NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : For Giants’ Williams, This Game Surely Had Meaning

As far as the pennant race was concerned, Tuesday night’s game at Houston between the San Francisco Giants and the Astros had no importance.

But it was anything but meaningless to Giant third baseman Matt Williams.

After hitting his 31st home run against rookie Brian Williams in the fourth inning, Matt Williams faced him again in the fifth.

Brian Williams threw a fastball and it hit Matt Williams in the helmet, knocking him down. Matt charged toward the mound, but catcher Craig Biggio intercepted him. Matt and Brian Williams were ejected.

After order was restored, it was the game that became wild, and the Giants had the last laugh. They scored seven runs in the ninth and won, 9-7. Two bases-loaded walks were part of the Giants’ winning rally.

Williams became the first player in the league to hit a home run in every park.

Pittsburgh 10, New York 8--Howard Johnson broke his league record for home runs by a switch-hitter with his 37th and set a Mets’ record for runs batted in with 108.

But the Pirates prevailed at New York in a game played in the rain for the last six innings.

Daryl Boston hit a grand slam for the Mets.

Frank Viola yielded nine hits and six runs in four innings, but didn’t get the loss because Boston’s grand slam put the Mets ahead, 7-6.

Don Slaught drove in three runs for the Pirates and Gary Redus drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh before rain delayed the game for 17 minutes.

St. Louis 4, Montreal 3--Four errors by the Expos at St. Louis enabled the Cardinals to strengthen their grip on second place in the East.

Lee Smith pitched two scoreless innings for his 43rd save and put the Cardinals six games ahead of Chicago and New York with just 10 games to play.

Rookie Omar Olivares went seven innings for the victory that gave him a 10-6 record.

Philadelphia 4, Chicago 2--In his sixth start, Andy Ashby (1-4) finally won his first game in the majors in this game at Chicago.

Ashby gave up just three hits in seven innings to end his four-game losing streak. Mitch Williams finished for his 29th save.