National League Roundup : Pirates Go In for Nostalgia and Win a Game

Let the celebration begin. The Pittsburgh Pirates are 100 years old. In recent seasons, the Pirates have played as though some of them individually were that old.

Furthermore, they lost their first two games this season.

Yet, 52,119 faithful followers showed up Friday night at Three Rivers Stadium and were rewarded with a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Jim Morrison, who went 4 for 4, including two home runs, walked in the bottom of the ninth and scored the winning run on Sid Bream’s two-out double.

To mark the occasion, club officials dressed in tuxedos, and replicas of the team’s centennial flag were distributed. There will be 10 more “nostalgia nights,” and players from the Pirates’ five World Series champonship teams will be honored.

“You have a centennial season once, and we want to do it right,” club Vice President Steve Greenberg said.

The fans gave a standing ovation to catcher Tony Pena, a Pirate favorite recently traded to the Cardinals. Pena was hit by a pitch by Don Robinson in the top of the ninth and suffered a broken left thumb.

Robinson was the winner, though he gave up a two-run double to Curt Ford that tied the game.

Vince Coleman stole two bases for the Cardinals, giving him six in the last two games.

The Pirates finished last in the National League East the last three seasons. In 1985, for the only time in their history, they lost more than 100 games. Last season, they wound up 44 games behind the New York Mets.

New York 6, Atlanta 3--The press calls him the angry young Met; his teammates call him MVP material, and opposing pitchers are calling him other names.

But Darryl Strawberry is playing no favorites. In this game at New York, he hit his third home run, giving him one in each Met game so far this season.

It was a three-run blast in the fourth inning and tied the score. In the seventh, Len Dykstra broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run home run.

Dykstra’s homer gave Sid Fernandez the victory in his first start. He gave up 4 hits and struck out 8 in 7 innings. Doug Sisk pitched two scoreless innings for the save.

New York’s Kevin McReynolds hit his second home run in two days.

Cincinnati 6, San Diego 3--Barry Larkin drove in one run and scored another on Eric Davis’ single in the fifth inning at Cincinnati. It was the third win in a row for the Reds, who have come from behind in all of them.

The Padres jumped in front, 2-0, in the first inning, but Dave Parker hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning to tie the score.

The Padres are 0-4, and Dave Dravecky has two of the losses in relief.

Chicago 4, Philadelphia 3--Andre Dawson drove in a run, stole two bases and threw out a runner at second base to put a damper on the Phillies’ home opener.

Jim Sundberg, the Cubs’ newly acquired catcher, had four hits, including his first National League home run.

Mike Schmidt hit the 496th home run of his career, but the winless Phillies lost their third in a row.

Houston 6, Montreal 1--The Expos traded bullpen star Jeff Reardon for Neal Heaton, but the 27-year-old left-hander’s National League debut was unimpressive.

In this game at Houston, Heaton yielded 6 runs and 7 hits in 5 innings. Four of the runs for the unbeaten Astros (4-0) came in the first inning, two on Kevin Bass’ home run.

Danny Darwin allowed 5 hits and the Expos’ only run in 7 innings. Charlie Kerfeld took over and gave up one more hit to the Expos, who are 0-3.

Montreal committed four errors. The Astros stole five bases.