National League Roundup : Cubs Surprise Cardinals With Power Display

If the game had been played at Wrigley Field with the wind blowing out, it wouldn’t be a surprise for the Chicago Cubs to hit six home runs in a game.

But the Cubs, who lead the National League East, did it Sunday in a park in which only 68 home runs were hit last season, spacious Busch Stadium in St. Louis, where they routed the Cardinals, 11-3.

In so doing, they made one of the Cardinal pitchers very angry. It wasn’t Scott Terry (4-5), who gave up five of the homers before departing in the fifth inning, but his successor, Frank DiPino.

DiPino threw a pitch close to Mark Grace, the first batter he faced. Grace charged the mound and players from both teams converged on the field. There was a brief melee, and the Cardinals, already plagued by injuries, and Cubs both lost key players.

Terry Pendleton, who homered to give the Cardinals an early lead, suffered a bruised elbow during the brawl and had to leave the game as did Grace, who suffered a wrenched right shoulder.

The loss of Pendleton merely added to the problems of Manager Whitey Herzog, who lost half his starting pitching staff for the season in spring training.

It was surprising to have light-hitting Shawon Dunston lead the Cubs in their assault. Dunston entered the game batting .187. He hit one homer in the second inning and another in the fifth when five batters faced Terry and three of them homered. Later Dunston tripled home two more runs. Ryne Sandberg also hit two homers for the Cubs, who hit only six all last season in Busch Stadium.

“I’d have been surprised if we hit six home runs in any park, not just here,” Cub Manager Don Zimmer said. “If somebody told me before the game we’d hit six homers and Scott Sanderson would go the distance, I’d have told them they were crazy.”

Of the incident that ignited the fight, Grace said, “He (DiPino) didn’t like me last year when we were teammates (on the Cubs). There’s people in this game you like and there’s people you don’t.”

New York 4, Pittsburgh 3--Everything the Mets did seemed to go wrong on the road, but they’re doing everything right at New York.

After Bob Kipper completely shackled them in relief from the second inning through the sixth, Manager Davey Johnson sent up seldom-used outfielder Mark Carreon in the seventh inning to pinch-hit. Carreon, who was two for 16, hit his second home run of the season and the Mets went on to win their fourth in a row.

Don Aase pitched two scoreless innings for his first National League victory. The Mets’ bullpen, the most effective in the league with a 1.72 earned-run average, held the Pirates scoreless the last four innings.

Cincinnati 5, San Diego 3--Jack Clark has not made the offensive contribution to the Padres that was expected. In this game at Cincinnati, he hurt them defensively.

Clark, batting only .225 with six home runs, made a wild throw home from first base with the bases loaded in the sixth inning to allow two runs to score and enable the Reds to break a tie and move into first place in the West.

The error enabled Danny Jackson to register his fourth victory in 12 decisions.

Jackson, who needed relief help in the seventh, yielded eight hits and all three runs. The left-hander, who won 23 games last year, was pitching with an infected big toe on his left foot.

Montreal 7, Philadelphia 4--The Expos are probably thinking that it can’t get any better at home. Otis Nixon drove in three runs and Dennis Martinez improved his record to 5-1 as the Expos completed the best trip in franchise history.

With the three-game sweep in Philadelphia that extended the Phillies’ losing streak to 11 games, the Expos finished the trip with a 9-3 record and return to Montreal just one game out of first place.

It was not one of Martinez’s better games, though. Before needing help in the eighth inning, he gave up 10 hits and all four runs.

Atlanta 6, San Francisco 3--Darrell Evans hit a three-run home run on a rainy day in Georgia to help the Braves win. Evans, 42, said he thought his 407th home run was meaningful because it pulled him even with former Dodger great Duke Snider for 21st on the all-time list.

The Braves still couldn’t stop Kevin Mitchell, but Evans’ homer offset the 19th of the season for the Giants’ slugger, who leads the majors. Mitchell, coming out of a mild slump, hit four in the three games in Atlanta.