NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Braves Rise in West, Beat Pirates, 6-1

For nearly the last decade National League teams have looked forward to a series with the Atlanta Braves. A team in a slump figured to end it and a team on a streak expected to extend it.

The situation is changing. The Braves, already respectable, seem on the verge of becoming a contender.

The Braves have finished last in the West for three seasons. It was the penalty they paid for using talented, but inexperienced players.

Some of the youngsters struggled, but it seems they benefited, too. Because they are the ones leading the early season surge to the top of the West.

Three of them, left-hander Steve Avery and outfielders Ron Gant and David Justice, led the Braves to a 6-1 victory over the Pirates Sunday at Pittsburgh.

The Braves won the series from the Eastern Division leaders, 2-1, strengthened their grip on first place and improved their road record to 9-5.

Avery (4-1) held the heavy-hitting Pirates to four hits and an unearned run in six innings. Gant hit a two-run home run in the first inning, his second two-run shot in a row. In the eighth inning Saturday, his two-run homer won the game, 3-2. Justice came out of a slump with a two-run homer in the sixth to make it 4-0.

Avery, 21, learned his lessons last season. He was 3-11 and had an earned-run average of 5.64. This season he is 2.79.

Gant, who was two for four, raised his average to .189. After hitting one home run in the first 22 games, he has three in the last four.

New York 4, San Francisco 2--Dave Magadan grounded out with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth inning at San Francisco, but he made up for it when he came up in the 11th.

Dave Righetti, who got Magadan on a grounder to the mound to send the game into extra innings, gave up a run-scoring single to Magadan and it scored the go-ahead run in the 11th.

The Giants, considered to be strong contenders in the NL West before the season, have lost 10 of their last 12 games.

Cincinnati 5, Chicago 3--The Reds continue to emerge from their hitting slump. Mariano Duncan hit a two-run triple to break a tie in the eighth inning at Chicago and give the Reds their second victory in a row.

The one Red who has been hitting all season, Hal Morris, started the winning rally with a single, his third hit, and it raised his average to .402.

Jack Armstrong (3-1) gave up seven hits in seven innings and Rob Dibble struck out three and earned his eighth save.

Montreal 8, San Diego 6--Tim Wallach had four hits and drove in three runs at San Diego as the Expos completed a sweep of the three-game series and won their sixth in a row.

Bruce Hurst, seeking to improve to 5-0, held a 6-3 lead going into the eighth. But the Expos rallied for four runs and handed the Padres their fifth loss in a row.

St. Louis 7, Houston 3--Relief pitcher Butch Henry walked pinch-hitter Gerald Perry with the bases loaded in the eighth inning at Houston to force in the tie-breaking run.

It also triggered a five-run inning, sparked by Ozzie Smith’s two-run single through a drawn-in infield.

The Cardinals had failed to score on three other bases-loaded situations earlier.