in front of St. Louis in the hot pennant race in the East. In improving his record to 19-3, he tied Joaquin Andujar for the most victories in the majors this season.

Gooden, who has not lost since the Dodgers beat him on May 25, was tagged for five runs in five innings last Thursday afternoon by Philadelphia. It was Gooden’s poorest outing of the season, but the Mets took him off the hook by gaining a 10-7 victory.

Already, in less than two full seasons, Gooden has established himself as the best pitcher in baseball. Last year, while still in his teens, Gooden struck out 276 batters in 218 innings while compiling a 17-9 record.

In 212 innings this season he has 208 strikeouts. The only other pitcher ever to strike out more than 200 in each of his first two seasons was Herb Score of the Cleveland Indians. Score, a left-hander, struck out 245 in 1955 and 263 in 1956. His career was all but ended the next season when a line drive off the bat of Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees struck him in the face.

Gooden’s sixth shutout tied him with John Tudor of St. Louis for the league lead in that department and it lowered his earned-run average to 1.74, the best in the majors.

The fireballing youngster has convinced just about everyone that he is the best. This includes Andujar, who is having a pretty good season himself.

“He wins the Cy Young Award,” Andujar told USA Today. “Nobody can beat him.”

After the Phillies shelled him, Gooden said he just didn’t feel right at any time. But after this performance, he told the Associated Press: “I would say it was one of my better games. I knew I had quite a bit of strikeouts, but I didn’t know how many until the game was over. During the game some of the guys said let’s go for 20 strikeouts.”

Manager Dave Johnson, after Gooden’s performance against Philadelphia, had said he felt sorry for the Giants.

“Already, he has a history of coming back strong after a weak performance,” Johnson said. “He’s determined not to get into a rut.”

Gooden’s effort impressed plate umpire Bob Engel. “He was outstanding, obviously,” Engel said. “But I’ve been around long enough to have seen Sandy Koufax, and he won a couple, too.”

Just before the game the Mets signed veteran shortstop Larry Bowa, 39, recently released by the Cubs.

Houston 17, St. Louis 2--Next to the Dodgers, the Cardinals have the most effective pitching staff in the majors. In this game at Houston, the Astros mistreated four members of that staff.

Mark Bailey hit his second grand slam of the season and Dickie Thon, gradually returning to form after a serious injury more than a year ago, drove in four runs with a home run and a triple.

The Astros jumped on Kurt Kepshire for five runs in 2 innings and continued their assault on Rick Horton, Joe Boever and Bob Forsch. They wound up with 19 hits and made it easy for Mike Scott to improve his record to 13-6. Scott gave up only three hits in seven innings. He lost his shutout in the sixth.

Every Astro starter, including Scott, had at least one hit.

San Diego 1, Montreal 0--The two youngsters who are filling in for bullpen ace Rich Gossage, are still doing a job for the Padres. When Gossage underwent knee surgery last month, Lance McCullers and Gene Walter were rushed into the breech.

The Padres have fallen to eight games behind the Dodgers, but it has not been the fault of the two rookies. In this game at Montreal, they came through again.

After Terry Kennedy and Kevin McReynolds hit fifth-inning doubles for the only run of the game, Dave Dravecky worked out of trouble for seven innings before the youngsters each pitched an inning to preserve the victory.

Pittsburgh 3, Cincinnati 2--Rick Reuschel (9-6) gave up six hits and two unearned runs at Pittsburgh and won for the first time in more than a month when Jason Thompson hit his 11th home run.

Mario Soto (10-14) flopped again for the Reds, who fell nine games behind the Dodgers.

Chicago 5, Atlanta 2--Although injuries, especially to the pitching staff, have wiped out Cub hopes of repeating in the East, Ryne Sandberg, last season’s top player in the league, has proved it was no fluke.

In this game at Atlanta, Sandberg hit a two-run home run off Bruce Sutter to give the Cubs one of their infrequent victories.