National League Roundup : Pirates Get Mets Back in Their Sights Again

As they say in tennis, the ball is now in Pittsburgh’s court. After sweeping a four-game series at Montreal, the surprising Pirates are in position to prevent a runaway by the New York Mets in the National League East.

Last week, the Mets led by 7 1/2 games, and it appeared the race might be over. But the Mets, after losing three of four games to the Chicago Cubs, have only a 4 1/2-game lead going into Pittsburgh for a three-game series starting tonight.

Sid Bream hit a sacrifice fly, his third in three games, and Mike LaValliere hit a two-run double in the 10th inning Sunday to give the surging Pirates a 3-0 victory over the Expos.

The rally ended one of the best pitching battles of the season. Pascual Perez of the Expos, in only his second start after coming off the disabled list, and Doug Drabek each pitched eight innings. Perez gave up six hits. After breaking a finger May 7, Perez was out until last Wednesday. In his two starts he has pitched 16 scoreless innings.

In this one, Drabek was even sharper. He gave up only two hits and struck out six.

It took an error to end the dominance of the pitchers. Jose Lind opened the 10th with a grounder to shortstop and went all the way to second base when Luis Rivera threw wild past first. An infield out moved Lind to third. Two walks loaded the bases before Bream broke the deadlock.

“If the Mets still don’t believe in us, that’s good,” said Bream, the ex-Dodger who had the game-winning RBI twice at Montreal. “We don’t have to worry about what people expect us to do.

“If we can beat (Dwight) Gooden in the opener, we will throw a scare into them.”

Chicago 6, New York 3--The weather cooled off in Chicago, but the Cubs stayed hot. It was 103 degrees at game time Saturday in Wrigley Field, but it dropped 42 degrees in 24 hours, and a 20-m.p.h. wind was blowing in from left field.

The wind direction was one reason that Manager Don Zimmer ordered Vance Law to try a bases-loaded, sixth-inning squeeze play with one out and the Cubs trailing, 1-0. Law bunted perfectly for a hit, triggering a six-run rally.

“The way the wind was blowing, I wanted one run,” Zimmer said. “So we got lucky and scored six.”

Ron Darling (8-5) of the Mets, a doubtful starter after hurting his right thumb while trying to keep teammate Bob Ojeda out of a fight in Saturday’s game, said the thumb didn’t bother him. He extended his shutout string to 15 innings before the roof fell in in the sixth.

Damon Berryhill, Dave Martinez and Shawon Dunston followed with singles as the runs kept on coming.

Rookie Jeff Pico held the slumping Mets to six hits and two earned runs.

Houston 6, San Francisco 0--Bill Doran splintered his bat against the dugout wall in frustration Saturday as the Astros lost their second in a row to the Giants, but after driving in three runs in the series’ final game at Houston, he was in a much better mood.

“I just don’t like to lose,” Doran said. “This was another day. Mike (LaCoss) was wild, and we took advantage of it.”

Jim Deshaies (5-5) and Larry Andersen combined on a seven-hitter for Houston.

Philadelphia 7, St. Louis 5--Phil Bradley’s third single drove in the winning run in the top of the 10th at St. Louis to give the win to Steve Bedrosian, who had yielded the tying run in the ninth.

It was a typical Cardinal run that sent the game into extra innings. With two outs, Vince Coleman walked, stole second and third, then scored when Ozzie Smith beat out a bunt to third.

San Diego 2, Atlanta 1--Shortstop Dickie Thon drove in one run and scored the other at Atlanta to help the Padres end a three-game losing streak.

Andy Hawkins (7-6), who grew up in Texas, thrived on the 96-degree weather, holding the Braves to 5 hits in 7 innings.