NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Pirate Rookie Proving to Be a Real Waner

Old-time Pittsburgh Pirate fans aren’t concerned that the youngster doesn’t spell his name the same way and bats from the other side of the plate. They just know there’s a new “Waner.”

To them John Wehner is a throwback to Paul and Lloyd Waner, the Big and Little Poison of more than half a century ago. The two brothers, left-handed hitting outfielders, were two of the most famous players in Pittsburgh history.

Wehner, who has sparkled since being brought up July 21, came through with the big hit in a 6-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday at Pittsburgh.

Wehner’s two-run single brought the Pirates from behind in the sixth inning. Although it was only their fourth victory in 15 games, it gave the Pirates a six-game lead in the National League East.

The hit enabled reliever Roger Mason, who has spent most of the last five seasons in the minors, to win for the first time since the first week of 1987, when he was with San Francisco. Mason, with the Cardinals leading, 4-3, shut off a rally in the top of the sixth.

The Pirates fought back from a 3-0 first-inning deficit to continue their domination of the division. Against Eastern Division foes, the Pirates are 35-19.

Wehner became almost an instant favorite with Pirate fans. In his second start at third base July 23, he went five for five. He has had some key hits since and is batting .380.

“I’m not ready to put him in the Hall of Fame yet,” Pirate Manager Jim Leyland said, “but he’s a rookie and he’s come in and done the job for us. I’m convinced he’ll wind up being a good major league hitter.”

Manager Joe Torre of the Cardinals chose to walk Mike LaValliere and have Bob Tewksbury (7-8) pitch to Wehner.

“We elected to pitch to the inexperienced hitter,” Torre said.

Philadelphia 5, Montreal 4--The Phillies’ streak apparently is going to last as long as Mitch Williams is able to lift his arm.

The left-handed reliever pitched for the fifth time in six games and the Phillies stretched their winning streak to 12 at Philadelphia.

After Charlie Hayes scored the tie-breaking run on a wild pitch in the eighth, Williams pitched a scoreless ninth for the save. In the five games he has three victories and two saves; during the streak he has five victories and three saves.

Mike Hartley, recently acquired from the Dodgers, pitched one-third of an inning to get the victory.

Atlanta 3, Houston 1--Already blessed with a number of good young pitchers, the Braves unveiled another one at Atlanta.

Armando Reynoso gave up only two hits and no runs in six innings to win his major league debut and move the Braves to within 1 1/2 games of the Dodgers in the West.

Ron Gant, Keith Mitchell and Terry Pendleton hit home runs to give the Braves their third victory in a row and a 10-4 home stand.

Gant hit his league-leading 25th home run leading off the fourth and the Astros, who had won nine in a row, have now lost five in a row.

Reynoso was 10-6 at Richmond in triple A before being brought up by the Braves.

San Diego 13, Cincinnati 0--Bip Roberts homered leading off for the Padres at San Diego and had three more hits, including another home run, to get rookie Ricky Bones off to an auspicious start.

Bones gave up only two hits in seven innings in his major league debut after posting an 8-6 record at Las Vegas.

The Reds, a far cry from the team that won the World Series, fell to fifth place after losing for the 22nd time in 31 games.

Chicago 3, New York 2--George Bell led off the 14th inning with his 21st home run of the season to give the Cubs their seventh consecutive victory over the New York Mets in 10 days. It matches Chicago’s longest streak ever against New York, in July and August of 1984.

Bell’s homer came on a 1-and-0 pitch from the Pete Schourek (2-3), the Mets’ fifth pitcher. Schourek had worked out of a jam in the 12th inning, when the Cubs failed to score with a runner on second and one out.

Shawn Boskie (4-8), the Cubs’ fifth pitcher, was the winner.

The Mets took a 2-0 lead on sacrifice flies by Daryl Boston and Gregg Jefferies. The Cubs tied the score in the fourth on Shawon Dunston’s run-scoring triple and Joe Girardi’s run-scoring groundout.