NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Black Pays Dividend With Arm, Bat in Victory

The San Francisco Giants spent more than $33 million on free agents between seasons. That $10 million of it went to left-hander Bud Black for four years occasioned some surprise.

And when Black, 83-82 in nine seasons in the American League, lost his first two starts, it didn’t appear to be money well spent.

Some of the reason for the outlay became apparent Saturday at San Francisco when Black pitched a five-hitter to beat the Houston Astros, 4-0.

His two-out single helped the Giants to two runs in the fourth inning after Steve Decker’s home run gave them two runs in the second. Black (1-2) has hit safely in all three games after not batting in the American league.

Three of the hits against Black were by Craig Biggio, the catcher who leads the league with a .475 average.

Black settled down after escaping a bases-loaded jam in the second inning.

“One of the reasons I signed with the Giants,” Black said, “was that players who came over to the National League said there was more fun playing in this league. Until today, it hadn’t been much fun for me.”

Pittsburgh 9, Chicago 3--Mike Lavalliere hit the 12th home run and first grand slam of his six-year career in the sixth inning at home to send the Pirates to the victory.

Before sending the drive into the first row of seats in right field, Lavalliere was batting .143, with no extra-base hits and only two runs batted in.

The six-run sixth inning made it easy for Zane Smith to improve to 2-0. He gave up seven hits and two runs--only one earned--in seven innings.

New York 3, Montreal 1--When Gregg Jefferies came up with two on and two outs in the eighth inning at Montreal, it was 1-1 and the Mets had scored only three runs in 34 innings.

But Jefferies doubled in two runs and Frank Viola, despite giving up nine hits in eight innings, won his second in a row.

“We really needed something like that, because the way we’ve been swinging the bat, the hitters haven’t been able to look at our pitchers in the face,” Jefferies said. Viola (2-0) gave up nine hits and helped himself with a double and a sacrifice as he beat Montreal for the second time in six days. John Franco got the last three outs for his third save as the Mets ended a three-game losing streak.

Cincinnati 3, Atlanta 0--Left-hander Tom Browning gave up three hits in 8 1/3 innings at Atlanta and the Reds won their fourth in a row.

Browning, who struck out eight and walked none, is 13-4 against the Braves.

St. Louis 12-5, Philadelphia 1-6--Darren Daulton doubled in the winning run in the 10th inning of the second game at St. Louis.

In the opener, the Cardinals scored 11 runs in the first three innings and Jose DeLeon won for only the second time in his last 21 starts. He pitched six scoreless innings to end an eight-game losing streak.

John Kruk had a two-run home run in the going five for eight in the doubleheader. He has driven in 13 runs in the last 10 games.