National League Roundup : Mets’ Leach Runs Record to 10-0 With 6-2 Win Over Expos

On a pitching staff that includes Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling and Sid Fernandez, it is rather surprising that the most successful pitcher is Terry Leach.

Leach is a 205-pound right-hander who throws about as hard as Tommy John. But he is a major reason the New York Mets are in the race in the National League East.

Leach, who won six games in parts of four previous seasons with the Mets, improved his record to 10-0 Tuesday night at New York when he pitched a strong eight innings in a 6-2 victory over Montreal.

It was another key game as the Mets battle to keep the St. Louis Cardinals in sight. A loss would have dropped them into third place, 6 1/2 games behind.

So Leach held the Expos to six hits, including home runs by Tim Raines and Hubie Brooks.

Keith Hernandez doubled in two runs in the first, and the Mets scored twice in the second to give Leach all the help he needed to end the Mets’ three-game losing streak.

Leach was on the Mets’ roster when the season opened only because Gooden was in a drug rehabilitation center. For almost three months, he appeared almost exclusively in mop-up spots.

It wasn’t until three pitchers went on the disabled list in May that Manager Davey Johnson was forced to make more use of Leach.

In his first start, June 1 against the Dodgers, the 33-year-old Leach allowed one unearned run in six innings. He has made 10 starts and won seven of them, pitching poorly only once.

Johnson would still prefer to have Leach as his long relief man. Lucky for him, he had to start him.

“He’s been a lifesaver,” Johnson said. “Terry’s proved everybody who sent him down, and that includes myself, to be wrong. The rap against him was an inability to get left-handers out. Now, he goes after lefties just like he does righties. To me, that’s the biggest key to his success.”

It probably didn’t have anything to do with Leach beating his team, but Expo General Manager Murray Cook resigned after the game, citing personal reasons.

St. Louis 6, Pittsburgh 5--If the Cardinal bullpen doesn’t collapse, they may hold on and win the East.

Manager Whitey Herzog, who was able to give his overworked relief corps a rest Monday night when Bob Forsch pitched a shutout, used three relievers at Pittsburgh and barely won another.

The Pirates built a 4-2 lead against John Tudor, but newcomer Steve Peters and veteran Ken Dayley shut down the Pirates long enough for Ozzie Smith and Tommy Herr to spark the Cardinals to a 6-4 lead.

Todd Worrell came in to protect the lead in the ninth. The first three Pirates singled to load the bases, but only one run scored as Worrell retired the next three batters for his 24th save.

“It was a breath-taking adventure,” Herzog said. “We’ve been struggling to win games, we’ve played a lot of extra-inning games and I thought we had another. I didn’t feel good until (Andy) Van Slyke popped up the last pitch.”

The Cardinals have a 38-23 road record, the best in the majors.

Houston 7, San Francisco 3--Craig Reynolds led off the seventh inning with a tiebreaking home run, and Jose Cruz added a three-run shot, his second homer of the game, to give the Astros a victory at San Francisco.

Houston ended its four-game losing streak and a five-game winning streak by the Giants, who remained one game behind the NL West leading Cincinnati Reds.

Will Clark’s 26th homer, in the sixth, pulled the Giants into a 2-2 tie. It gave him a streak of nine consecutive games with at least one run batted in, tying a San Francisco record. It was his seventh homer in nine games.

Philadelphia 9, Chicago 8--Milt Thompson, who went 5 for 7, singled with one out in the bottom of the 13th inning at Philadelphia to score Luis Aguayo from third with the winning run.

The Cubs took an 8-7 lead in the 12th on a run-scoring triple by Paul Noce, but in the bottom of the inning, Von Hayes doubled in the tying run.

San Diego 7, Atlanta 6--Tony Gwynn went 5 for 5 for the second time this season and scored the winning run at San Diego on a ninth-inning single by Benito Santiago to give the surging Padres their seventh win in a row. Gwynn is hitting .368.