NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Viola Allows 3 Homers in Loss to Reds

No one expected Frank Viola to lose this way.

Viola, stingy in giving up home runs, gave up two of them with two out in the eighth inning Thursday night at Cincinnati, allowing the Reds to rally for a 5-3 victory over the New York Mets.

Paul O’Neill hit a two-run homer, his 11th, to put Cincinnati ahead, 4-3, and Todd Benzinger pulled the next pitch for his first homer and the final margin.

Viola (6-3) had given up just six homers in his 11 previous starts. He allowed three Thursday night.

Met Manager Bud Harrelson stuck with Viola, a left-hander, because he was facing another left-hander in O’Neill. Bullpen ace John Franco, also a left-hander, had a sore lower back.

Viola blew a 3-0 lead by giving up a solo homer to Chris Sabo in the sixth inning, a run-scoring single to Billy Hatcher in the seventh, and the decisive homers an inning later.

Houston 9, Montreal 8--Eric Yelding hit a two-run single to cap a four-run ninth inning at Houston as the Astros rallied to end their longest losing streak this season at six games.

Yelding’s hit to center field with one out handed Montreal its first defeat in three games under Manager Tom Runnells.

San Francisco 6, Pittsburgh 3--Bud Black cooled off John Smiley and the Pirates with his bat and arm as the Giants got a three-run homer from Matt Williams and won at Pittsburgh.

Black (6-5), who allowed four hits, gave up all the Pittsburgh runs in the third inning. The loss was only Pittsburgh’s second in 12 games and stopped the second four-game winning streak of the season for Smiley (8-2).

The Giants, limited to two runs or less in 24 of their 53 games, scored in the second on Black’s run-scoring single, then made it 4-0 in the third. Black is hitting .300 with four RBIs despite not batting the last nine seasons while pitching in the American League.

Atlanta 9, Philadelphia 4--Jeff Blauser was four for four--including a homer for the third consecutive game--and drove in four runs as the surging Braves beat the NL East’s fifth-place Phillies at Atlanta.

Blauser, who drove in 12 of the 29 runs Atlanta scored in winning two of three games against Philadelphia, hit his fifth homer of the season after David Justice had his eighth, in the first inning. Blauser, who also walked, had an RBI in each official at-bat.

Charlie Leibrandt (5-4) allowed six hits, struck out four and walked three in eight innings as the Braves won for the seventh time in 10 games.

The loss was Philadelphia’s ninth in 12 games.

Chicago 6, San Diego 2--Ryne Sandberg had a homer and triple among his four hits to lead Greg Maddux and the Cubs to a victory at Chicago that ended a six-game Padre winning streak.

Sandberg singled in the first and third innings, tripled in the fifth and hit his eighth home run leading off the seventh. Mark Grace had two singles and a sacrifice fly and drove in two runs.

Maddux (6-3) scattered five hits over eight innings, three of them singles by Tony Gwynn.