National League Roundup : Parker Answers Pirate Fans and Reds Win, 5-2

For three days, Dave Parker of the Cincinnati Reds was booed, jeered and taunted by the fans at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium.

Sunday, the former Pirate responded.

Parker hit a bases-empty home run in the sixth inning to break a 2-2 tie and lead the Reds to a 5-2 victory.

The win gave Cincinnati, which maintained its one-game lead in the National League West, a sweep of the three-game series and extended Pittsburgh’s losing streak to six. The Pirates, who are last in the East, swept a three-game series at Cincinnati last week.

Parker’s home run, his 12th, came off Doug Drabek and carried deep into the right-field stands. After slowly circling the bases, Parker, the NL’s Most Valuable Player with Pittsburgh in 1978, tipped his batting helmet.

“I wanted to savor it,” Parker told the Associated Press. “The fans got their licks in for a couple of days and that was mine. I wasn’t trying to show up the Pirates, or the pitcher, I just wanted to enjoy my moment in the sunlight, so to speak.”

Kal Daniels followed Parker’s homer with a single and scored on Nick Esasky’s double to right. Dave Concepcion greeted reliever Don Robinson with a single to score Esasky. It was Concepcion’s 10th hit in 20 at-bats.

Former Dodger Ted Power (4-2) improved his career record against the Pirates to 5-0. He allowed seven hits in eight innings. John Franco pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his ninth save.

Andy Van Slyke had three hits for the Pirates. He doubled and scored in the first and drove in a run with a single in the fifth.

The Reds’ Eric Davis, who set a league record Saturday night by hitting his third grand slam of the month, went 0 for 4.

San Francisco 8, Montreal 0--Kelly Downs pitched a five-hitter for his second shutout and Bob Brenly had four hits as the Giants routed the Expos at San Francisco to end their five-game losing streak.

Downs (4-2) struck out seven and walked one.

Brenly was 4 for 5 with 2 runs batted in and Jeffrey Leonard was 3 for 4 with a home run, his 12th. Leonard, the league’s leading hitter, raised his average to .364. Will Clark and Candy Maldonado each added two hits for the Giants, who had 17 in all.

Things got so bad for the Expos that third baseman Tim Wallach made his pitching debut in the eighth. Wallach allowed one hit, a single to Brenly.

The Giants led, 1-0, before breaking the game open with four runs in the fifth, when Rob Thompson hit a two-run homer.

Expo Bob Sebra (3-5) gave up 5 runs and 10 hits in 4 innings.

Atlanta 2, Chicago 1--Gerald Perry doesn’t hit for a high average, but he does hit in the clutch.

He proved that again by singling off Ed Lynch (1-5) with two out in the 10th inning to drive in Ken Oberkfell, who had doubled, with the winning run at Atlanta.

Perry was hitting .229 going into the game, but Manager Chuck Tanner likes him at the plate when the game is at stake.

“I told ‘em (in the dugout) he’ll knock this run in,” Tanner said. “ . . . He just does that.”

Perry’s hit broke up a pitcher’s battle between Atlanta’s Doyle Alexander and the Cubs’ Scott Sanderson. Alexander had a no-hitter for 5 innings before Sanderson singled to break it up.

Glenn Hubbard gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in the seventh with a two-out home run. But Chicago tied in in the eighth on singles by Keith Moreland, Shawon Dunston and Gary Matthews.

Gene Garber (7-3) pitched out of trouble in the 10th and got the win.

Houston 8, St. Louis 7--The Astros scored four runs with two out in the sixth inning and held off the Cardinals at St. Louis.

One run scored on a throwing error by losing pitcher Greg Mathews and another on Billy Hatcher’s RBI double. Phil Garner capped the rally with a two-run double that gave Houston a 7-2 lead.

Ozzie Smith doubled in two runs in the eighth to give him a career-high four runs batted in and cut the Houston lead to 8-7, but the Cardinals lost their third straight.

Dave Smith, the last of six Houston pitchers, retired the final six batters for his eighth save.

San Diego 1, New York 0--Ed Whitson and Goose Gossage combined on a four-hit shutout as the Padres broke a seven-game losing streak at San Diego.

Whitson (5-6), who has nearly half of the Padres’ 12 victories, allowed four hits in 7 innings before he was replaced by Gossage, who got his second save.

The only run came in the fifth when Garry Templeton singled home John Kruk. Kruk led off with a single off rookie John Mitchell (0-1) and took second on Shane Mack’s single.

The Mets got only one runner to third base. Lee Mazzilli tripled with two out in the first, but Whitson got former Padre Kevin McReynolds to ground out.