National League Roundup : Ryan Finally Gets Some Support, Then Pulls Astros Within 5 1/2 in West

Nolan Ryan was almost in a state of shock. After two innings, he had seven runs to work with in Saturday night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Houston.

Ryan recovered to pitch the Astros to a 10-1 victory that put them just 5 1/2 games behind the slumping Dodgers in the National League West.

Ryan pitched seven innings, giving up four hits and striking out eight, to end the Cardinals’ five-game winning streak. In his previous four starts, the Astros had scored a total of four runs.

Ryan, the all-time strikeout leader, has 204 this season, the 12th in which he has struck out at least 200. He has 271 career victories, and with this kind of support, he would have reached 300 easily.

Except for June this season, when he went through a period in which he couldn’t get anybody out, Ryan has been one of the most effective pitchers in the majors for the last two seasons.

He has rarely been given much support by the Astros’ hitters. For instance, last season he led the league in ERA (2.70) and strikeouts (270), but his record was 8-16.

This season, he is 10-11. In four of his defeats, the Astros have not scored at all. In four others, Houston scored one run in each.

“It’s easy to remember the losses in which we had trouble getting runs,” Ryan said, “but they’ve pulled out some games, too. And, remember, there were times when I didn’t pitch well enough to beat anyone.”

Ryan was feeling pretty good when the Astros scored a run in the first inning. But it was almost too much when they sent 12 batters to the plate and scored six runs in the second inning.

The Astros jumped on Larry McWilliams and four successors for 13 hits. Kevin Bass led the assault with three hits, and he scored two runs and drove in two others.

In losing four of its previous five games, Houston scored only 12 runs.

“Maybe it means we are out of a lengthy batting slump,” Manager Hal Lanier said. “It was nice we got some runs for Nolie. I’ll tell you one thing, though, he never complained when we didn’t score for him.”

Montreal 6, San Francisco 4--Nelson Santovenia hit his second home run of the game, a two-run shot in the 13th inning at Montreal, to send the fading Giants to another defeat.

The loss was another blow to the Giants’ hopes of repeating in the West. They fell into fourth place and are 7 1/2 games behind the Dodgers.

Cincinnati 6, Chicago 4--The Reds have slowly pulled back into the pennant race in the West simply by putting themselves in a position where they can use John Franco.

Franco, as good a closer as there is, has been especially brilliant since June 30.

The veteran left-hander pitched 1 hitless innings at Chicago for his league-leading 31st save in 32 opportunities. In 32 innings since June 30, Franco has given up just one earned run.

“I’ve had the chances because the set-up men have done so well,” Franco said.

Nick Esasky hit a three-run home run and Paul O’Neill doubled twice and tripled to lead the offense as the Reds moved within seven games of the division-leading Dodgers.

San Diego 5, Philadelphia 2--Maybe, if Jack McKeon had appointed himself manager of the Padres a couple of weeks earlier, they, too, would be in the pennant race.

As it is, since McKeon assumed the job May 28, the Padres are 51-37. That’s the best record in the league during that period.

Ed Whitson (12-8) pitched an eight-hitter and struck out five at Philadelphia to beat the futile Phillies and put the Padres 10 games behind the Dodgers.

Keith Moreland’s two-run single broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth, and Whitson took it from there.