NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Braves Give Glavine Cushion in 20th Victory

It took Tom Glavine four tries, but the Atlanta left-hander finally earned his 20th victory.

The Braves scored seven runs during the first inning Wednesday night en route to a 12-7 victory over the Cincinnati Reds that made Glavine the first NL pitcher to reach the 20-win mark.

The Braves’ fifth consecutive victory increased their lead in the NL West to 8 1/2 games over the Reds, the Braves’ largest margin of the year. It was Cincinnati’s second consecutive loss and 10th in 15 games.

Glavine (20-6) pitched five innings and gave up four runs and eight hits. He walked three and did not record a strikeout. Glavine, who won the NL Cy Young award last season, had lost three consecutive decisions and had not won since Aug. 19.

“I was fortunate tonight that the guys were swinging their bats,” Glavine said. “And in all honesty, I want to thank (Manager) Bobby (Cox) for keeping me out there. My hat is off to him for leaving me in and giving me a chance to get my 20th.”

The Braves sent 12 batters to the plate in the first inning--their biggest of the season--and scored seven runs against Tim Belcher (11-14), who retired only two batters.

Lonnie Smith drove in three runs with his sixth homer, Jeff Blauser had a run-scoring double and RBI single, Sid Bream drove in a run with a single and Glavine also had an RBI single.

Bream also hit his 10th homer in the second against Steve Foster and Atlanta added three runs in the fifth against Dwayne Henry.

Terry Pendleton hit a two-run homer, his 21st of the season.

Pittsburgh 13, Chicago 8--Jeff King hit a grand slam in the seventh inning as the Pirates rallied for the victory at Pittsburgh.

Ryne Sandberg hit a grand slam in the seventh to give the Cubs a 7-6 lead.

Danny Cox (4-3) got the win despite allowing Sandberg’s third career grand slam and 19th homer of the season.

St. Louis 10, Montreal 3--Joe Magrane pitched 5 1/3 innings at Montreal to win his first start in the majors in nearly two years.

Magrane, who had surgery to repair a medial collateral ligament in his left elbow on Feb. 3, 1991, last appeared in the majors on Sept. 30, 1990.

It was Magrane’s first victory since he beat Montreal on Sept. 10, 1990.

Philadelphia 2, New York 1--Curt Schilling gave up a fifth-inning homer to Bobby Bonilla, but that was the only hit he allowed in a complete game at Philadelphia.

Schilling (13-9), who improved to 3-0 against the Mets this season, tied a career high with eight strikeouts. He did not walk a batter.

Sid Fernandez (12-10) gave up five hits and one earned run.

Houston 6, San Francisco 4--Luis Gonzalez broke a tie with an run-scoring double against Billy Swift (9-4) in the seventh to lead the Astros at San Francisco.