National League Roundup : Tudor and Cardinals Make Their Move on Gooden and Mets, 1-0, in 10

All those people who have already voted the Cy Young Award to the talented Dwight Gooden may want their ballots back.

There is a late-blooming candidate--John Tudor of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The two top contenders engaged in a tremendous battle Wednesday night before 52,616 fans at Shea Stadium in New York.

Although Gooden went nine scoreless innings for the second game in a row, he also had nothing to show for it for the second game in a row, except a lower earned-run average.

Jesse Orosco replaced Gooden in the 10th and Cesar Cedeno greeted him with a home run to give Tudor and the Cardinals a 1-0 victory and put them back into a tie with the New York Mets for first place in the East.

Tudor held the Mets to three singles, pitched his third consecutive shutout, ninth shutout of the season and won for the 17th time in his last 18 decisions. Although Gooden has a 20-4 record to Tudor’s 18-8, nobody has pitched as well as Tudor since June 1.

Last Friday night at Los Angeles, Gooden went up against Fernando Valenzuela and pitched nine innings, giving up five hits, walking none and striking out 10. The Mets won in the 13th.

This time, Gooden gave up five hits, walked three and struck out seven. It took some fine fielding to prevent the Cardinals from scoring in the eighth when Gooden walked three batters and gave up a double.

The first two batters walked. Tudor bunted and first baseman Keith Hernandez made a great play to get a force at third. Ozzie Smith, the runner on second, was out trying to steal third and when Vince Coleman doubled into the right-field corner, Darrell Strawberry’s perfect throw forced Tudor, who was on first, to stop at third and the Mets wiggled out of the jam.

Cedeno, acquired Aug. 29 after Jack Clark, the Cardinals’ only power hitter, was injured, hit his third home run as a Cardinal on an 0-and-2 pitch.

In the bottom of the 10th Wally Backman beat out an infield hit, but Tudor retired the next three batters to extend his scoreless inning string to 28.

The Mets, who won the opener of the three-game series, 5-4, Tuesday night on Howard Johnson’s grand slam in the first inning, have failed to score in the last 18 innings.

“This is a Cinderella year for me,” Tudor, who opened the season 1-7, told the Associated Press. “It was frustrating early on. It wasn’t fun.

“I’d just as soon not face Gooden again. In my mind, he’s the best.”

Tudor, whose only loss since May 29 was a 3-0 defeat at Dodger Stadium July 20, lowered his earned-run average to 1.87, second best in the majors. Gooden leads with 1.68. Gooden extended his scoreless streak to 22 innings.

Cedeno is 10 for 23 since the Cardinals got him from Cincinnati. “I owe thanks to Pete Rose for sending me here,” Cedeno said. “I wasn’t playing over there. Now there’s new blood flowing in my veins.

“I came here expecting to be a part of the club. They really didn’t need much help. When Jack (Clark) gets back, any role they give me, I’ll welcome.”

Philadelphia 4, Montreal 0--Slugger Mike Schmidt and the Phillies continued their late season surge at Philadelphia. Schmidt hit his 28th home run of the season, his fifth in the last seven games and the Phillies reached .500 for the first time this season.

Kevin Gross (14-10) pitched a five-hitter to give the Phillies their 10th win in the last 12 games.

Schmidt, off to a terrible start, has 43 hits, 13 of them home runs, in the last 35 games and during that spell has batted .347.

Chicago 3, Pittsburgh 1--Hard-luck Jose DeLeon pitched another good game at Pittsburgh, but edged closer to a 20-defeat season.

DeLeon was all even, 1-1, going into the seventh but Leon Durham’s 18th home run sent DeLeon down to his 17th defeat against only two victories.

San Francisco 11-9, Houston 4-10--Kevin Bass hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning of the second game of the doubleheader at Houston and the Astros, despite giving up 20 runs, earned a split.

In the opener, Jim Gott went the distance for the Giants and hit a home run to spearhead a 14-hit attack.