NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Galarraga Haunts Former Teammates

One swing by Andres Galarraga lifted the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-4 victory and brought an abrupt end to the Montreal Expos’ six-game winning streak Saturday night at Montreal.

Montreal’s Mark Gardner survived a rocky start to pitch brilliantly for seven innings, and the Expos built a 4-2 lead against Bob Tewksbury, the National League’s earned-run average leader.

When Gardner, who hit two batters with the bases loaded in the first inning, walked two Cardinals with one out in the eighth, the Expos brought in John Wetteland.

Wetteland, who earned his 27th save Friday night, struck out Ray Lankford, but walked Felix Jose to load the bases.

Galarraga, a former Expo, hit a 3-and-2 pitch over the fence in left field for his sixth home run. It gave the Cardinals six runs on two hits.

“I was excited when I hit it,” said Galarraga, who has raised his average from .180 to .230 in two months. “It was a great moment for me--not because of the Expos, but because I was booed a lot during the game.”

The Cardinals finished with Todd Worrell pitching the eighth inning and Lee Smith the ninth for his 29th save.

In the first inning, Gardner tied a major league record--held by many--by hitting three batters. He also gave up a single to Jose.

Two of the batters he hit, Galarraga and Luis Alicea, drove in runs.

Gardner retired 19 consecutive batters before walking Milt Thompson to open the eighth inning.

The grand slam improved Tewksbury’s record to 12-5, but the four runs increased his ERA to 2.07.

The loss left the Expos 1 1/2 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in the East.

Atlanta 7, Pittsburgh 5--The Pirates lost nearly everything at Atlanta. In the fifth inning they lost Manager Jim Leyland because of an argument over a foul ball, and in the seventh they lost Barry Bonds when he objected to a called third strike.

But their worst loss was the run that would have tied the score in the sixth. With runners on first and second and the Braves leading, 6-5, Jay Bell lined a single to left. Lonnie Smith’s throw home was so weak that it went to third baseman Terry Pendleton. Pendleton reached out and tagged Orlando Merced for the last out in the inning before John Wehner scored from second.

Mark Lemke’s home run in the eighth increased the lead to 7-5.

The Braves, who beat the Pirates, 15-0, after scoring four runs in the first inning Friday night, scored five in the first Saturday and had a 6-0 lead in two innings.

Leyland was chased by Bruce Froemming after the umpire ruled Andy Van Slyke was out because a fan interfered with third baseman Pendleton trying to catch his foul pop. Leyland argued that Pendleton leaned into the stands to make the catch, and an interference call should not have been made.

Cincinnati 5, San Diego 4--The Reds scored twice in the eighth inning to tie at Cincinnati, then scored off former teammate Randy Myers in the ninth to win it.

Darnell Coles opened the ninth with a double and went to third base on an infield out. Dave Martinez ran for Coles, and the Padres, with one out, decided to pitch to Joe Oliver. He flied to Tony Gwynn in right field and Martinez scored easily.

The Reds remained 5 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the West and the Padres fell 7 1/2 back.

Philadelphia 4, New York 3--Stan Javier singled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning at New York and the Phillies moved to within 3 1/2 games of the fifth-place Mets.

The Mets have lost three in a row and 10 of 11.

Houston 5, Chicago 0--Second baseman Ryne Sandberg had gone 106 games at Wrigley Field without making an error. But he made two errors at Chicago and helped the Astros to three unearned runs.

Astro rookie Butch Henry gave up eight hits and struck out eight in his first complete game.

Sandberg made an error June 11, 1991, at home against San Francisco.

Jeff Bagwell and Juan Guerrero each drove in two runs and the Astros improved to 8-11 in their 26-game trip brought about because the Republican convention is at the Astrodome.