National League Roundup : Andujar Fails to Win 21st for 3rd Time, and Cardinals Lose to Braves

The St. Louis Cardinals would be in pretty good shape in their drive toward the title in the National League East if they could just get Joaquin Andujar back in a winning groove.

The pitcher who was the first to win 20 games in the majors this season, failed for the third time to win his 21st Saturday night at Atlanta and was beaten, 3-1, by the lowly Braves.

The defeat, Andujar’s ninth, prevented the Cardinals from increasing their lead over New York to 2 1/2 games. Andujar pitched seven innings, gave up nine hits and all three runs.

On July 26, Andujar went 11 innings to beat the San Diego Padres, 2-1, and improve his record to 17-4. He hasn’t really pitched well since the extra-inning stint.

In his last nine starts, he is 3-5, with one no-decision. In 62 innings, he has yielded 62 hits and 39 runs, including 34 earned, for an earned-run average of 4.90. During the slump, he has walked 30 batters.

It may be that Andujar, recently named as one of the Cardinals who was using cocaine in 1982, is tired. For a long stretch of the season, Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog was using a four-man rotation. Already, Andujar has pitched 237 innings.

Two former teammates, Ken Oberkfell and Bruce Sutter, played a part in the Cardinals’ failure to increase their lead. Oberkfell singled in the tie-breaking run in the third and Sutter pitched a scoreless ninth to register his 22nd save.

Steve Bedrosian (6-11) lasted 5 innings to gain the victory. He has won both games the Braves have won from the Cardinals in 11 games this season.

The Cardinals hope to welcome back their one power hitter, Jack Clark, today. Clark has been on the disabled list and has not played since injuring a rib muscle Aug. 23.

Philadelphia 2, San Diego 0--Everyone thought Mike Schmidt was in a hitting slump early this season. As it turns out, the slugging star of the Phillies was merely in the process of changing his hitting style.

Schmidt hit his 26th home run and a run-scoring triple at San Diego to back the five-hit pitching of John Denny (10-11). The defeat dropped the slumping Padres nine games behind the Dodgers in the West.

“I’ve had to adjust from a guy that’s a low fastball hitter,” he said. “I made my living off guys who threw sliders and sinkers and kept the ball down. Now, I can hit the high pitch.

“It wasn’t until two weeks before the All-Star game that I began to feel like I had the mechanics I needed to hit the rest of the season. It was a process of learning to hit the 88- to-94 m.p.h. fastball you see in this league every day.”

Montreal 7, San Francisco 1--After his record fell to 7-12 when the Expos pounded him for six runs and nine hits in 6 innings, left-hander Dave LaPoint was angry at both his teammates and the San Francisco fans.

“I’ve got five more chances to get back to .500,” LaPoint told the Associated Press, “and the way things are going around here, I’ve got a good chance to lose five more.

“If these guys can’t go all out everytime they put on a uniform, they should get Triple-A kids to play. I don’t like losing. They’ve got some players around here who are used to losing.”

But UPI quoted LaPoint as berating the fans, or the lack of them. “I’m not saying all of our players have been enthusiastic,” he said, “but when only two or three thousand people show up every day, it can dampen your enthusiasm. You always seem to be able to hear the people who are yelling the bad things about you.”

Only 3,452 fans were on hand. They saw Tim Raines and Mitch Webster hit home runs for the Expos. Two errors contributed to two other Montreal runs.

Pittsburgh 7, Houston 1--R.J. Reynolds continued his hot hitting for the Pirates as they beat the Astros for only their second win in the last 24 road games.

Reynolds went 3 for 5 and scored a run to help Lee Tunnell improve his record to 3-9. Reynolds, who went to Pittsburgh in the Bill Madlock deal, is 9 for 21 as a Pirate.

Tunnell gave up five hits in seven innings, and former Angel Pat Clements pitched two shutout innings as the finisher.