National League Roundup : Herzog Gets Another Rally Out of Cardinals, Who Beat Astros, 4-3

Either Don Zimmer of the Chicago Cubs or Roger Craig of the San Francisco Giants is likely to win manager-of-the-year honors in the National League this season.

Both have done outstanding jobs. But it is hard to believe that either of them is doing any better than Manager Whitey Herzog of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Although he has had to work magic with a team that lost two of its starting pitchers before the season started and another three weeks ago, Herzog has the Cardinals, with a makeshift pitching staff, in the middle of a pennant race.

The Cardinals spotted the Houston Astros a 3-0 lead in the sixth inning Sunday at St. Louis and rallied to win, 4-3, moving to within 1 1/2 games of first place in the National League East.

A sacrifice fly by Milt Thompson in the eighth tied the game. In the ninth with the bases loaded on singles by Terry Pendleton and Denny Walling and an intentional walk to Jose Oquendo with nobody out, Leon Durham, batting only .083, hit a sacrifice fly to win it.

Danny Cox and Greg Mathews were injured in spring training and the Cardinals have had to make do without both all season. But Scott Terry, an eight-game winner who has an injured shoulder, is expected back for the pennant drive.

Herzog has had to fill around his two good pitchers, Joe Magrane and Jose DeLeon, but his club is a solid contender.

His key player, Pedro Guerrero, who was injured much of the time in his last three years with the Dodgers, has missed only one game this season. He has driven in 94 runs and is a candidate for most valuable player.

Sunday, Herzog survived a terrible outing by his best pitcher--Magrane. Magrane, who had given up only 17 hits in his previous four games, gave up 13 in six innings and was lucky to give up only three runs.

Meanwhile, Mark Portugal had a one-hitter for five innings, but a triple by Vince Coleman and a double by Willie McGee led to two runs in the sixth to start the comeback.

“We haven’t moved in a week,” Pendleton said. “We wanted to be in front, but we’re still 1 1/2 behind.”

The Astros have lost eight of their last 11 games and have fallen six games behind the Giants in the West.

San Francisco 4, New York 0--The Mets have one thing to be thankful to for--they don’t have to return to Candlestick Park in the regular season. The way they’re playing they might not return to the park until next season.

By holding the light-hitting Mets to three runs, the Giants swept the three-game series and raced out to a six-game lead in the West. The Mets, although they were 3-6 on the trip (winning all three against the hapless Dodgers), are in fourth place, only 3 1/2 games behind the slumping Cubs.

Once again Matt Williams led the Giants, who might have the only runaway in the majors. He hit a two-run home run to give him 11 home runs and 27 runs batted in the last 23 games.

Don Robinson (12-9), a stalwart performer in the face of all the Giants’ pitching problems, gave up seven hits for his first shutout.

“It’s amazing just to think what Matt might do next year with 600 at-bats,” Giant Manager Roger Craig said. “He’s hot.”

It was the 16th shutout for the Giants, who finished the season with a 9-3 record against the Mets.

Atlanta 8, Chicago 5--The Cubs’ pitching continues to go sour. Mike Bielecki, who had won six in a row, lasted only 3 1/3 innings at Atlanta and fell to 14-6.

Jeff Blauser led the Braves’ 13-hit attack, getting three singles and driving in three runs. In six games in the last two weeks against the Cubs, Blauser has gone 9 for 23, hit a couple of home runs and driven in six runs.

“The only thing I can tell you about the guy,” Manager Don Zimmer of the Cubs said, “is that they’ve got a guy who’s killing us. He’s the third baseman. Obviously, we don’t know how to pitch to him.”

San Diego 9, Philadelphia 5--It may be all this late-season spurt will do for the Padres is put them second in the West, but they are on a roll.

Rookie pitcher Andy Benes hit a two-run home run, lasted into the sixth inning and improved his record to 3-2 as the Padres won for the ninth time in the last 11 games.

Benito Santiago, with the Padres nursing a small lead, hit a grand slam in the eighth to make it a romp.

The Padres are seven games behind the Giants, but only one behind Houston.

Pittsburgh 3, Cincinnati 1--The Pirates held a pregame tribute at Pittsburgh for recently retired relief pitcher Kent Tekulve, who made more relief appearances than any pitcher in major league history.

After that they played one of their better games, with Andy Van Slyke hitting a home run in the eighth inning to win it.

Bill Landrum, a successor to Tekulve as bullpen ace, pitched a scoreless ninth to get his 21st save and end the Reds’ three-game winning streak.