National League Roundup : Clark, Worrell Lead Cards Again

The St. Louis Cardinals have managed to overcome a series of injuries to post the best record in baseball.

While other teams have blamed injuries for their troubles, the Cardinals have lost their two best pitchers, John Tudor and Danny Cox, for long periods and most of their other regulars for short periods.

There are two injuries they probably could not overcome. Whitey Herzog’s club just couldn’t get over the loss of either slugger Jack Clark or bullpen ace Todd Worrell.

Clark emerged from a brief slump to hit two home runs Sunday at San Diego, the last in the 10th inning to give the Cardinals a 5-4 victory over the stubborn Padres. Worrell came on to pick up his 20th save by striking out the side in the bottom of the 10th.

The two home runs enabled Clark to reach an all-time high with 28 this season. He had 27 for San Francisco in 1982. With 3 RBIs Clark has 89 to lead the majors. His career best is 103, also in 1982.

A discontented player with the Giants, Clark was traded to the Cardinals shortly before the start of the 1985 season. The Giants obtained four players. Only one, shortstop Jose Uribe, is still with San Francisco.

The Cardinals worry about an injury to their slugger because he went out of action in each of his previous seasons. In 1985 he was out three weeks late in the season, but the Cardinals managed to win the pennant.

Last season he tore up his right hand after 65 games and didn’t play another game, but he was having a horrible season and the Cardinals were out of the race.

Clark has come back in this, his 12th major league season to have his best year. He supplies the power on a team that has everything else.

But he went into a mild tailspin as the Cardinals opened a tour of the West in San Diego. When he came up in the sixth, he had gone 1 for 12 in the series and had struck out eight times. He came out of the slump with a bang, hitting a two-run homer to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead.

When Ricky Horton and the bullpen failed to hold it, it was up to Clark to come through again. His home run off Goose Gossage in the 10th inning was his 14th game-winning RBI.

“I didn’t like the way things were going,” Clark said. “It was the worst series I’ve had all season. I just wanted us to get going where we left off before the All-Star Game. It was time for me to deliver.”

Worrell, last year’s top rookie and top reliever, started poorly this season, but, except for a home run he yielded to Benito Santiago to lose a game Thursday night, he has been brilliant the last six weeks.

Along with Willie McGee, who has driven in 71 runs, Clark and Worrell are the main reasons the Cardinals lead the East by seven games.

Philadelphia 4, Houston 1--A decade ago or so, a baseball expert, only partly in jest, predicted that Nolan Ryan’s arm would fall off someday soon.

The belief was that no arm was meant to throw as many sizzling fastballs as Ryan had already thrown in his career.

But when Ryan, now 40, finally retires, it probably won’t be because of his arm. More likely it will be one of the many other injuries he has suffered in his notable career.

While Bruce Ruffin was holding the light-hitting Astros to five hits at Houston, Ryan was forced to depart with another injury after just 2 innings.

Ryan, who injured an ankle stepping in a hole at his ranch during the All-Star break, strained a muscle in his right hip and had to leave the game. He had already given up a run and his record fell to 4-11.

The Astros managed to win one of the four games with the Phillies, although they scored only six runs in the series.

Montreal 2, Atlanta 1--If anyone in the East is capable of challenging the Cardinals, it apparently is the Expos. In this game at Montreal they extended their winning streak to seven games and did it without any help from their usual game-breaker, Tim Raines.

Herm Winningham singled home Hubie Brooks from second base with two out in the 11th to give the red-hot Expos a sweep of the four-game series with the Braves.

Andy McGaffigan won in relief, but it marked the return to form of Neal Heaton. Heaton, a 10-game winner, had been rested for 10 days after two horrible performances. He responded by giving up just one run and four hits in eight innings.

New York 6, Cincinnati 5--A rain delay of nearly one hour in the 11th inning at New York merely prolonged the agony for the Reds.

After blowing 3-1 and 5-2 leads, the Reds were faced with two Mets on and one out in the 11th when a downpour stopped play. When play was resumed, Darryl Strawberry walked to fill the bases and Kevin McReynolds singled to give the Mets a split of the four-game series.

San Francisco 4, Chicago 3--Mike Aldrete led off the bottom of the eighth at San Francisco with a home run to put the Giants into second place in the West, three games behind the slumping Reds.

Aldrete, since replacing injured Candy Maldonado, has hit .383 in 13 games.