NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Cincinnati’s 6-2 Victory Has Familiar Ring to It

The Cincinnati Reds got their World Series championship rings and remembered the formula they used to earn them last season.

The Reds, who led the National League West from the first day of the 1990 season, rode the pitching and hitting of Tom Browning to a 6-2 season-opening victory over the Houston Astros Monday as a crowd of 55,205 watched at Cincinnati.

“We wanted to get out there and defend our title,” Browning said.

Browning, who had to sit through two rain delays totaling 46 minutes, pitched 8 1/3 innings and doubled home three runs in a five-run fourth inning against Houston’s Mike Scott.

Browning, a .141 hitter in his career, had four runs batted in last season.

Craig Biggio hit a solo homer off Browning in the top of the fourth and the Astros scored again on Eric Yelding’s triple and a sacrifice fly by Steve Finley in the ninth.

Randy Myers replaced Browning after Biggio singled and walked Luis Gonzalez and Ken Caminiti to load the bases. Rob Dibble then came in, and Jeff Bagwell lined his three-and-two pitch up the middle, but shortstop Barry Larkin grabbed it and stepped on second base for a game-ending double play.

“That’s what happened last year, we got the pitching and made the plays defensively,” Larkin said. “We wanted to get off to a good start. We led all last year. We want to get up on top and stay there (again).”

The Reds won their first nine games last season and became the first NL team to lead every day of a 162-game schedule.

New York 2, Philadelphia 1--One week after signing a contract worth $15.45 million, Dwight Gooden gave up six hits in eight innings and the Mets downed the Phillies before 49,276 fans in 88-degree weather at New York.

The Mets have won 19 of 22 openers.

Gooden struck out three of the first four batters and wound up with seven strikeouts.

The only run Gooden gave up was John Kruk’s homer into the right-field bullpen in the fifth inning. Kruk is 10 for 26 against Gooden in his career, with two homers.

John Franco came on in the ninth and got the last three outs for the save. Franco led the NL with 33 saves last season.

Left-hander Terry Mulholland got off to a shaky start in the first inning when Vince Coleman led off with a double in his Met debut and Gregg Jefferies followed with an run-scoring double.

Mulholland gave up only two more hits before leaving after seven innings, but Hubie Brooks doubled in the fourth and later scored what proved to be the deciding run on a double steal.

Brooks took third on a fly ball and Tommy Herr walked. When Herr broke for second, catcher Darren Daulton threw to second baseman Wally Backman, but Backman did not throw home and Brooks scored.

The Phillies have lost 17 of their last 21 openers.

Montreal 7, Pittsburgh 0--Dennis Martinez continued his mastery of the Pirates by allowing one hit in seven innings, and Ivan Calderon homered in his first NL game as the Expos romped at Pittsburgh.

The opening night crowd of 54,274 was the largest in Pirate history, breaking the record of 54,089 for their 1988 opener.

Martinez, 8-2 in his career against the Pirates, allowed only Barry Bonds’ leadoff single in the seventh. He struck out five and walked two. Barry Jones and Scott Ruskin each added a hitless inning.

The Expos had a 13-5 record against the NL East champions last season.

Doug Drabek, the 1990 NL Cy Young Award winner, gave up four runs, three earned, and eight hits in five innings. Drabek was 22-6 last season, but only 2-3 against the Expos.

Delino DeShields added a solo home run for the Expos.