National League Roundup : Strawberry Responds to Cajoling, but He Doesn’t Stir Mets, 7-3

Manager Davey Johnson has tried about everything in an attempt to shake up his New York Mets. Nothing seems to do any good.

In his latest move, after the Mets were swept in a three-game series at San Francisco, Johnson called a meeting. Not with the team, with Darryl Strawberry.

Johnson tried cajoling and finally anger in an effort to get his talented young right fielder to take charge of the Met pennant drive. Strawberry has been in a slump that has affected his defense and base-running, too.

Although Strawberry responded by going two for three and scoring a run Monday night when the Mets returned to New York, the team’s skid continued.

Rick Sutcliffe, who pitched poorly in his previous three starts, staggered through five innings to finally win his 14th as the Chicago Cubs won, 7-3.

Ryne Sandberg hit his 27th home run of the season and Les Lancaster pitched four shutout innings of relief as the Cubs remained 1 1/2 games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals.

With their fourth loss in a row, the Mets fell 4 1/2 games behind the Cubs with 26 games remaining.

David Cone (12-7) had won nine of his previous 10 decisions. He struck out 11 but gave up eight hits.

An angry Johnson was unable to understand why he can’t motivate his players.

“I thought coming home might be the answer,” he said. “It wasn’t.”

St. Louis 4, Montreal 1--Does it make Whitey Herzog a better manager because he always seems to have Pedro Guerrero batting in important situations?

Guerrero came up with two on and one out in the sixth inning at St. Louis with the Cardinals losing to Dennis Martinez (15-5).

Guerrero, a lifetime .400 hitter against the Expos and even better this season in the clutch (.419), came through with a single to tie the score.

Another run scored on a wild throw home and two more came in on a fluke triple by Terry Pendleton and a double by Tom Brunansky.

The Cardinals, keeping pressure on the Cubs, have won eight of their last 11 and 20 of their last 30.

Jose DeLeon (15-11), who in his previous start pitched one-hit ball for 11 innings and lost to Cincinnati, 2-0, retired the last 22 he faced.

The bad news for the Cardinals was that reliever Todd Worrell suffered a strained right elbow in the ninth inning. Worrell, who leads the Cardinals with 20 saves, will be examined today by Stan London, the Cardinal team physician.

San Francisco 9, Cincinnati 8--This was the kind of game that makes you think the race in the West is over.

Although they were playing at Cincinnati without injured slugger Kevin Mitchell and fell behind, 8-0, in the sixth inning, the Giants pulled out the victory.

Mike Laga, who entered the game so that first baseman Will Clark could get a rest in what appeared to be a one-sided loss, turned out to be the hero.

Former Dodger Tim Leary had a two-hit shutout until the seventh, when Clark and Terry Kennedy homered.

Laga hit a two-run homer in the eighth to pull the Giants to within 8-4. Ace relievers John Franco and Rob Dibble then gave up five runs in the ninth, with Laga’s single driving in the final run.

Mitchell has a sprained left wrist.

Pittsburgh 7, Philadelphia 5--Bobby Bonilla and Jay Bell each drove in two runs at Philadelphia and the Pirates handed the Phillies their fifth loss in a row.