NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Tudor Beats Phillies to Extend Streak to 5

All season long the Dodgers have searched for a fifth starter. They rejected John Tudor, the left-hander who has kept the St. Louis Cardinals from collapsing.

When the Dodgers rejected Tudor, who missed most of last season because of elbow and shoulder problems, he signed as a free agent with the Cardinals. At the time no one, including Tudor, knew whether he could even pitch.

There is no longer any doubt. Although his best fastball rarely exceeds 80 m.p.h., he is a 10-game winner on a last-place team.

Tudor (10-3) won his fifth in a row Tuesday night at Philadelphia as the Cardinals beat the Phillies, 4-2.

Tudor, who shut out Chicago in his previous start, had a two-hit shutout until the Phillies rallied in the eighth. Lee Smith, unscored upon in his last 15 appearances, got the last five outs for his 17th save.

The Cardinals’ Todd Zeile hit a two-run home run and Willie McGee extended his hitting streak to 21 games.

Tudor pitched only 14 innings for the Dodgers last season after helping them in the pennant drive in 1988. He said he didn’t know if he could still pitch, but he wanted to try.

He is easily the leading candidate for comeback player of the year. He has made 19 starts for the Cardinals and in all but one he has pitched at least five innings. In 13 starts for the low-scoring Cardinals, he has given up two or fewer earned runs.

“I’m not going to talk about any comeback honors,” Tudor said. “Why? I just don’t want to.

“I’m just going from start to start, trying to get people out, keep this team in the game.”

McGee gave a reason for not wanting to talk about his hitting streak.

“I guess you can say I’m superstitious,” McGee said. “I kind of feel it will be bad news for me if I talk about it.

“This game is played as a team and I’d like to keep it in that perspective.”

Pedro Guerrero was again out of the Cardinal lineup because of a bruised left foot. His status was listed as day-to-day.

San Francisco 3, Houston 2--Don Robinson wasn’t ready to pitch for the Giants in this game at San Francisco, but he won it for them.

Robinson, hit on the pitching hand last week, figured he needed one more day before returning to the mound.

But with the bases loaded and no outs in the ninth, Robinson, one of the top hitting pitchers in the league, lined a single to left-center field to win the game.

Rafael Novoa, the replacement for Robinson, gave up six hits in 5 2/3 innings. Jeff Brantley wound up the winner, pitching two scoreless innings. Robinson expects to be ready to face the Dodgers tonight.

The Giants were without Kevin Mitchell for the third game in a row because of a sore hand.

Pittsburgh 9, Chicago 1--The Pirates, who had lost four of their last five, started hitting again at Chicago and moved back into a tie for first place in the East.

Sid Bream hit a home run and drove in three runs, but most encouraging to the Pirates was the emergence from slumps by Andy Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla. Van Slyke was two for three and Bonilla three for four.

All was not joy for the Pirates. Bob Walk injured the middle finger on his pitching hand and left in the second inning. Bob Patterson pitched five shutout innings to improve to 7-3.

Montreal 7, New York 4--Oil Can Boyd pitched another strong game for the Expos at Montreal to beat the Mets.

Boyd (6-3) gave up seven hits and walked two, but yielded only two runs in six innings. Since losing to Cincinnati April 28, Boyd is 5-1 with 10 no decisions.

San Diego 7, Atlanta 6--Dale Murphy hit a home run and drove in five runs at San Diego, but the Braves blew a 6-1 lead and lost when the Padres scored twice in the ninth.