National League Roundup : Fernandez Strikes Out 16, Loses

Until he made his first pitch in the ninth inning Friday night at Atlanta, New York Mets left-hander Sid Fernandez had pitched a masterpiece.

He had struck out 16 and given up only five hits. But the Braves’ Lonnie Smith, bidding to become the National League comeback player of the year, hit his 14th home run of the season in the bottom of the ninth, and Fernandez suddenly became a 3-2 loser.

Smith and Fernandez had faced one another three other times, and Fernandez, on his way to setting a strikeout record for Met left-handers, had struck out Smith three times.

Because of injuries to the pitching staff, Fernandez has become the Mets’ No. 1 pitcher, but his three-game winning streak ended, dropping his record to 7-3.

“I knew what was coming, another fastball,” Smith said of the home run pitch , “and I didn’t want to strike out a fourth time. I knew I hit it well enough, but I didn’t know it was going out.”

The 14 homers are more than Smith has hit in any season in a long career that has included three World Series. After battling a drug problem, he was almost out of baseball. The Braves, the worst team in the league last season, gave him one more chance.

Smith has responded by being the Braves’ offensive spark. When he went on the disabled list, the Braves went into a skid.

He was hitting .324, and the Braves were only four games out of first place when he was injured on May 20. When he returned, they were 12 1/2 back.

Although he doesn’t count among the leaders because he has too few at-bats, Smith is batting .340 and keeps on getting big hits.

Montreal 1, Cincinnati 0--Things can’t get much worse for the beat-up Reds. Tom Browning made only one mistake in the game at Cincinnati, but it beat the Reds.

Browning made a poor pitch to Damaso Garcia on an 0-and-2 pitch, and Garcia’s single set up the only run of the game, after a walk to Tim Wallach. Wallach went to third on a fly-out and scored when the Reds failed to execute a double play.

Bryn Smith (9-3) held the Reds to six hits in 8 1/3 innings, and Joe Hesketh made one pitch to get the last two outs as Joel Youngblood bounced into a double play.

San Diego 7, Chicago 4--Ed Whitson won his 12th game and drove in a run at San Diego as the Padres ended their string of seven straight losses to the Cubs.

Whitson had a 7-2 lead going into the ninth, but he faltered, and Mark Davis came to the rescue. Davis picked up his 23rd save in his 26th opportunity.

Philadelphia 4, Houston 2--An error by third baseman Ken Caminiti of the Astros set up a two-run seventh-inning rally by the Phillies at Philadelphia.

Jeff Parrett (6-3) pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief to earn the victory.

Pittsburgh 7, San Francisco 4--All-Star game starter Rick Reuschel struggled again, and the Pirates survived Kevin Mitchell’s 32nd homer to beat the Giants at San Francisco.

Reuschel (12-4) is winless in his last four starts since beating Houston June 21. In five innings, he gave up five runs and eight hits, while walking five--the most he has walked in 125 starts dating to April 8, 1986.

Mitchell leads the majors with 83 runs batted in and has five homers in his last six games.