NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Pirate Youth Movement Pays

The Pittsburgh Pirates aren’t doing the things pennant contenders usually do.

At this late stage, teams in contention normally are looking for a veteran or two who can make the difference in the stretch drive.

The Pirates, leaders of the National League East, are releasing veterans and bringing up untried youngsters.

Knuckleball specialist Tim Wakefield became the second rookie pitcher in five days to make his first start for the Pirates on Friday night.

Wakefield baffled the St. Louis Cardinals, striking out 10 and giving up two unearned runs as the Pirates won, 3-2, at Pittsburgh.

Barry Bonds hit a two-run home run and Jay Bell also homered, and the Pirates regained sole possession of first place.

Wakefield, who will be 26 Sunday, pitched a five-hitter. An error by third baseman Jeff King in the fifth inning allowed the Cardinals to score their two runs.

Wakefield, a converted first baseman, was 10-3 at triple-A Buffalo. But last Sunday the Pirates brought up Paul Wagner from the minor leagues, and he pitched four strong innings in a 5-4 victory over Atlanta.

“Really, I wasn’t nervous except for the first pitch,” Wakefield said. “I had relatives here from Florida, D.C., North Carolina--they were all here for the big debut. I’m glad I could stick around long enough to give them something to see.”

Earlier this week the Pirates dropped veteran pitchers Jerry Don Gleaton and Jeff Robinson and replaced them with Blas Minor and Steve Cooke, neither of whom had major league experience.

“We have to think about the future,” Manager Jim Leyland said in explaining why the Pirates brought up four rookie pitchers. “We decided to try the kids.

“We’re going to need some young guys in the near future.”

Leyland said he would have used Wakefield earlier in the week, but he didn’t know whether he had anyone to catch him.

“I saw him throw a knuckler in the outfield his first day up, and he nearly knocked out (Doug) Drabek,” Leyland said.

“I wanted to be sure our catchers could handle the knuckler before I activated him. Don (Slaught) did a fine job of catching him.”

Philadelphia 2, Montreal 0--Terry Mulholland pitched a five-hitter at Montreal and knocked the Expos out of a share of first place in the East with his eighth complete game.

Catcher Darren Daulton hit his 18th home run in the second inning.

Mulholland (11-7) had five poor outings to start the season, losing three. Since then, he has been brilliant while pitching for the worst team in the East.

He ran his record to 7-1 against the Expos.

“I don’t like to look back at what I’ve done in the past,” he said. “I enjoy pitching at Olympic Stadium. This is a pitcher’s park. The Astroturf allows you to get groundball outs. And it’s great to be able to keep a team’s running game down.”

Cincinnati 6, Houston 1--Barry Larkin hit a three-run home run and Tim Belcher gave up three hits in eight innings at Cincinnati for his first victory since July 3.

It was the second loss in a row for the Astros, who began their 26-game trip with two victories.

Earlier Larkin, who has 12 home runs against the Astros, made two dazzling plays at shortstop.

“He went to his left, he went to his right,” Reds’ Manager Lou Piniella said. “Those were two plays as great you could want to be treated to see.”

The Reds, taking over the lead in the West, have won four of their last six games.

San Francisco 4, Atlanta 3--The Giants, held to two hits through eight innings at San Francisco, used four hits in the ninth inning to knock the Braves out of first place in the West.

Will Clark doubled home Robby Thompson with the tying run, and rookie Craig Colbert singled Clark home with the winning run.

Nixon had given the Braves a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning.