National League Roundup : Stumbling Giants Trip Astros, 3-2

Jose Uribe singled in a run in the seventh inning Saturday at San Francisco to break a 2-2 tie and give the Giants a 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros.

The victory, only the Giants’ third in their last 16 games, did more to help their rivals, the Dodgers, in their bid to win the National League West.

About a month ago, when the Giants were only 2 1/2 games out of first place, their manager, Roger Craig, said the Dodgers wouldn’t win the West. He predicted that the Giants would.

The Astros, struggling to overtake the Dodgers, fell 5 games behind in the West. With only 20 games left, they trail by 7 games in the loss column. The Giants, incidentally, are 9 games back.

The Astros’ lack of hitting spoiled another fine performance by Bob Forsch, who was obtained from St. Louis just before the trading deadline. Forsch, a 38-year-old right-hander, went six innings, giving up just three hits and two runs, one of them unearned.

Forsch had won four in a row, including his debut with the Astros last Monday.

He left trailing, 2-1, but doubles by Rafael Ramirez and Gerald Young tied the score in the seventh.

In the bottom of the inning, Kevin Mitchell, who will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery Monday, had a one-out pinch single, and Donell Nixon ran for him. Nixon stole second and scored on Uribe’s grounder up the middle.

Rookie left-hander Trevor Wilson didn’t get the victory, but his second start for the Giants was impressive. He went 6 innings, giving up 2 runs and 8 hits.

He and Nixon, the Giants’ designated runner, drew Craig’s praise. “I like to have Donell’s speed on the bench when I need it,” he said. “Wilson showed me something. We taught him a cut fastball, and he picked it up real quick.”

St. Louis 9, Chicago 3--It is too late to do much good, but the Cardinals have started to hit and score some runs.

One reason, of course, is the presence of ex-Dodger Pedro Guerrero

But another reason is that Jose Oquendo and Terry Pendleton have been hitting.

Oquendo went 2 for 3 and drove in 3 runs, and Pendleton went 3 for 4, scoring 2 runs and driving in 2 more. The hitting made it easy for Scott Terry (8-3) to win his sixth consecutive start. He gave up 9 hits in 7 innings and is unbeaten as a starter.

New York 6, Montreal 0--Before they hand out the Cy Young Award, they’ll have to look carefully at David Cone’s season.

Cone (16-3), given a chance to start early in the season only because of an injury to Rick Aguilera, pitched his fourth shutout in this game at Montreal.

Cone struck out 10, walked 3 and gave up 7 hits in pitching the 21st shutout of the season for the Mets. He lowered his earned-run average to 2.21 and kept the Mets 9 games in front in the East with 22 games remaining.

Cone, 25, a right-hander, was in trouble only in the third inning when the Expos loaded the bases with one out. But Tim Wallach hit into a double play.

Rookie Gregg Jefferies started two rallies. He walked to start the two-run fourth, and hit a single and scored the third run in the fifth. He had to leave in the eighth because of back spasms.

Pittsburgh 5, Philadelphia 1--The acquisition of left-hander Dave LaPoint helped cause the rift between the owners and Pirate General Manager Syd Thrift.

The owners thought that Thrift was dealing for too many high-priced veterans.

LaPoint, for one, has been worth it. He pitched a six-hitter to improve to 4-0 since being obtained from the Chicago White Sox. LaPoint, who won his last three decisions for the White Sox and has a career-high 14 victories, pitched his first complete game since April 28.

Barry Bonds, who has driven in 12 runs in 13 games against the Phillies, climaxed a three-run third with a run-scoring double.

San Diego 6, Atlanta 2--Eric Show (13-11) pitched a three-hitter at San Diego and singled home a run. Roberto Alomar had a triple and two singles, and drove in two runs to lead the Padres.