NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Braves Turn Up Their Power, 16-1

Ron Gant of the Atlanta Braves had never seen anything like it.

Neither, probably, had Houston reliever Al Osuna.

Osuna surrendered consecutive home runs to David Justice, Brian Hunter and Gant before Mark Lemke homered one out later against Rich Scheid during a seven-run sixth inning that helped the Braves beat the Astros, 16-1, Sunday at Atlanta.

“This team can do unpredictable things like that,” Gant said. “It was a cool thing to watch.”

Osuna left the clubhouse early and was unavailable for comment.

The Braves became the first team to homer four times in an inning since the Detroit Tigers did it on Sept. 10, 1986. The only other time the Braves hit four in an inning was on June 21, 1971, when Mike Lum, Hal King, Hank Aaron and Darrell Evans did it against Montreal.

The power surge gave left-hander Steve Avery his first victory since Aug. 15. Avery (11-10) gave up one run and four hits in six innings. He struck out five, walked one and ended the Astros’ five-game winning streak.

“I’ve had some tough games where we didn’t score much,” Avery said. “I guess this makes up for it.”

The Braves were leading, 8-1, when Otis Nixon opened the sixth with a single. Jeff Blauser walked and Terry Pendleton singled in a run. Justice followed with a three-run homer--his 18th--Hunter hit his 14th homer and Gant hit his 16th. One out later, Lemke hit his sixth.

New York 1, Montreal 0--Sid Fernandez pitched a five-hitter at New York to drop the Expos six games behind Pittsburgh in the NL East.

It appears that the Expos can only win the division if the Mets dominate in six remaining games with the first-place Pirates.

“We still have two games left at home with Pittsburgh, but we’ll need some help from the Mets to win the division,” Expo Manager Felipe Alou said.

Fernandez (13-10) struck out 10 and walked two in his second shutout of the season, the eighth of his career.

Ken Hill (16-9), who had shut out the Mets in his previous two starts against them this season, gave up six hits in seven innings.

St. Louis 16, Chicago 4--Stan Royer hit his first homer and drove in four runs to lead the Cardinals at Chicago.

Geronimo Pena had a three-run double during a six-run first inning. The Cardinals finished with 22 hits.

Ryne Sandberg of the Cubs hit his 24th homer, his fourth in six games.

Shawn Boskie (5-10) retired none of the seven batters he faced in the shortest start of his career.

Cincinnati 6, San Diego 1--Tim Belcher struck out a career-high 13 and Dave Martinez hit a two-run homer at Cincinnati as the Reds extended their winning streak to four games.

Belcher (13-14) gave up seven hits and walked none. He has struck out 10 or more eight times in his career. Belcher’s previous strikeout high was 12.