NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Bond-Less Pirates Blow Two Leads, but Outlast the Phillies in 12, 6-5

The Pittsburgh Pirates expect to learn today whether they will lose their best player for at least 15 days.

The chances are Barry Bonds, who strained a muscle in his right rib cage swinging at a pitch on Sunday, will be put on the disabled list after further examination today.

Bonds, who couldn’t tie his shoes Monday, has been in considerable pain.

But even without Bonds, the Pirates show little willingness to let the rest of the National League East close ground.

Their bullpen twice blew two-run leads Tuesday night at Pittsburgh, but the Pirates outlasted the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5, in 12 innings to stretch their lead to six games.

Mike LaValliere singled home Andy Van Slyke from third base with the winning run with one out to improve the Pirates’ record against their East rivals to 23-7.

Van Slyke, who hit his third home run in the third inning, went three for five to raise his average to .353. His single started the winning rally.

The Pirates had a 4-2 lead going into the seventh, but Mariano Duncan hit a three-run home run to put the Phillies in front, 5-4. Jay Bell hit his second home run in the bottom of the seventh for a 5-5 tie.

The Pirates are the only team in the East Division playing above .500. The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals are tied for second place with 31-32 records.

Cincinnati 5, San Francisco 3--Last season the Reds led the league with 164 home runs. Most of this season the homer has been a missing weapon.

The Reds had hit only 30 in 61 games, when Hal Morris came to bat with a man on in a 3-3 game in the sixth inning at Cincinnati. Morris hit a two-run home run, his first, off Brian Hickerson to give the Reds their fifth victory in a row and the 17th in the last 21 games.

“You know you haven’t hit one. It’s on your mind,” Morris said. “You just hit dry spells sometimes. You really don’t think about it at the plate, but it’s somewhere in your mind.”

The Reds, who have led the West throughout June, remained 3 1/2 games ahead of surging Atlanta.

Cory Snyder hit his sixth and seventh home runs for the Giants.

Houston 11, San Diego 0--The Astros made it easy for rookie Brian Williams to win his first major league game.

They had a season-high 15 hits in the Astrodome, including the first three hits in the majors for Williams’ catcher, Scooter Turner.

Williams, called up Friday from Tucson, gave up six hits, struck out five and walked four in six innings.

Xavier Hernandez completed the shutout, pitching the last three innings for his first save. Rich Rodriguez (3-2), making his first start after winning three in relief, lasted only four innings, giving up five hits and three runs, two earned.

New York 5, Montreal 2--A sprained ankle forced David Cone to delay his starting assignment a day, but it certainly didn’t affect his pitching.

Cone, the Mets’ stopper, pitched a three-hitter at New York for his league-leading sixth complete game and ended the Mets’ five-game losing streak.

Cone had no problem with the ankle, either on the mound or on the bases.

With the score tied, 2-2, Cone led off the fifth inning with a double. He went to third on an infield out and scored the go-ahead run on a two-out single by Bobby Bonilla.

Cone (6-4), who leads the league in strikeouts with 103, struck out eight.

Dave Magadan singled in two runs and Howard Johnson hit his sixth home run for another run.

Chicago 2, St. Louis 1--It is no coincidence that when Ryne Sandberg started to hit, the Cubs started to win.

Sandberg tripled in the fourth inning and scored the first run at Chicago, then hit his ninth home run in the sixth inning to lead Cubs into a tie for second place in the East.

The Cubs have won six in a row and nine of their last 11 to catch the slumping Cardinals.

In the last 11 games, Sandberg has 20 hits in 48 at-bats (.417) with 13 runs scored.

“It was a big game for us, kept our momentum going,” Sandberg said. “We’re playing good, the pitchers are doing a job and we’re getting timely hits.

“I’m trying to be aware of strikes and lay off bad balls. Sometimes the pitchers are not going after me and I can help by getting on base for Andre (Dawson) and Mark (Grace).”