Games of Wednesday, July 2

                              W      L        Pct.     GB

Houston               45     26       .634     ---
New York            41     27       .603     2.5
Atlanta                 34     32       .515     8.5
Montreal              33     33       .500     9.5
Chicago               30     35       .461   12
Pittsburgh            29     36       .446   13
St. Louis              30     38       .441   13.5
Philadelphia         25    40       .384   17

Thursday's games
Houston (Forsch) at Chicago (Hooton)
Montreal (Renko) at Atlanta (Reed)

Houston 5, Chicago 3: Lee May homered twice, driving in and scoring three times each, to power the first-place Astros. It was May's third straight day with at least one home run. His second homer, in the eighth, was a two-run that broke a tie. Jim York got the win with two hitless innings of relief, Ferguson Jenkins took the loss and Jim Ray got the save. John Edwards must sit  Thursday's game.

New York 8, Montreal 6: The Mets scored four runs in the eighth inning to overtake the Expos. Jerry Grote tripled in the big inning to plate the first run and scored the second run of the inning to tie the game. The Expos hit a pair of three-run homers off Tom Seaver: Mike Jorgensen in the first inning and Bob Bailey in the fifth, but Seaver still got the win, allowing seven hits in eight innings. Cleon Jones had three RBIs for the Mets, and Rusty Staub doubled twice among his three hits and scored a pair of runs. Tug McGraw allowed two hits in the ninth but got the save. Tom Walker was the losing pitcher.

Atlanta 7, Philadelphia 3: Dave Johnson hit a three-run homer and added an RBI single to support Phil Niekro's complete game. John Oates also homered off losing pitcher Barry Lersch. Niekro yielded six hits and one walk while striking out seven, including the first three hitters of the game. Del Unser homered and drove in two runs for the Phillies.

St. Louis 7, Pittsburgh 0: Alan Foster threw a two-hitter, while Joe Torre, Tim McCarver and Jose Cruz each drove in a pair of runs. Rennie Stennett had the only hits off Foster, both singles, one in the sixth inning and the other in the ninth. Stennett also drew the only walk Foster granted. Foster struck out four. The Cardinals had 14 hits, all of them singles. Dock Ellis took the loss.