NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Gooden Stays Sharp, Shuts Out Marlins

Dwight Gooden pitched his 23rd career shutout, and Joe Orsulak and Howard Johnson homered at New York to lead the Mets over the Florida Marlins, 4-0, Friday night for only their second victory in 12 games.

Gooden (4-3) gave up four hits--two of them singles by Walt Weiss--to lead the Mets, who had lost their last two. His complete-game victory Sunday over San Diego ended a seven-game skid by New York.

The 28-year-old right-hander’s second shutout this season matched his total for all of the previous three seasons. His third complete game this season equaled his total for each of the previous two.

Gooden struck out four and walked two. He has given up only six earned runs in his last 33 innings.

Orsulak hit his first homer this season against Charlie Hough (2-3), extending New York’s lead to 2-0 in the fourth.

Gooden, who had 13 shutouts in his first 77 major league starts, had only two in his previous 109 entering this season.

Atlanta 13, Colorado 5--Jeff Blauser had two homers and four runs batted in, and Mark Lemke homered twice at Denver as the offensive resurgence of the Braves continued.

Terry Pendleton added three RBIs for the Braves, who had 16 hits.

Before the start of this series the Braves were hitting a major league low .232 and had four regulars batting below .200.

Blauser hit a first-inning solo homer against Butch Henry and a two-run homer off Jeff Parrett (0-1) in the fifth.

Reliever Marvin Freeman won in his first decision of the season.

Philadelphia 4, St. Louis 3--Dave Hollins hit a two-run homer, and Tommy Greene remained unbeaten as the Phillies won for the 10th time in 13 games by beating the Cardinals at Philadelphia.

Greene (3-0) pitched 7 1/3 innings, giving up five hits and three runs, striking out six and walking three. Mitch Williams, the fourth Philadelphia pitcher, worked the ninth for his 12th save.

The Phillies trailed, 3-2, in the bottom of the fifth when John Kruk walked against Joe Magrane (2-3) with one out. Hollins followed with his fourth homer.

Cincinnati 7, Houston 5--Randy Milligan hit a three-run homer, and Chris Sabo had three hits and scored three runs at Houston.

Jose Rijo (4-1) pitched six innings, giving up four runs on six hits for his his fourth consecutive victory.

Rijo has an 11-4 career record against Houston.

Cincinnati took a 1-0 lead against Greg Swindell (4-3) in the second after Sabo led off with a walk, moved to second when Reggie Sanders walked and scored on a single by Joe Oliver.

Montreal 1, Pittsburgh 0--Chris Nabholz picked up where he left off last season against the Pirates, limiting the Pirates to five hits over six innings at Pittsburgh.

Only one runner reached third base against Nabholz (2-2). Nabholz, who struck out five and walked three, is 4-1 with an 0.41 ERA the last two seasons against the Pirates.

Randy Tomlin (1-3) gave up five hits over seven innings in his most effective start of the season, but hit three batters.

San Diego 2, Chicago 1--Andy Benes gave up four hits in seven innings and Dan Walters and Darrell Sherman each drove in runs at Chicago, ending the Padres’ three-game losing streak.

Benes (5-2) had a two-hit shutout until giving up a run in the sixth inning.

Mike Morgan (2-5) pitched seven innings, striking out one batter.