NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Fluke Double Play Lets Pirates End Phillie Streak

Luck finally ran out on the Philadelphia Phillies after 13 victories in a row.

A fluke double play with the bases loaded in the seventh inning Tuesday night at Pittsburgh spoiled a budding rally and the Pirates beat the Phillies, 4-3.

Late-inning lightning had produced most of the victories in the streak and it appeared another was imminent.

The Phillies, trailing, 4-3, chased Doug Drabek (11-11) and had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh. Roger Mason faced pinch-hitter Ricky Jordan, who was 4 for 5 lifetime with the bases loaded and had driven in 11 runs.

On a pitch far inside, Jordan couldn’t get his bat out of the way. Instead of the ball hitting him to force in the tying run, it hit Jordan’s bat bounced to Mason, who started a home-to-first double play to end the threat.

It figured the Pirates would end the Phillies’ club-tying winning streak. They had beaten the Phillies in all six previous meetings.

Before their luck turned sour, though, the Phillies got some breaks. Two of their runs scored when center fielder Andy Van Slyke misplayed a single for his first error since September.

It was the fourth consecutive victory for the Pirates after they had lost 11 of 13 and put their lead in the National League East in jeopardy. In all four they came from behind to win.

Van Slyke’s error, his first in 104 games, helped the Phillies take a 3-1 lead in the third. The Pirates scored single runs against Danny Cox (4-5) in the third, fourth and fifth to win it. Don Slaught, recently on the disabled list, walked in the fifth and scored on Jose Lind’s triple down the right-field line.

Atlanta 9, San Francisco 2--Keith Mitchell homered to start the game at San Francisco and Ron Gant took over the league lead with his 26th home run as the Braves kept the pressure on the Dodgers.

Left-hander Tom Glavine, beaten in his two previous starts, became the league’s first 15-game winner. He needed help in the ninth after shutting the Giants out for eight innings.

Mitchell’s home run started a four-run first inning and that’s all Glavine needed.

The Braves rapped out 15 hits in their 22nd win in 32 games.

Montreal 7, Chicago 6--Bret Barbarie’s two-out run-scoring single in the eighth inning at Chicago enabled the Expos to end their four-game losing streak. It was only the Expos’ fourth victory in 21 games.

The Expos scored twice with two out with the help of shortstop Jose Vizcaino’s error.

Mark Grace, hitting safely in his 19th consecutive game, singled in a run to give the Cubs a 6-5 lead in the seventh. In the 19 games, Grace is 36 for 82 (.439) and is 24 for 44 (.545) in his last 10 games.

St. Louis 7, New York 4--Hubie Brooks and Howard Johnson hit home runs at St. Louis, but they couldn’t overcome another poor outing by Frank Viola.

The Mets have lost five in a row, 12 of 14 and 17 of 21 to fall 9 1/2 games behind the Pirates.

Viola, 1-4 in his last six starts, gave up six runs on eight hits. He has given up 24 earned runs in 36 innings.

Rookie Omar Olivares (5-4) went eight innings and Lee Smith pitched a hitless ninth for his 29th save.

Houston 12, San Diego 9--The Padres seemed well on their way to another victory at San Diego after Fred McGriff hit a grand slam and the Padres opened a 9-2 lead.

But a three-run home run by Luis Gonzalez in the sixth started the comeback and the Astros scored five times in the seventh.