NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Cook Benefits From Move to Starter

Pitcher Dennis Cook was a throw-in last summer by the Giants in the Steve Bedrosian trade. In fact, the Philadelphia Phillies planned to use him as a reliever.

But the delay in the start of the season and a subsequent early doubleheader prompted Phillies’ Manager Nick Leyva to start the 27-year-old left-hander against St. Louis April 15.

It may have been the best move Leyva has made in getting the Phillies off to one of their best starts in years.

Cook held his old team to six hits Sunday at Philadelphia for his fifth consecutive victory.

He also singled and scored in a two-run fifth inning and the Phillies went on to win, 4-1. Cook had a shutout until Greg Litton led off the ninth inning with a home run.

In his six starts, Cook (5-0) has an earned-run average of 1.34. Even Leyva wasn’t sure Cook belonged in the starting rotation after his first two starts. Both were shutouts against the Cardinals, a team notoriously weak against left-handed pitching.

After the second game against the Cardinals, it was seven days before Leyva sent Cook against Atlanta. When he pitched seven strong innings in a 7-1 victory there was no doubt he belonged in the rotation.

Cook retired the first 10 Giants before Litton punched a single past shortstop Dickie Thon. Rick Reuschel (2-3) matched Cook until the fifth inning when Charlie Hayes singled to end Reuschel’s string of nine outs in a row.

Len Dykstra, who singled and walked earlier, homered in the eighth to make it 3-0 and raise his league-leading average to .398.

The Phillies sent Cook home Friday because he had the flu. After his single in the fifth, he felt nauseous.

“I thought I would throw up all over first base,” he said. “So I called time and had a drink of water. I don’t think I would have made it if I had had to throw a lot of pitches.”

The Phillies are 17-13. After 30 games a year ago they were 13-17.

Montreal 15, San Diego 0--All Oil Can Boyd needed were a few runs. With Tim Wallach hitting two three-run homers and driving in eight of them at San Diego, Boyd’s first shutout in five years was a breeze.

Although he gave up nine hits, Boyd, who had an 11-0 lead when he went out to pitch the fourth inning, improved his record to 2-2. His last shutout was June 9, 1985.

Wallach had driven in 14 runs in the first 31 games. He drove in a run with a single in the fourth inning and doubled home another in the eighth.

It was the Padres’ worst defeat since they were beaten by the Dodgers, 19-0, in 1969.

They also lost first baseman Jack Clark, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to May 6 because of a lower back strain.

Clark was injured on May 5 while playing against the Cubs in Chicago. He returned home early from the road trip for additional tests which confirmed the original diagnosis.

Cincinnati 13, Chicago 9--One of the pluses of the poor 1989 season was that the Reds were able to give catching prospect Joe Oliver a real shot at the job.

They liked what they saw enough to make him No. 1 this season. The 24-year-old may have the job for some time.

Oliver drove in six runs at Cincinnati, three of them with his fourth home run in the eighth inning, when the Reds broke the game open.

Oliver also had a three-run double in the four-run third inning that helped the Reds build an 8-2 lead.

Chicago scored four times in the seventh inning to tie it 9-9.

Atlanta 3, St. Louis 1--While everything goes right for the Reds, it’s the opposite in St. Louis.

The Cardinals had a 1-0 lead going into the eighth inning. But the left side of their infield, Ozzie Smith and Terry Pendleton, both Gold Glove winners last year, made errors that contributed to three runs and enabled the Braves to end a four-game losing streak.

“We’re playing bad,” Manager Whitey Herzog said. “It it ain’t one thing, it’s another.”

Pittsburgh 5, Houston 1--Jose Lind drove in the first two runs for the Pirates at Pittsburgh and an error paved the way for three more in the ninth inning.

The Astros, who have been having trouble scoring runs, had two runners called out at the plate.

The Pirates improved their record to 22-9 and lead the East by 4 1/2 games.