National League Roundup : Reds, Leyland Rough Up Pirates

After Eddie Milner came through with the key hit in a five-run seventh inning Sunday at Pittsburgh that gave the Cincinnati Reds a 7-4 victory and a three-game sweep of the series, there was a difference of opinion on the slumping Pirates.

While Pete Rose and the Reds praised the young team for its hustle throughout the series, the Pirates’ play sent Manager Jim Leyland into a 15-minute obscenity-laced tirade in a closed clubhouse.

The revamped Pirates, who played so well early in the season, have fallen to 15-22 and Leyland is beginning to run out of patience with his young club.

“That slogan (The Pirates Play Hardball) is getting to be a bunch of bullcrap,” Leyland told United Press International. “As a matter of fact, I’m tired of it myself.

“The bottom line is we lost three games this weekend. And that’s not good enough. We performed hard for the fans, but we didn’t produce.”

Johnny Ray, the league’s leading hitter most of the season, was the first to emerge from the locker room. He said it was about Leyland’s 34th outburst this season.

After Leyland’s mood subsided, he said the Pirates were bringing up Barry Bonds, the talented son of former star Bobby Bonds, from Hawaii of the Coast League.

The Pirates won five of their first seven games this season and, after 20 games, were exactly .500. They have been going steadily downhill ever since.

While the Pirates are heading for the cellar in the East, where most people thought they would finish, the Reds are heading up in the West, which also was expected.

“We’ve beaten them five out of six but that’s just it, we beat them, they didn’t beat themselves,” Rose said. “They played hard and they’re pesky.”

The Reds, although they are still seven games below .500, have won four in a row and are starting to hit.

The Pirates are keeping John Denny in the league. The five-run rally gave Denny his second win over the Pirates in nine days and improved his record to 3-5. In the last two seasons, the veteran right-hander is 6-1 against the Pirates. Against the rest of the league, he is 8-18.

San Francisco 11, Montreal 3--The dream season for Mike LaCoss just keeps getting better and better. In this game at San Francisco, the 6-4 right-hander from Glendale, didn’t just pitch well, he was the top hitter, too.

LaCoss, in improving his record to 5-1, went 4 for 4 and drove in three runs, all career firsts. His bunt single drove in the first run in a five-run second inning, so he was credited with the game-winning RBI.

He also pitched well once again, giving the slugging Expos only four hits in eight innings.

It just couldn’t be better for LaCoss, who was expecting to be back in the minors until Giant Manager Roger Craig invited him to training camp on a trial basis. He has been Craig’s most consistent starter. Not bad for a pitcher who had only a 23-26 record in the previous five seasons.

“I’ve never had a day like this at the plate, but I’m much more interested in my pitching,” LaCoss said. “I just wasn’t throwing well in the first inning. But, I settled down and regained my composure.

Former Dodger Candy Maldonado and Jose Uribe shared hitting honors with LaCoss. Maldonado drove in three runs with two doubles and Uribe drove in three with two singles.

Houston 3, Chicago 1--All season long it seemed as if Houston catcher Mark Bailey was fouling off every good pitch he was thrown. That’s why, going into this game at Chicago, he was hitting only .175.

But, with one out in the 11th and a runner on second, the Cubs gave an intentional walk to Craig Reynolds to get to Bailey. Lee Smith gave Bailey a fastball down the middle and Bailey hit it into right-center to score two runs.

Another impressive performance by Mike Scott of the Astros failed to earn the victory. Scott struck out 10 and has 44 strikeouts in the last 36 innings but has won only once in his last five starts.

New York 4, San Diego 2--Darryl Strawberry was 3 for 3 at the plate at San Diego, but he was only 2 for 4 in stealing bases.

In the sixth and eighth innings, Strawberry was out trying to steal second. He led off the 11th with a single off Craig Lefferts, his first hit in 33 at-bats against a left-hander. He stole second and third and scored the winning run on a wild pitch. Earlier he singled in the first two Mets’ runs.

Jesse Orosco, who had a prominent role in each of the three games in the weekend series, pitched two scoreless innings to win. Friday night he gave up a three-run homer to Tony Gwynn and lost. Saturday night, he pitched a scoreless inning to earn his seventh save.

Atlanta 6, St. Louis 2--Billy Sample knows he won’t play often with the Braves, so he has to make the most of his chances. In this game at St. Louis, he hit the first pitch of the game for a home run and the Braves romped in a game shortened to 5 1/2 innings because of rain.

“The way things are going for us, our only chance was for it to rain about an hour earlier,” Manager Whitey Herzog of the Cardinals said.