National League Roundup : Strawberry Remembers; Soto Wants to Forget

Darryl Strawberry hits a long ball and has a long memory.

The talented young right fielder of the New York Mets hit two home runs off Mario Soto Sunday at Cincinnati, and the Mets breezed to an 7-2 victory, dealing the Reds their eighth consecutive defeat.

Strawberry had a two-run home run in the first and a solo smash in the third to get the Mets on the way to their 14th win in the last 15 games. When the Mets started the hot streak, Strawberry wasn’t contributing.

Now that he is, the Mets are already talking about a runaway in the East. Their 20-4 start is the best in their history, tops in the majors and good for a 5 1/2-game lead.

Strawberry, a former Crenshaw High School star, will not soon forget the first time he faced Soto. It was his major league debut three years ago. Strawberry was a raw 21-year-old, and Soto struck him out three times.

“When you face a guy like that, you never forget,” Strawberry told UPI. “I’ve hit him pretty well the last couple of years.

“The first one I hit pretty good. The second one I just got a little bit of it, but I got it up in the air.

“I look for certain pitches (from Soto) in certain situations. When I get ‘em, I know what to do with ‘em. When I saw that one in the first inning, my eyes lit up. It was a fastball, right down the middle.”

Ron Darling (2-0) got the win, although he walked six batters and gave up Player-Manager Pete Rose’s first hit of the season. The ailing Rose was 0 for 12 when he singled in the fifth to set up the Reds’ first run.

Rose said he has expected the law of averages to lift his team out of the slump.

“I’ve been saying that for a week,” Rose said. “But when you don’t swing the bats and you don’t pitch, how can the law of averages catch up with you?”

The struggling Reds have a 5-15 record, worst in the majors. They are 1-10 at home, having won only the opener. They have lost 12 of their last 13.

The Mets are flying high, but they will have to do it without second baseman Wally Backman for a while. Backman pulled a hamstring muscle while rounding third. He had just made his fourth hit and raised his average to .380.

Pittsburgh 5, San Diego 2--In his first three times at bat in San Diego, Jim Morrison had flied out and popped to the catcher twice. He made amends in his fourth.

Morrison hit his fourth home run of the season to open the ninth inning, break a 2-2 tie and help the Pirates win their fourth game in a row. The Pirates are 10-10. It is the first time since 1983 that the Pirates have been at .500 this late.

The home run came off Craig Lefferts and handed the Padres their third defeat in a row.

San Francisco 2-2, Chicago 1-1--Manager Roger Craig’s hustling young team swept a doubleheader at San Francisco to pull within 1 1/2 games of first place in the West.

In the opener, second-year third baseman Chris Brown hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, and the Giants beat Rick Sutcliffe (1-4), who gave up only four hits and struck out nine.

In the second game, rookie Will Clark singled home the winning run in the eighth inning, and rookie second baseman Rob Thompson threw out the potential tying run at the plate in the ninth.

With two out in the ninth of the nightcap, the Cubs had runners on first and second. Ryne Sandberg hit a grounder to deep short. Shortstop Jose Uribe tried for a force-out but threw wildly, and Thompson could only knock the ball down. Shawon Dunston, who had been on second base, tried to go all the way home, and Thompson nailed him.

The Giants (15-11) had excellent pitching in both games. In the opener, Mike LaCoss went the distance, giving up five hits, including Sandberg’s home run. In the second game, Roger Mason held the Cubs to four hits in eight innings and struck out seven. Jeff Robinson earned the save, although he gave up three hits in the ninth.

Montreal 7, Houston 6--Jeff Reardon is getting victories with a minimum of effort. In consecutive games at Montreal, Reardon has pitched one inning, retiring the side in order each time and earning the victory.

The Expos, who fell behind, 6-1, due in part to Terry Puhl’s grand slam in the third inning, caught up in the fifth. They won it in the ninth when first baseman Glenn Davis fumbled Al Newman’s grounder, allowing Andres Galarraga to score.

“A win for me is the same as a save,” Reardon (4-2) said. “They expect me to make saves, so I don’t care about wins.”

Philadelphia 5, Atlanta 1--Kevin Gross pitched a four-hitter at Philadelphia for his first complete game of the season, and it ended the Phillies’ three-game losing streak.

The Phillies also had only four hits but took advantage of Joe Johnson’s control problems to score four runs in the fourth. Three walks and two hits, the last a three-run double by Steve Jeltz, did the damage.

Gross, after striking out Dale Murphy with two runners on base in the sixth inning, lost his shutout in the seventh when Terry Harper hit his second home run.