NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Magadan Uses His Bat to Vent Anger, Powers Mets Past Pirates, 7-5

The New York Mets’ Dave Magadan, angered when he was left out of the lineup Thursday night for the game that was eventually rained out at Pittsburgh, took it out on the Pirates Friday night.

Magadan went four for four, including two doubles, in the Mets’ 7-5 victory, which also featured a three-run home run in the first inning by Darryl Strawberry.

The Mets, who came out of a season-long batting slump during a three-game series in Chicago, scored their fourth consecutive victory.

They hammered Walt Terrell and three relievers for 14 hits and took a 7-2 lead in the fourth inning. In their last four games the Mets have scored 50 runs and had 71 hits.

Magadan, a left-handed hitter, felt he had played a prominent part in getting the Mets out of their slump. He went four for four in a 19-8 rout in the first of the three games at Chicago. For the three games, he was nine for 16 and drove in seven runs. But with left-hander Bob Patterson pitching, Tim Teufel was penciled in at first base Thursday night.

Magadan let new Met Manager Bud Harrelson know how he felt.

Magadan told Marty Noble of Newsday, “Last week when he (Harrelson) started (Tom) O’Malley over me, he said he wanted to go with the hot hand.

“On that basis I should have been in the lineup.”

Magadan singled in the first inning Friday night to start the rally that Strawberry capped with his 13th home run.

In the fourth inning Magadan doubled in a run to cap a four-run burst. He has 12 hits in his last 18 at-bats and is hitting .387.

Magadan thought he had a regular job late last season, but was back to utility status after the Mets obtained slugger Mike Marshall from the Dodgers. Marshall is sidelined because of the same back problem that hampered his Dodger career and Magadan is making the most of it----when Harrelson lets him.

Strawberry, meanwhile, is hitting .431 with eight home runs and 18 runs batted in his last 16 games.

Bob Ojeda (3-3) gave up nine hits and four runs in 6 1/3 innings. John Franco, who retired the last five batters, picked up his 10th save.

The Mets have won nine of their last 11, including four out of five over the Pirates, and are six games out of first place.

Cincinnati 6, Houston 3--Paul O’Neill went four for four, drove in three runs and scored another to lead the leaders of the West to their third consecutive victory, at Cincinnati.

Although he struggled and needed help from Randy Myers in the eighth, Jack Armstrong (9-3) ended the Astros’ six-game winning streak.

Armstrong gave up nine hits and three earned runs and his league-leading earned-run average increased to 1.99. However, he helped with the bat. His second hit of the season was a bases-loaded single in the third inning that drove in the first two runs of his career.

San Francisco 8, Atlanta 2--The Braves’ Pete Smith apparently escaped serious injury at San Francisco when he was hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of the Giants’ Terry Kennedy in the fourth inning.

Smith was hospitalized for observation after needing four stitches to close a cut above his right eye.

After Smith was hit, the ball bounced into the outfield and two runs scored.

Robbie Thompson hit a three-run home run for the Giants, who have won 15 of their last 16 games.

John Burkett (7-1) went eight innings.

Montreal 7, St. Louis 4--With his bullpen ace Lee Smith suffering from a sore shoulder and his other relievers pitching poorly, Manager Whitey Herzog tried to coax Joe Magrane to a complete-game victory at St. Louis.

Magrane (3-9) entered the ninth inning with a 3-1 lead, but he didn’t get anyone out and two singles, a double, a walk and a triple by Dave Martinez gave Montreal the lead. Scott Terry then gave up a home run to Nelson Santovenia and the Expos had their third victory in a row.

It was the fifth loss in a row for the Cardinals. In the last three losses, they have had a lead going into the ninth inning.

Philadelphia 6-7, Chicago 5-0--The Cubs lost their second doubleheader in three days and saw their losing streak hit five games, at Philadelphia.

In the opener, rookie outfielder Jim Vatcher from Cal State Northridge, singled in the winning run in the 10th.

Bruce Ruffin pitched a three-hitter and held Ryne Sandberg hitless in the second game.

Sandberg had two hits in the opener to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, a span during which he was 22 for 46.