NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Giants’ Snyder Has Seven RBIs

Cory Snyder, one of baseball’s brightest stars a few years ago, was a player nobody wanted last winter.

Suddenly, he is in demand--as the cleanup hitter for the San Francisco Giants.

Snyder had four hits, including a home run, and drove in a personal-best seven runs to lead the Giants to a 12-6 victory over the Houston Astros at San Francisco on Saturday.

Snyder’s three-run double during the seventh inning helped the Giants end a four-game losing streak.

Snyder, the fourth player chosen during the 1984 amateur draft, hit 33 home runs for the Cleveland Indians in 1987, his second season in the majors. But when he was released by Toronto in December, he had a lifetime average of only .240.

The Giants signed Snyder, 29, to a minor league contract. He impressed Manager Roger Craig during training camp and joined the Giants. Snyder was productive off the bench and at the start of this month, Craig put him in the lineup. He has hit safely in all five games in June and increased his average to .300.

“I’ve found myself a fourth-place hitter,” Craig said. “Somewhere between here and Toronto and Cleveland, he got his head screwed on tight. I don’t know what did it. He’s a valuable player for us.”

Snyder, who was four-for-five, received a standing ovation when he took his position at third base to start the eighth inning.

“The fans don’t realize how important they are,” he said. “It was really, really nice.

“I’m getting comfortable. It’s coming back. It shows that if you work hard, you never know what’s going to happen.”

New York 15, Pittsburgh 1--Bobby Bonilla had four of the Mets’ 18 hits, including a home run, to silence the Pittsburgh fans.

“All I can do is go out and play hard,” Bonilla said after driving in four runs. “Some people are mad at me, and some aren’t. Some never did like me.”

The Mets’ Eddie Murray drove in two runs and became the all-time RBI king among switch-hitters. Murray has 1,510, one more than Mickey Mantle.

“When I sit down at the end of the season, it will be a lot better,” Murray said. “It would be nice if we won this thing. It would be a super year to me.”

Todd Hundley and Chico Walker hit three-run homers for the Mets. Sid Fernandez (5-5) benefited from the Mets’ highest runs and hits total of the season and became the first to pitch a complete game against the Pirates this season.

Philadelphia 7, St. Louis 5--Even though they scored five times before the Phillies even came to bat at Philadelphia, the Cardinals couldn’t end their skid, losing their fifth in a row and eighth in the last nine.

Len Dykstra hit a tie-breaking, two-run double during the eighth inning.

It was the third consecutive game in which the Cardinals blew a lead in the late innings. In two of them, the starter was allowed to stay in until he put the tying run on base.

The first five Cardinal batters scored against Don Robinson, but Mike Clark, recently up from the minors, gave up 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings to blow the lead.

Mike Hartley (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings and Mitch Williams worked the ninth for his 11th save.

Atlanta 5, San Diego 1--Tom Glavine pitched his third two-hitter of the season and became the National League’s first nine-game winner.

Glavine also drove in a run at San Diego to lead the Braves to their seventh victory in eight games. Glavine struck out seven and did not give up a hit after the second inning.