NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : No-Name Pitchers Frustrate Phillies, Keep Pirates in First Place in East

John Smiley, Pittsburgh’s best left-hander, and Bob Walk, a consistent veteran, are out with injuries, but the Pirates are still getting outstanding pitching.

Rick Reed, Bob Patterson, Stan Belinda and Scott Ruskin aren’t exactly household names, but they are keeping the Pirates atop the National League East.

Reed shut out the fading Philadelphia Phillies Monday and the other three combined for a 1-0 victory Tuesday night at Pittsburgh.

Jay Bell singled in the only run in the eighth inning and the trio of no-names extended the Phillies’ string of scoreless innings to 22 innings. The fifth loss in a row dropped the Phillies seven games out of first place.

Patterson, who entered the game with a 5-9 record and an earned-run average of 5.31, held the Phillies to three hits in seven innings. Ruskin gave up two hits in the eighth, but was the winner when Bell delivered the key hit. Belinda pitched a hitless ninth for his second save. It was the third time in the last four games the Phillies have been shut out.

Jose Lind, in a three-for-30 slump, singled to open the eighth. He moved up on John Cangelosi’s sacrifice and scored on Bell’s two-out single.

Montreal 6, Chicago 5--In a tie game in the ninth inning at Chicago, Manager Buck Rodgers of the Expos was looking for somebody to get on to start a rally.

He started to bring out Wallace Johnson, changed his mind and summoned Jerry Goff to hit for pitcher Dave Schmidt. Goff hit a home run, his first in the majors, to give the Expos the victory.

“My thinking was that Goff walked last night,” Rodgers said. “I decided to save Johnson for an RBI situation. Does Goff hitting a home run make me a genius?”

The loss spoiled the celebration for Cub Manager Don Zimmer, whose contract was extended through next season shortly before the game.

Ryne Sandberg hit his 22nd home run in the sixth inning off Oil Can Boyd and Andre Dawson followed with his 18th.

Cincinnati 3, San Francisco 2--The Reds keep building on their big lead in the West.

Third baseman Matt Williams picked up Jeff Reed’s sacrifice bunt, threw it into right field and Herm Winningham scored easily from second in the 12th inning to hand the Giants their sixth loss in the last seven games.

By winning the first two games of the series in Cincinnati, the Reds, who seemed to have serious problems a couple of weeks ago, stretched their lead to 11 games over the Giants.

Kevin Mitchell, playing despite a hamstring injury, hit a two-run home run.

San Diego 7, Houston 0--Although they trail by 10 games, the Padres may be the only threat to the Reds.

Dennis Rasmussen (7-4) pitched a nine-hitter, had two hits and drove in a run at Houston to lead the Padres.

As a pinch-hitter, Rasmussen doubled in three runs against the Braves on Sunday.

New York 8, St. Louis 6--Howard Johnson hit a two-run double in the 11th inning at St. Louis to lead the Mets to their eighth consecutive victory.

Keith Miller and Dave Magadan singled off Ken Dayley with two out and Johnson drove the ball into the gap in left-center.

The Cardinals tied the score in the ninth on Todd Zeile’s leadoff home run.

Terry Pendleton was five for six for the Cardinals.