National League Roundup : Cards Win on Homer by Porter

Darrell Porter, a .199 hitter, drilled a three-run pinch home run in the ninth inning Wednesday night at Houston to give St. Louis a 7-4 victory over the Astros and put the Cardinals just one-half game out of first place in the National League East.

Porter, who has had a broken thumb and a wrist injury this season and lost his regular catching job, has been making his hits count this season. The home run was only his 27th hit this season. Seven have been home runs. And he has driven in 26 runs, including the game-winning run five times.

Mark Bailey singled in the eighth inning to drive in the tying run for the Astros off relief pitcher Ken Dayley.

But Andy Van Slyke opened the ninth with a single off Dave Smith. With one out, Ozzie Smith singled. Porter was sent up to hit for Tom Nieto, the man who took Porter’s job. Porter hammered a Smith pitch over the wall in right, and Jeff Lahti closed out the Astros to gain the victory.

Porter’s home run accounted for the only runs the Cardinals scored after they jumped on Bob Knepper for four runs in the first inning.

“We are essentially a young club,” Manager Whitey Herzog said. “We need a veteran who has been through tight pennant races, and Darrell certainly fills the bill. He is finally healthy and figures to be of great help to us down the stretch.

“I like the way this club is hanging in there. People keep writing us off, but we are still right there.”

San Francisco 3, New York 2--This was the opportunity for the Mets to pull away in the East. They went into last weekend knowing they had six games coming up against the two last-place clubs in the league.

Instead of pulling away, the Mets are still in front only because in between their series with Pittsburgh and San Francisco, they had a makeup game with Montreal and won it. But they lost two out of three to the Pirates and now, they are 1-1 against the Giants.

In this game at New York, it appeared the Mets had the victory when Howard Johnson hit a pinch home run in the eighth.

The Giants started the ninth inning against Roger McDowell with a 1-63 record in games in which they trailed going into the ninth. But Chris Brown singled and Bob Brenly crashed his 17th home run to double the Giants’ record in this category with one swing.

Brenly, one of many Giants having a poor season, was batting only .214 and had a strikeout and two ground-outs before hitting the home run.

Dave LaPoint, who also tossed a home run ball to Darryl Strawberry in the fifth inning, turned back the Mets in the bottom of the ninth for a complete-game victory that improved his record to 6-11.

The defeat, coupled with the Cardinal victory, left the Mets only one-half game on top. They would be in real trouble if their ace, Dwight Gooden, wasn’t working on a 13-game winning streak.

Cincinnati 8, Pittsburgh 5--In Pittsburgh, it was designated “Pete Rose Night.” The player-manager of the Reds managed to get only one hit in six at-bats, but he drove in two runs, and the Reds remained one game out of second place in the East.

Rose was given a floral arrangement spelling out 4,192, the number of hits he will have when he breaks Ty Cobb’s record, by former Pirate pitcher Bob Friend. Rose, who needs 14 hits to break the record, had his first hit off Friend.

Nick Esasky hit a two-run home run for the Reds to help build a 6-3 lead. The Pirates cut that to 6-5 with two in the seventh, but relief pitcher Cecilio Guante walked in two runs in the ninth.

Chicago 9, Atlanta 5--Last season, when he was the league’s Most Valuable Player, Ryne Sandberg finished one home run short of his goal of 20 home runs and 30 stolen bases.

In this game at Atlanta, the Cubs’ talented second baseman hit two home runs to reach 20 and achieve last season’s goal. He has 34 steals. Sandberg, moving up on the .300 mark after a slow start, had four hits and drove in six runs.

San Diego 6, Montreal 2--Graig Nettles, Garry Templeton and Tony Gwynn each had three hits at Montreal as the Padres backed Eric Show’s steady pitching to hand the Expos their third loss in a row.

The Expos, who ended a string of 20 innings without a run when Tim Raines singled in a run in the third inning, remained six games behind the Mets in the East.