BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Gant’s Blast in 10th Cuts Margin to One

Ron Gant homered in the 10th inning Thursday night to give the Atlanta Braves a 1-0 victory over the San Diego Padres at San Diego, cutting San Francisco’s lead in the NL West to one game.

Three Brave pitchers combined on a one-hitter as Atlanta won for the 24th time in 29 games.

Kent Mercker, making only his fifth start of the season, pitched six hitless innings for the Braves. But he was pulled after 81 pitches, and Mark Wohlers took over to start the seventh.

With two out in the Padres’ eighth, Luis Lopez grounded a single up the middle for his first major league hit to end the no-hitter. Greg McMichael (2-3) pitched two innings for the victory.

On Sept. 11, 1991, against the Padres, Mercker combined with Wohlers and Alejandro Pena to pitch the National League’s only combined no-hitter.

Gant’s 32nd home run of the season came with one out in the 10th against Trevor Hoffman (4-6).

St. Louis 9, San Francisco 4--Todd Zeile hit his second grand slam of the season as the Cardinals beat the struggling Giants at soggy Candlestick Park.

The Giants, who led the division by 10 games on July 22, have won only 11 of their last 23 games.

Zeile’s slam came during a six-run sixth inning. Ozzie Smith singled four times and drove in two runs and Tom Pagnozzi had three hits for the Cardinals.

Rene Arocha (11-6) weathered a 14-minute delay early in the game because of a soggy infield--caused by excessive watering by the ground crew before the game--and survived four Cardinal errors. His fielders managed to turn three double plays, one with the bases loaded.

Philadelphia 10, Chicago 8--Lenny Dykstra hit two homers--one of them leading to a bench-clearing brawl--and drove in a career-high five runs as the Phillies stopped a three-game losing streak at Philadelphia.

Dave Hollins also homered and Darren Daulton drove in three runs as the Phillies increased their lead in the NL East to seven games over idle Montreal and ended the Cubs’ season-high six-game winning streak.

Dykstra hit his second homer of the game, and 18th of the season, in the third inning. Mariano Duncan, the next batter, was brushed back by Frank Castillo and charged the mound.

Castillo and Duncan were ejected. The Cubs said Castillo had suffered lacerations between the third and fourth fingers of his non-pitching hand and was sent to a nearby hospital for treatment.

“I want to send him and their whole team a message,” Duncan said. “We’re not going to take it. I could see he did it on purpose.

“If I don’t go to the mound, I don’t show anything. Anybody throws close to my face is playing with my career.”

Colorado 10, Pittsburgh 7--Pitcher Gary Wayne hit a two-run single in his first major league at-bat to help the Rockies win in 12 innings at Pittsburgh.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Oakland 7, Toronto 4--The Blue Jays lost their sixth consecutive game and dropped into another first-place tie as the Athletics completed their first road series sweep of the season at Toronto.

The Blue Jays are tied with the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East, with the Baltimore Orioles one-half game back. The losing streak is their longest of the season. Before it started, they had a two-game lead.

Troy Neel’s two-out single in the ninth broke a 4-4 tie and Brent Gates, who had three hits, doubled home two more against Tony Castillo (3-2).

Minnesota 5, Cleveland 3--Brian Harper had a sacrifice fly and Pedro Munoz added a run-scoring single in the 12th inning at Cleveland.

Dave Winfield singled and doubled for the Twins, leaving him four hits shy of becoming the 19th player to reach 3,000 hits.

Chuck Knoblauch led off the 12th against Derek Lilliquist (3-3) with an infield single, and Kirby Puckett singled him to third. After Winfield popped out, Harper flied to deep right, scoring Knoblauch and sending Puckett to second. Munoz’s single scored Puckett.