NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Sandberg’s Fourth Hit Beats Pirates in 13th, 6-5
Many regard Ryne Sandberg as the best second baseman in baseball, and Monday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates he showed why.
Sandberg had four hits, including a home run and a game-winning single in the 13th inningthat gave the Chicago Cubs a 6-5 victory over the Pirates at Chicago.
With two out in the 13th, reliever Stan Belinda (3-2) hit Damon Berryhill with a pitch. Mark Grace then walked and Sandberg looped a single to right to score Berryhill with the winning run.
Bob Scanlan (3-3) got the victory as the Cubs extended their winning streak to three games and ended the Pirates’ five-game winning streak.
Bob Walk, bidding to improve his record to 7-0, left after five innings with a 4-2 lead that the Pittsburgh bullpen couldn’t protect.
Neal Heaton pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh before Grace walked to open the eighth. Vicente Palacios relieved, and Sandberg greeted him with a two-run homer, his 13th.
The Cubs tied the score, 5-5, in the ninth on Jerome Walton’s lead-off homer off Bill Landrum, who blew his first save opportunity in 16 chances.
Andy Van Slyke had four hits, including a home run, and drove in three runs for the Pirates.
Van Slyke singled in a run in the first inning, broke a 2-2 tie with his seventh home run in the fifth and singled in another run in the seventh. It was the seventh four-hit game of his career, the last coming on May 21, 1989 at Houston.
Van Slyke also made a run-saving catch of Andre Dawson’s sinking liner for the third out in the eighth inning with two runners on base.
New York 4, Montreal 2--Howard Johnson had a two-run single at Montreal that gave him the league lead in runs batted in.
Johnson got his 56th and 57th RBIs with a bases-loaded single off Mark Gardner (3-5) during a three-run third inning, sending the Expos to their eighth consecutive defeat.
Frank Viola (9-5) allowed a run and eight hits in seven innings. John Franco got the final three outs for his 16th save.
Gardner, who lost to Viola last Wednesday at New York, gave up seven hits and walked four in 6 2/3 innings.
The Mets scored three unearned runs in the third with two outs.
Daryl Boston reached when second baseman Delino DeShields bounced a throw to first after fielding a routine grounder. Garry Templeton blooped a double to left and Dave Magadan was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Gardner then walked Kevin McReynolds to force in a run and Johnson lined a 3-and-2 pitch to right for two more.
Spike Owen homered for the Expos in the seventh.
St. Louis 1, Philadelphia 0--Bryn Smith and Lee Smith combined on a three-hitter and Todd Zeile drove in the only run at Philadelphia.
Bryn Smith (7-4) gave up three hits, struck out two and had no walks in seven innings.
Cris Carpenter pitched the eighth before Lee Smith came on for his 21st save.
Zeile’s bases-loaded single off Bruce Ruffin (1-1) in the fifth drove in Tom Pagnozzi, who had singled, reached second on Bryn Smith’s single and moved to third on a walk by Ozzie Smith.
Ricky Jordan tripled with two out in the ninth, but Smith ended the threat by striking out Dale Murphy.
Ruffin, recalled from the minors June 8, gave up 10 hits, struck out seven and walked two in eight innings.
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