NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Cardinals’ Jordan Continues Hard Hitting

Until this season, Brian Jordan was merely the other Atlanta Falcon defensive back trying to play major league baseball. Deion Sanders had already made a well-publicized entry into his second sport.

The St. Louis Cardinals took the fleet Jordan to training camp, although he had only 400 minor league at-bats in four years between football seasons.

The Cardinals liked what they saw but thought he needed more minor league experience. Then came a series of injuries to outfielders that forced them to play him in the National League.

It is an understatement to say he has been a success.

Jordan singled home two runs in the sixth inning to rally the Cardinals to a 4-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday night at St. Louis.

It was the fifth consecutive game in which the Cardinals came from behind in the late innings, and Jordan figured prominently in four of them. Tuesday night he hit a three-run homer in the seventh to bring the Cardinals from behind.

Although he has played only 32 games in the majors, Jordan leads the Cardinals in home runs (five) and runs batted in (20). He’s batting .250.

“He’s a 100-RBI man the way he’s going,” Manager Joe Torre said. “The thing I like about him is when there are men in scoring position, he does his best work.”

Jordan’s hit made a winner of Bob Tewksbury (4-1) as the Cardinals continued a routine that has put them into second place in the East. They take a lead late in the game and Todd Worrell comes in to pitch a scoreless eighth. Lee Smith takes over and pitches a scoreless ninth.

Smith picked up his major league-leading 12th save in this one.

Pittsburgh 11, Atlanta 10--The Braves are getting involved in the wildest games.

Last week they blew a 9-0 lead and lost to St. Louis. In this game at Atlanta, the Pirates built a 10-2 lead in the fourth inning, but the Braves battled back to tie it on Terry Pendleton’s two-run home run in the eighth inning.

Then Jay Bell, who already had three hits, won it in the ninth when he tagged Alejandro Pena (0-4) for his first home run.

Pirate Manager Jim Leyland was ejected in the sixth inning with his team leading, 10-3. Leyland and umpire Mark Hirschbeck started arguing before the Braves came to bat. Leyland appeared to bump the umpire, and both had to be restrained.

There were 36 hits in the game, 21 by the Pirates, and it lasted nearly four hours.

Hot-hitting Andy Van Slyke of the Pirates had four hits, scored two runs and drove in two. Van Slyke has 38 hits in his last 83 at-bats to raise his average from .107 to .378.

San Diego 7, New York 0--The Padres’ Gary Sheffield didn’t do any damage against his uncle, Dwight Gooden, the other night, but he made up for it against David Cone.

Sheffield hit a three-run home run in the first inning against Cone, who had given up only seven runs in his previous five starts.

That was all Bruce Hurst (2-3) needed. Hurst, 6-1 against the Mets, pitched a six-hitter for his first complete game.

Tony Gwynn hit a two-run home run in the fifth off Cone (3-2).

San Francisco 5, Philadelphia 3--Matt Williams didn’t panic when he went into a slump to start the season. He’s out of it now, and the Giants are leading the West.

Williams, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, hit two long home runs at Philadelphia and the Giants won for the sixth time in the last seven games.

Williams hit a 418-foot drive into the upper deck in left in the second inning and sent one about the same distance to center in the sixth. Greg Litton had a two-run shot in the sixth, his first home run in 93 at-bats since June 9, 1991.

Kyle Abbott (0-6) gave up the home runs.

Chicago 8, Houston 3--Shawn Boskie (4-2) gave up six hits in seven innings at Houston, and the Cubs won two in a row on the road for the first time this season.