NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Injury-Free Jose Makes Cardinals Contenders

The St. Louis Cardinals were a .500 team during the first 20 games of the season because they couldn’t score runs.

Then Felix Jose came off the disabled list.

With Jose on a hitting spree, the Cardinals are scoring runs in bunches and climbing fast in the National League East.

Jose hit a grand slam and a run-scoring single Sunday at Houston to lead the Cardinals to a 7-5 victory over the Astros.

The Cardinals have won seven of eight. With a 22-15 record, they trail Pittsburgh by only 1 1/2 games.

“We may be young as a team, but you can either play this game or you can’t,” Cardinal shortstop Ozzie Smith said. “We have some players.”

Jose’s slam gave the Cardinals a 4-1 lead. The score was 5-5 in the ninth when Ray Lankford doubled, Luis Alicea tripled and Jose singled.

Lee Smith retired the Astros in order for his 14th save.

Jose, who batted .305 last season, suffered a hamstring tear during spring training.

Since returning, he has hit in 16 of 17 games (29 for 70, .414). He has four home runs and has driven in 20 runs.

Alicea, batting only .106 on May 7 and in danger of being returned to the minors, has raised his average to .231. In the last nine games, has had four triples and 12 RBIs.

San Diego 6, Pittsburgh 5--Kevin Ward hit a home run to start a five-run fifth inning that carried the Padres to a three-game sweep at Pittsburgh.

The Padres moved to within half a game of San Francisco in the West.

“This is the first series all year where everything’s clicked: the pitching, the hitting, the defense,” said Padre outfielder Tony Gwynn, who has 13 hits in his last 24 at-bats. “This is the first time all season where we’re playing like I thought we could be playing. We went wild in this series.”

Pirate pitchers entered the series with a league-best 2.97 earned-run average. But the Padres scored 25 runs and had 38 hits in the series.

Andy Benes (4-3) checked the Pirates on three runs and seven hits in 7 2/3 innings. Benes, who hasn’t won at home, is 4-1 with an 1.84 ERA on the road.

Montreal 5, Atlanta 4--Tom Glavine was trying to become the league’s first seven-game winner, but he was outpitched by Ken Hill (4-2) at Atlanta.

The Expos scored five runs on seven hits in four innings against Glavine (6-2). Hill gave up no runs and only one hit in 6 1/3 innings. The hit was a bunt single by Otis Nixon, the Braves’ first batter.

Both benches emptied in the sixth when Brave pitcher Kent Mercker hit Marquis Grissom with the count 0-2. Grissom injured his hand, which he had raised to avoid being hit in the head. Mercker said he was merely trying to move Grissom off the plate.

Philadelphia 5, Cincinnati 4--The Phillies scored three runs in the ninth for the victory at Cincinnati.

The winning run scored when Dave Hollins hit a shallow fly to right against Norm Charlton that dropped untouched.

The rally saved former USC pitcher Brad Brink from losing in his debut. He gave up seven hits and four runs in six innings.

Chicago 4, San Francisco 3--Andre Dawson drove in three runs with a home run and a single at San Francisco to lead the Cubs.

Mike Morgan (3-2) gave up four hits in seven innings to help the Cubs win for the fourth time in five games.