National League Roundup : Davis’ 17th Home Run Isn’t Enough to Save Reds; Pirates Win, 3-2

Eric Davis is on a record-breaking home run pace, but he isn’t having much success shaking the Cincinnati Reds out of their slump.

Davis hit his major league-leading 17th home run Saturday night at Cincinnati, but former Dodgers Sid Bream and R.J. Reynolds delivered the hits that gave the surprising Pittsburgh Pirates a 3-2 victory.

Bream and Reynolds each had a run-scoring double to lead the Pirates to their fourth victory in a row. The Reds have lost 7 of 8 and 10 of 14.

Still, the Reds, who started out as if to make a runaway of the West, are only two games out of first despite the skid.

Although he missed four games because of a shoulder injury, Davis, in just his second full season, is on a record-breaking home run pace. The Reds have played 42 games, so the center fielder, by keeping up the pace, would hit 66 home runs. He would also have some 165 runs batted in.

Davis isn’t just a power hitter, either. He is among the batting leaders with a .360 average. It has been 50 years since a National League batter has won the triple crown (home runs, RBIs, batting). Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals did it in 1937.

The Pirates are the surprising team of the first quarter of the season. Last year, they had the worst record in the league (64-98). By this stage (39 games), they had already slipped into the cellar in the East.

Don Robinson, who pitched two hitless innings in relief for his eighth save, is beginning to get a nostalgic feeling now that the Pirates are above .500 (20-19) and have won nine of their last 12.

“That’s the way the old Buccos used to play,” said Robinson, who played on the Pirates’ 1979 world champions. “It’s a long season. It’s just May, but I like the way we’re playing.”

Rookie right-hander Pat Pacillo, brought up by the Reds when Mario Soto had to be put on the disabled list with more arm trouble, was the loser in his debut. He went five innings, giving up five hits and two runs.

“I thought he threw well,” Manager Pete Rose said. “It’s unfortunate they got those two runs. If he pitches like that, he’ll win a lot of games. He’s another victim of our failure to hit.”

Chicago 7, Atlanta 6--Jerry Mumphrey is a switch-hitter, but the Cubs have always felt Mumphrey is a better hitter from the left side of the plate.

So, with darkness drawing near in the 16th inning of a game at Chicago that had already lasted more than five hours, they let Mumphrey swing away with Ryne Sandberg on first and nobody out.

Mumphrey lashed a double to right and Sandberg raced all the way home with the winning run. It was Mumphrey’s third double.

He also doubled ahead of Andre Dawson’s two-out home run with two out in the ninth that sent the game into overtime. It was Dawson’s 13th home run.

In the marathon, the Cubs walked Atlanta slugger Dale Murphy five times. There were 19 other walks in the game.

Philadelphia 9, San Francisco 8--The Giants rallied from an 8-1 deficit at Philadelphia to draw even, but Lance Parrish gave the Phillies the win with a run-scoring single with one out in the ninth.

Parrish, deep in a slump most of the season, is 5 for 7 with four runs batted in in the last two games and has raised his average to .224.

“I decided to just relax up there and try to make contact and it seems to be working,” the Phillies’ catcher said.

Jose Uribe hit a two-run home run, his first homer of the season, to cap a six-run sixth that brought the Giants back into the game.

They tied it in the eighth when Matt Williams tripled and beat the throw home on Mike Aldrete’s grounder to second.

St. Louis 4, Houston 3--Jack Clark hit a two-run home run in the third inning at Houston to give the Cardinals the lead and five pitchers managed to keep them there. Clark has driven in 28 runs in the last 21 games.

Todd Worrell pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his 10th save.