NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Roper Has Rockies’ Number

Take John Roper, add the Colorado Rockies and serve in Riverfront Stadium and the result is tasty in Cincinnati, unpalatable in Denver.

The Rockies have never won at Riverfront, running their record to 0-9 Friday with a 10-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

Roper has never lost to Colorado, winning for the fourth time. He is 2-0 with a 3.07 earned-run average against the Rockies this year.

He has never beaten another National League team and is 0-5 with a 5.96 ERA against the rest of the league. Go figure.

“I can’t evaluate them,” said Roper, who gave up nine hits and three runs and struck out four in 7 1/3 innings. “All I can do is go out and pitch. I can’t tell you what those guys are thinking.”

Said Colorado Manager Don Baylor: “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure it out. I’m still trying to find out.”

The only time the Rockies did anything against Roper was when he tired in the eighth inning. They cut it to 6-4 with solo homers by Dante Bichette and John Vander Wal off Roper and Vinny Castilla off Hector Carrasco.

Pittsburgh 5, Florida 4--Brian Hunter helped the Pirates break out of an extended offensive slump with a homer and three RBIs at Pittsburgh.

The Pirates, batting .195 in their previous 10 games, had 10 hits by the third inning against Chris Hammond (4-4)--their first 10-hit game since May 29--to win their third in a row and fifth in seven games.

Pittsburgh finished with 12 hits.

Atlanta 5, Houston 2--David Justice hit a three-run homer and John Smoltz (4-6) pitched three-hit ball for seven innings as the Braves won at Houston.

Justice connected with two out in the fifth inning off Doug Drabek (8-3) for his eighth home run and a 5-0 lead.

Houston’s streak of consecutive innings without an error ended at 103 when second baseman Craig Biggio misplayed Justice’s grounder in the fourth inning.

Montreal 6, New York 4--Moises Alou homered for the fifth time in five games and the Expos won at New York for their eighth victory in 11 games.

Alou, who homered twice and drove in five runs Thursday against the Mets, hit a two-run homer and an RBI single Friday. The Mets have lost four in a row and nine of 11.

St. Louis 4, Philadelphia 3-- Pinch-hitter Luis Alicea hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning at Philadelphia as the Cardinals ended the Phillies’ four-game winning streak.

St. Louis trailed, 3-1, when Tom Pagnozzi drew a one-out walk from Mike Williams (2-3) in the seventh. Jose Oquendo singled and Alicea, batting for pitcher Rick Sutcliffe (3-2), hit his second home run of the season.

San Diego 5, San Francisco 2--Rookie Joey Hamilton (3-0) stopped the Giants for eight innings at San Francisco. Tony Gwynn (.378) drove in three runs and scored twice for the Padres.