NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Strawberry Stirs Mets, Slicing Pirate Lead to 1 1/2

In a game headlined as a pitching duel between Dwight Gooden and Doug Drabek, outfielder Darryl Strawberry stole the show.

Strawberry hit a three-run homer, giving him 100 runs batted in, and threw out Barry Bonds at the plate as the New York Mets moved to within 1 1/2 games of first-place Pittsburgh in the National League East by beating the Pirates, 6-3, Thursday night at Shea Stadium.

The victory, before a season-high crowd of 51,079, was the Mets’ 11th in a row at home.

Both starters struggled.

Gooden (17-6) survived a shaky start and went on to win for the 14th time in his last 15 decisions, giving up 10 hits and three runs in 7 2/3 innings.

Drabek (19-6) lasted only four innings. He gave up four runs on six hits. John Franco set a Mets’ record with his 32nd save in 36 chances, breaking Jesse Orosco’s mark of 31 in 1984.

Strawberry and Bonds, leading candidates for the NL most valuable player award, put on dazzling displays in a game the Mets said they had to win after losing three in a row at Pittsburgh last week. The Mets and Pirates finish the season with three games at Pittsburgh.

Bonds went four for four, drove in two runs, stole two bases and robbed Gregg Jefferies of a home run with a leaping catch above the left-field fence in the sixth inning.

Strawberry gave the Mets a 3-2 lead with his 34th home run in the fourth inning after Tommy Herr singled and Dave Magadan walked with none out.

“I tried to get inside on Darryl, but I left it over the plate,” Drabek said. “That was the kiss of death.”

In his last 21 games, Strawberry has seven homers and 20 RBIs. He is tied with Kevin Mitchell and Ryne Sandberg for the NL home run lead.

“Strawberry kills us,” Pittsburgh right fielder Bobby Bonilla said. “But we put him in situations where he could.”

Strawberry has 11 hits against the Pirates this season and eight have been homers.

Said Bonds: “It’s OK, we’ll see them for three games at Pittsburgh at the end of the season. We knew it would be rough here.”

Drabek, attempting to become the Pirates’ first 20-game winner since John Candelaria went 20-5 in 1977, gave up four runs on five hits in the fourth and left in the fifth.

Chicago 6, Philadelphia 5--Jerome Walton’s fielder’s choice ground ball with the bases loaded scored Joe Girardi, breaking a tie at Chicago and giving the Cubs their third consecutive victory.

Girardi led off the eighth with a single off loser Roger McDowell. Doug Dascenzo walked, and Dwight Smith, hitting for winner Paul Assenmacher, reached first safely when left fielder Von Hayes dropped his fly ball.

Lenny Dykstra fell out of the NL batting lead for the first time since May 2, going one for five to lower his average to .33521. Willie McGee of the St. Louis Cardinals--traded to the Oakland Athletics last month--left the NL at .33533.

Chicago’s Andre Dawson played his 2,000th major league game.

St. Louis 6, Montreal 4--Rookie Ray Lankford homered and drove in two runs, Pedro Guerrero had four hits and rookie Omar Olivares got his first major league victory as the Cardinal won at Montreal.