NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Drabek a Hit Again for Pirates in 5-3 Win

One reason Doug Drabek has won more games than any Pittsburgh pitcher in 32 years is his contributions to the Pirate offense.

Drabek had two hits and scored two runs Tuesday night at Pittsburgh to help the Pirates come from behind to beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-3.

It was the 21st victory for the No. 1 candidate for the NL’s Cy Young Award and inched the Pirates a little closer to the title in the East.

With the New York Mets beating Montreal, the Pirates remained three games in front with eight games remaining. Their magic number is six.

Drabek, who will get at least one more chance to equal the 22 victories Bob Friend had for the Pirates in 1958, overcame a shaky start. He gave up three runs and three hits in the first two innings, but just one hit the rest of the way.

Drabek (21-6) is 12-2 since the All-Star break. He fell behind, 3-0, but started the two-run rally in the fifth and another two-run rally in the seventh that put the Pirates in charge.

In each rally Andy Van Slyke had the key hit. The veteran center fielder was two for three and drove in two runs. He is batting .375 in his last 11 games. Van Slyke has driven in 73 runs, and 27 of them have been when Drabek was on the mound.

“He told me he’d give me half his Cy Young incentive bonus if he won it,” Van Slyke said. “I asked him how much it was. ‘Nothing,’ he said. “So, I guess I’ll get a handshake.”

Although he is hitting only .212, Drabek has made a number of key hits to spark Pirate rallies.

“When he came over here from the Yankees in 1986, he couldn’t hit a foul ball,” Manager Jim Leyland said. “But he worked hard on his hitting, and now you don’t have to pull him out of a tight game in the fifth or seventh inning. He’s helped himself win four or five games.”

New York 3, Montreal 1--There have been two major raps against the Mets this season--they don’t do well in close games and they are a losing team on the road.

Dave Magadan, for one game at least, took care of both of those problems.

Magadan hit a pinch-single to drive home two runs and break a 1-1 tie in the seventh.

The Mets improved their road record to 35-41 and their record in one- and two-run games to 32-40.

There were other problems the Mets had to overcome. Starter Sid Fernandez left in the fourth inning with a sore knee.

And they had to face left-hander Chris Nabholz, who was 6-0 and pitched a one-hitter against them last week.

Nabholz, who gave up an unearned run through six innings, was the loser.

St. Louis 1, Philadelphia 0--Terry Mulholland, who pitched a no-hitter Aug. 15, was almost perfect at Philadelphia, but wound up a loser.

Bernard Gilkey led off the game with a triple and added a double with two out in the ninth.

In between, Mulholland (8-10) retired 26 consecutive batters. But the first out was a sacrifice fly by Geronimo Pena.

Gilkey also threw a runner out at the plate in the first inning. Joe Magrane (10-16), Mike Perez and Ken Dayley gave up 10 hits, but the Phillies failed to score.

The Phillies’ Lenny Dykstra has apparently conceded the batting title to Willie McGee and his .335 average. He sat out the second game in a row.

San Francisco 3, San Diego 1--Rookies Steve Decker and Mike Benjamin hit home runs at San Francisco to keep the Giants’ faint hopes alive.

The Giants will be eliminated if the Reds win one more game or the Giants lose one.