NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Cone Adds to Met Success, 3-1

The New York Mets believed they would be contenders in the National League East this season because they had outstanding pitching.

They figured the pitching would overcome a mediocre offense.

As they move into the second half of the season, pitching has put them into the race.

David Cone struck out 13 batters in eight innings Saturday night at New York and pitched the Mets to their 10th consecutive victory, 3-1, over the slumping San Diego Padres.

Cone, who leads the league in strikeouts with 126, gave up five hits and an unearned run. He also drove in the first Mets run with an infield out.

Padre Manager Greg Riddoch was lavish in his praise.

“He was awesome,” he said. “That was as good a pitching performance as we’ve faced all season.”

Mark Carreon singled in the tiebreaking run in the eighth inning and John Franco pitched a scoreless ninth for his 20th save. The Mets extended their unbeaten July streak to 10 games.

Franco has had a part in five of the victories, getting one and four saves. With the Pirates winning again, New York remained 2 1/2 games out of first place.

Cone continued the sharp pitching that has been responsible for the surge into contention. In the 10-game winning streak, the Mets pitchers have yielded only 15 runs.

The optimism is tempered only slightly by the fact that the streak has been at the expense of weak teams. It began against Montreal and Philadelphia, the weakest teams in the East. The Padres, the victims in the last three, are playing the worst ball in the West, having lost five in a row and 12 of their last 15.

Tony Gwynn, the league’s leading hitter, went 0 for 4. It was only the seventh time in the last 44 games he has failed to get a hit.

Pittsburgh 5, Cincinnati 2--The Reds finally stopped Barry Bonds, but Bobby Bonilla hit a two-run home run at Cincinnati and the Pirates made it seven victories in a row over the World Series champions.

The Pirates are 3-0 in this series. Bonds hit three-run home runs to win the first two.

“We’re very hungry,” Bonilla said. “We want to do what Cincinnati did last season--win the World Series. Everyone felt a little empty last year watching all the Cincinnati players jumping up and down. We’d like to have them watch up do it on television.”

By winning their fourth in a row and 11th in the last 15 games, the Pirates maintained their lead in the East.

Another loss dropped the Reds 5 1/2 games behind the idle Dodgers in the West.

John Smiley (10-6), who has struggled lately, gave up six hits and both runs in seven innings and won for only the second time in his last seven decisions.

Atlanta 10, St. Louis 5--The All-Star break was just what the Braves needed to end their first slump of the season.

Former Cardinal Terry Pendleton and Ron Gant hit three-run home runs at Atlanta to the joy of 43,424 fans, largest crowd of the season. It gave the Braves their third victory in a row and put them 2 1/2 games behind second place Cincinnati in the West.

The Braves have beaten the Cardinals six times in a row.

Chicago 4, Houston 3--George Bell continued his heavy hitting and Les Lancaster pitched a complete game at Chicago.

After the Astros scored three runs in the first inning, Lancaster, pressed into starting service because of injuries, was brilliant.

Bell led the Cubs’ comeback. He drove in three runs, including the tiebreaker in the seventh with his third hit.

San Francisco 7, Philadelphia 5--In a long game made even longer by a rain delay of nearly two hours at Philadelphia, Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell hit consecutive doubles in the ninth inning for the Giants.

Mitchell was only two for 22 when he doubled home Clark with the tiebreaking run. Mitchell scored on Kirt Manwaring’s single.

Dave Hollins homered and drove in three runs for the Phillies.