NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Sheffield Injures Thumb, Out for Season

About the only thing the Florida Marlins seemed to have going for them was third baseman Gary Sheffield, and now they don’t even have him.

The Marlins lost more than a game when the Pittsburgh Pirates beat them, 6-2, Saturday night in Miami. They lost Sheffield for the rest of the season when he tore a ligament in his left thumb as he tried to return to second base after taking a wide turn. He will undergo surgery next week.

“My feet just gave out and all my weight landed on my thumb,” said Sheffield. “I knew right away. I heard it pop. It looked like the bone was coming out, so I popped it back into place.”

Sheffield will be in a cast for six weeks and will undergo an additional six to eight weeks of physical therapy.

He is hitting .315, with six homers and 19 RBIs.

The injury overshadowed an outstanding pitching performance by Pirate rookie Esteban Loaiza (2-2), who gave up two runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings, with three strikeouts, all against Jeff Conine.

Sheffield’s injury occurred after he singled to open the Marlin seventh inning. Terry Pendleton followed with a single, and Sheffield rounded second and appeared on his way to third.

As center fielder Al Martin’s throw came toward the infield, however, Sheffield changed his mind and tried to return to second. After he fell, he was tagged out by second baseman Carlos Garcia.

Chicago 3, Colorado 0--Mike Morgan (2-1) took baseball’s concern about long games into his own hands, scattering five singles over 7 1/3 innings, then turning the game over to Randy Myers, who retired the other five batters.

The game took only 2 hours 12 minutes, even with the wind blowing out at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

Shawon Dunston followed an intentional walk to Mark Grace with a three-run home run in the seventh inning to end the Cubs’ five-game losing streak.

Montreal 11, San Francisco 5--Butch Henry, with the poorest support on the Expo staff at 2.75 runs per start, got plenty in San Francisco, from both teams.

Wil Cordero and Rondell White homered for Montreal, and the Giants made three errors, leading to four unearned runs.

Henry (1-4) gave up five hits and five runs in 6 1/3 innings and recovered from Mike Benjamin’s two-run homer in the first inning to beat the Giants, who have lost three in a row and made nine errors in the process.

St. Louis 7, Atlanta 3--Ray Lankford’s fourth consecutive hit off Tom Glavine, a two-run single, capped a four-run seventh inning that lifted the Cardinals to a victory in Atlanta.

Lankford broke out of an 0-for-21 slump and the Cardinals ended a three-game losing streak with his two doubles and two singles for Rich De Lucia (2-3).

The Braves’ winning streak was snapped at four games.

Glavine had a 3-0 lead and a two-hit shutout--both hits by Lankford--through 5 2/3 innings before giving up a run in the sixth. Danny Sheaffer’s single and Tripp Cromer’s sacrifice fly tied it, 3-3, in the seventh inning before Lankford singled with the bases loaded to break it open.

Cincinnati 3, Houston 2--John Smiley won at Houston to improve his record to 5-0, and the Reds won for the 26th time in 32 games.

Smiley gave up two runs and eight hits in six innings and got relief help from Mike Jackson and Hector Carrasco.

A triple by Mark Lewis and Damon Berryhill’s sacrifice fly in the fourth inning gave the Reds a 3-1 lead from which they were not headed.

Greg Swindell (3-3) took the loss for Houston, making the Astro starting pitchers 2-13 at home.

San Diego 4, New York 2--Scott Sanders pitched a four-hitter and struck out 12 for his first complete game in 39 starts, and Tony Gwynn’s two-run double broke a tie in the fifth inning as the Padres won at home.

Sanders (5-1) settled down after allowing two solo homers in the first three innings. He gave up only one hit after the third inning and did not walk a batter.

Ken Caminiti’s fourth-inning homer tied the score, 2-2, and fifth-inning walks to Adujar Cedeno and Jody Reed set up Gwynn’s game-winning double.