Guerrero in No Mood to Congratulate Friend : Cardinals: His double-play grounder in the ninth preserved no-hitter, spoiling his 34th birthday.

Pedro Guerrero said he might congratulate his friend Fernando Valenzuela sometime tonight.

But he was in no mood to congratulate anybody Friday night.

“I’m not very happy right now,” the former Dodger said after hitting into a double play to end the game and preserve Valenzuela’s no-hitter against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“No . . . way am I congratulating anybody now. Maybe later, but not now.”

With Willie McGee on first after getting Valenzuela’s third walk of the night, Guerrero hit a sharp grounder up the middle.

The ball hit Valenzuela’s glove and bounced to Juan Samuel at second, who tagged McGee and threw to Eddie Murray at first to complete a game-ending double play.

“I hit it pretty good,” said Guerrero, who turned 34 Friday. “If he doesn’t get a glove on it, I think it’s through there.”

It was a close play, but there were closer ones.

On the first play of a game, Vince Coleman hit a grounder to short that he came within a whisker of beating out.

With two out in the eighth, Craig Wilson hit a towering fly that left fielder Stan Javier retrieved while running at full speed.

“I got a good jump on the ball,” Javier said. “I was ready to leap to get it if I had to.”

Of course, Javier was aware of the significance of making the catch, but he said he blocked all that out.

“I was just focused on making the catch,” he said.

In the ninth, Coleman was called out on strikes. He argued vehemently with home plate umpire Jerry Layne that the third strike was outside.

It was one of the calls that prompted Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog to say, “I don’t want to take anything away from Fernando, but he had the right guy behind the plate.”

Herzog, who is in his 10th season as manager of the Cardinals, said this is the first complete-game no-hitter that has been pitched against one of his teams.