NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Astro Rookie Hits Deciding Homer in Ninth

Rookie Jeff Bagwell played out the dream of every little kid who plays baseball.

Bagwell hit his first major league home run in the ninth inning to give the Houston Astros a 3-1 victory over the Braves Monday night at Atlanta.

“As a little kid, you’re always thinking of hitting a home run in the ninth to win it,” he said. “It feels great.”

Ken Caminiti, who had three hits, singled with two out off Kent Mercker (0-1), and Bagwell followed with his two-run homer over the left-field fence.

Bagwell, acquired from Boston last season for reliever Larry Andersen, won a job with Houston with a strong spring training. But he had only two hits in 20 at-bats prior to his winning shot.

New York 9, Pittsburgh 3--Howard Johnson, who in the second inning hit the eighth upper-deck home run in 20-year history of Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, also had a run-scoring single in the Mets’ six-run ninth.

Johnson’s towering homer off Zane Smith reached the fifth row of the upper deck. With Willie Stargell reaching the upper deck four times in his Pittsburgh career, Johnson is only the fifth player to reach the upper deck--and only the second from an opposing team. Philadelphia’s Greg Luzinkski is the other.

The Mets’ David Cone (1-0) is 7-0 against the Pirates.

With the score 3-3, reliever Bob Kipper (1-1) started the ninth inning with two walks, and the Mets broke the tie when Kipper threw wildly on Keith Miller’s bunt single.

St. Louis 5, Montreal 4--Pedro Guerrero, who took part in a botched cutoff play that allowed the third run of a three-run rally by the Expos in the eighth inning, led off the ninth with his second homer of the night to ignite a three-run rally that lifted the Cardinals to victory at Montreal.

“I was mad at myself for that play in the field,” said Guerrero, whose part in the play resulted in an error for right fielder Felix Jose. “That gave them an important extra run that looked like it was going to beat us.”

After Guerrero opened the ninth with a homer off Tim Burke (1-1), Jose followed with a single and scored when Todd Zeile tripled off the center field fence. Zeile then scored the go-ahead run on Tom Pagnozzi’s sacrifice fly to right.

Guerrero also hit a solo homer in the sixth off Dennis Boyd.

Chicago 5, Philadelphia 4--Greg Maddux pitched three-hit ball for seven innings at Chicago and Andre Dawson hit his first home run of the season as the Cubs took advantage of four wild pitches by Phillie starter Jason Grimsley (0-1).

Maddux (2-0) retired nine consecutive batters after John Kruk’s fourth-inning single and worked out of trouble in the seventh inning. Paul Assenmacher pitched a hitless eighth and Dave Smith finished for his third save despite allowing Dale Murphy’s leadoff homer in the ninth.

San Diego 3, Cincinnati 2--Ted Power’s second wild pitch in a row with one out in the 11th inning at San Diego allowed Shawn Abner to score as the Padres handed the Reds their fourth consecutive loss.

Abner led off the 11th with a single, moved to second a sacrifice and went to third on Power’s first wild pitch.