National League Roundup : Gooden Wins, Denies Addiction

Dwight Gooden pitched seven innings of three-hit ball Thursday as the New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-2, shortly after he had denied in two published interviews that he’d ever been addicted to cocaine.

“I was never hooked,” he said. “I was never a junkie. I always used it in the off-season . . . never during the season.” He admitted, however, that his use of the drug had increased from once a month to once a week last winter.

“I know some people think I was a junkie, but I never had a problem with it,” he said. “I did coke the way someone might have a drink with dinner. Go to a party or a club and it’d be there. But once it was gone, I never craved more. I let it go.”

Gooden’s victory Thursday in New York improved his record to 4-1. He allowed 1 unearned run, struck out 5 and walked 5. Doug Sisk pitched the eighth inning, yielding a run, and Randy Myers pitched the ninth.

Leon Durham had three of the four Chicago hits.

Mookie Wilson had a single and a triple to drive in two runs, and Kevin McReynolds and Rafael Santana each had two RBIs on two singles apiece.

Steve Trout (4-2), who had won his previous four starts, was the loser. He allowed 5 runs and 9 hits in 3 innings.

Gooden failed to impress Cub Manager Gene Michael, however.

“I don’t want to heap any more praise on Gooden because I don’t think he’s that good,” Michael said. “I’m just tired of hearing about Gooden. I’m just tired of hearing about Gooden and his problems.”

The Mets, meanwhile, said they would not have drafted the 22-year-old right-hander had they known of his cocaine and marijuana use in high school.

A team spokesman said the club only learned of Gooden’s early use of drugs in interviews that appeared in Thursday’s Newsday and New York Post.

In those interviews, Gooden said he first used cocaine during his senior year at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Fla., and also had used marijuana since high school.

Gooden said he was not concerned about submitting to tests because he thought the cocaine in his system would not show up. He said he had used cocaine two days before being arrested by Tampa police in a traffic dispute last December, and drug tests at that time were negative.

“I thought I’d be OK in spring training, too,” he said. “I never thought I would get caught.”

Gooden said he used cocaine two days before the Mets tested him and he was shocked when the results came back positive. As a result of that test, Gooden was ordered to enter a drug rehabilitation program, and he spent 28 days in a New York drug and alcohol treatment center.

“I learned a lot in that place,” he said. “I cried a lot there. I cried a lot before I went to bed at night.

“It was a scary place. There were guys there on heroin, crack, PCP, angel dust, acid, alcohol . . . just about everything you could think of.”

Peer pressure, Gooden said, had caused him to become involved with drugs.

“Why did I do it?,” he asked. “Because I was stupid. My friends said, ‘Here, try it,’ and I didn’t have the strength to say no. No one made me do it. I did it because I wanted to. Stupid.”

Joe McIlvaine, the Mets’ vice president for baseball operations, said: “If I knew he was involved in cocaine in high school, then we probably would not have taken him.

“Marijuana use certainly would have been a factor in our decision. I don’t want to say that would have caused us not to take him. But cocaine use . . . no, we would not have.”

San Diego 4, Houston 1--A bloop single by Carmelo Martinez that Astro second baseman Bill Doran lost in the sun led to two runs in a four-run sixth inning as the Padres won at San Diego.

Martinez’s pop-up would have been the third out in the inning and would have sent the game into the seventh with the score tied, 1-1. All four runs were scored after Houston starter Mike Scott (9-4) retired the first two batters.

Montreal 7, Pittsburgh 2--Tim Raines hit a two-run homer, and Mitch Webster went 4 for 5 with a triple, a double and three runs batted in as the Expos overcame the Pirates at Pittsburgh.

Dennis Martinez (2-0) earned the victory by limiting the Pirates to 2 runs and 6 hits in 5 innings before leaving with a torn fingernail on his pitching hand. Andy McGaffigan pitched hitless ball for the final 3 innings for his seventh save.

St. Louis 3, Philadelphia 0--Greg Mathews pitched a three-hitter for his first major league shutout, and Jack Clark singled in the go-ahead run as the Cardinals defeated the Phillies at St. Louis.

Mathews, 25, evened his record at 5-5 with his second career complete game. He struck out 5 and walked 5. Bruce Ruffin (4-6) took the loss.

San Francisco 7, Cincinnati 6--Pinch-hitter Joel Youngblood doubled home the tying run, and Will Clark drove in Chris Brown from third base with the winning run as the Giants came from behind in the bottom of the ninth at San Francisco.