National League Roundup : Clark, Maldonado Power Giants to 9-6 Victory

San Francisco pulled into a virtual second-place tie in the National League West with the Houston Astros at Candlestick Park Friday night when Will Clark and Candy Maldonado hit home runs on consecutive pitches in the second inning to lead the Giants to a 9-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

The result left the Astros and the Giants 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers.

Rick Reuschel (9-3) won his fourth straight start, allowing four hits in six innings. He walked none and struck out one.

Don Robinson, the fourth San Francisco pitcher, worked the ninth for his fourth save. Mario Soto (3-6), who shut out the Giants early this season, gave up seven runs in two innings.

Clark’s homer was his 15th and Maldonado’s his seventh.

The Giants scored three runs in the first inning. Robby Thompson singled with one out, and Clark walked. With two out, Thompson scored from second on Mike Aldrete’s infield single, and newly acquired Ernest Riles hit a two-run double.

Soto retired two batters in the second before Brett Butler singled and Thompson walked. Clark homered to right field and Maldonado to left to give the Giants a 7-0 lead.

Maldonado got his second RBI of the game and made it 9-0 with a single in the sixth.

The Reds scored six times in the eighth, their biggest inning of the season. Eric Davis and Barry Larkin had two-run singles. Paul O’Neill and Bo Diaz had RBI singles.

Philadelphia 12, Pittsburgh 10--Von Hayes’ two-run double highlighted a six-run eighth inning as the Phillies twice rallied from five-run deficits at Pittsburgh.

“It was a wild game,” Hayes said. “The way we’ve been playing, not too many of them come easy. If there’s one team experienced in trying to come back after falling behind, it’s got to be us.

“After we fell behind, 5-0, in the first, a lot of guys took the attutude that we still had eight innings, let’s hack away.”

In the eighth, pinch-hitter Darren Daulton singled, and Greg Gross was hit by a pitch before Juan Samuel singled to score Thompson with the tying run and extend his hitting streak to 15 games. Hayes followed with a double to left-center.

Mike Schmidt, batting for the second time in the inning, capped the rally with a sacrifice fly. Schmidt is batting .382 this month.

Greg Harris (3-2), the fifth of seven Philadelphia pitchers, pitched one scoreless inning. Danny Clay allowed Rafael Belliard’s RBI single before getting the final two outs. Eight of the 10 runners that Clay has inherited this season have scored.

Chicago 7, St. Louis 3--Rookie Mark Grace, a confessed Cardinal fan, had his first four-hit game to lead a 19-hit attack by the Cubs at St. Louis.

“I’ve been a Cardinal fan all my life,” said Grace, after going 4 for 5 and knocking in three runs. “It’s funny. I grew up a Cardinal fan and have a soft spot for them. It broke my heart when they didn’t win the World Series last year.”

Cris Carpenter (2-1) lost for the first time in his professional baseball career, covering seven games this season with Louisville of the American Assn. and six starts with the Cardinals. The 19 hits, 18 of them singles, equaled the Cubs’ high for the season. Rafael Palmeiro and Shawon Dunston each had three.

Rookie Jeff Pico (2-1), making his third major league start, allowed nine hits, struck out two and walked four before giving way to Pat Perry in the ninth with none out and runners on first and third.

The attendance was 49,306, the Cardinals’ second-largest crowd of the season and their ninth-largest in history.

Montreal 4, New York 2--The Expos played their first game with the Olympic Stadium roof retracted since it was installed at the beginning of the 1987 season, and it was like a breath of fresh air.

The Expos broke a 22-inning scoreless string with a four-run fifth inning on their way to the victory over the leaders of the National League East.

Hubie Brooks hit a three-run homer, and Tim Raines had three doubles to back a combined seven-hitter by Dennis Martinez and Jeff Parrett.

Met starter Ron Darling (6-4) yielded 9 hits in 4 innings. Darling had not pitched fewer than 7 innings in his previous 12 starts.

New York’s Howard Johnson led of the sixth with his 10th homer, a blast over the center-field fence.

Atlanta 10, Houston 3--Andres Thomas scored from second base on an error by third baseman Denny Walling with none out in the 13th inning, igniting a seven-run outburst by the Braves at Houston. All the runs were unearned.

Thomas greeted reliever Dave Smith (2-3) with a single to open the 13th and took second on Gerald Perry’s single. Dale Murphy hit a one-hopper to Walling, and the ball skipped off his glove into left as Thomas scored to break a 3-3 tie. Gary Roenicke walked, and two outs later, Ron Gant and pinch-hitter Paul Runge each stroked a two-run single.

Thomas followed with an RBI single, chasing Smith, who knocked over ice buckets in the dugout on his way top the shower. Jeff Heathcock relieved and yielded a run-scoring single to Perry for the final score.

Murphy, battling a season-long slump, was 1 for 7 using his new, longer, heavier bat.

“It’s a little better,” Murphy said. “It didn’t take too much to get a little bit better, the way I was going.”

Juan Eichelberger threw one inning, pitching out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the 12th, to win his first decision of the season. The right-hander earned his previous major league victory on July 31, 1983 with Cleveland.