NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Giants’ McGee Hurt, May Be Out for Year

San Francisco Giant Manager Dusty Baker watched the recurrence of a nightmare in the sixth inning at Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

When Matt Williams homered in the 10th for a 3-2 victory over the Pirates, it seemed to pale in significance with the memory of Willie McGee’s crashing into the right-field wall earlier in the game.

The diagnosis was a torn left Achilles’ tendon, and McGee will be sidelined indefinitely.

Baker has seen it before and he knows it usually means repair and rehabilitation for the rest of the season, but he doesn’t want to believe it.

“It’s tough. I played with two players who had that--Reggie Smith and Rick Monday--and it took them some time (to come back),” Baker said. “But it doesn’t mean all year. It means, ‘who knows?’ There can be different degrees of tears in there.”

McGee, a four-time All-Star batting .282 with five homers and 23 RBIs, will return to San Francisco today to be examined by Giant orthopedist Warren King.

He was hurt when he unsuccessfully tried to make a back-handed, over-the-head catch of Orlando Merced’s run-scoring triple in the sixth inning.

He ran face first into the right-field wall and came down awkwardly on his left leg. His left foot appeared to snag between the bottom of the fence padding and the outfield warning track.

Williams’ home run, his 21st, led off the 10th inning and came against reliever Rick White, who knew he had made a mistake.

“As soon as I threw it, I just yelled, ‘Damn,’ ” White said. “My only hope was I yelled so loud that it might scare him and he might not do anything with it. I knew it was gone. You don’t throw letter-high pitches to the leading home-run hitter in the National League and get away with it.”

Cincinnati 5, St. Louis 0--Erik Hanson rebounded from two miserable starts by pitching one-hit ball for eight innings as the Reds won at St. Louis.

Hanson (4-5), who had surrendered 13 earned runs and 22 hits in 7 2/3 innings in his two previous starts, and who had been passed up for his last scheduled start, gave up a single to Ozzie Smith with one out in the first inning, then retired 20 batters in a row.

The Reds broke open the game with a five-run sixth inning against Bob Tewksbury (8-4), who lost for the fourth time in his last five starts.

Philadelphia 7, Chicago 6--Pinch-hitter Billy Hatcher’s first hit for the Phillies drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning at Philadelphia as the Cubs lost their eighth in a row.

Darren Daulton singled with one out against Randy Myers (0-3), moved up on a groundout and was running on the pitch when Hatcher singled to left field.

Paul Quantrill (1-0), who retired one batter in the eighth inning, got his first NL victory. Doug Jones pitched the ninth for his league-leading 15th save.

Montreal 3, Houston 2--Marquis Grissom’s single in the seventh inning scored the go-ahead run at Montreal and lifted the Expos to their sixth consecutive victory.

Grissom’s one-out liner off David Veres (2-3) scored Sean Berry and made Gil Heredia (2-2), who pitched 1 1/3 innings of hitless relief, the winning pitcher.

Atlanta 12, San Diego 3--Fred McGriff homered for the third time in four games and drove in five runs as the Braves won at Atlanta for their seventh victory in eight games.

The Braves continued to play the numbers game with McGriff, who has 17 homers. They are 29-3 in games in which he has homered, 15-1 this season. They are also 89-36 since acquiring him from San Diego last season.

Kent Mercker (4-1) gave up two runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Colorado 10, New York 8--Shortstop Jose Vizcaino’s error enabled the Rockies to score the go-ahead run in the eighth inning at Denver.

Colorado scored five runs in the seventh inning to take an 8-4 lead, but the Mets rallied with four in the eighth.

Nelson Liriano led off the Rockies’ eighth with a double against Roger Mason (2-3). Andres Galarraga was intentionally walked and Liriano scored when Dante Bichette’s grounder squirted under Vizcaino’s glove.