Games of Friday, Aug. 29

                              W      L        Pct.     GB

Houston               73     54       .574     ---
Atlanta                 65     59       .524      6.5
Montreal              63     60       .512      8
Chicago               62     61       .504      9
New York            60     61       .496    10
Pittsburgh            59     64       .479    12
St. Louis              58     68       .460   14.5
Philadelphia         54     67      .446    16

Saturday's games
St. Louis (Murphy) at Chicago (Reuschel)
Atlanta (Morton and Reed) at Philadelphia (Lersch and L Palmer*)
New York (Koosman) at Montreal (Torrez)
Houston (Roberts) at Pittsburgh (L Walker)

Chicago 5, St. Louis 3: The Cubs strung together four straight singles in a three-run seventh to overtake the Cardinals. Winning pitcher Burt Hooton allowed three runs on five hits in seven innings, and Jack Aker pitched around three singles and and a hit batter over two innings for the save. Jose Cardenal drove in two runs, one with a single and another on a sac fly. Ted Sizemore singled in a pair of runs in a three-run fifth for St. Louis. Reggie Cleveland took the loss.

Montreal 4, New York 3 (12 innings): Jim Lyttle singled home pinch-runner Larry Lintz to end it in the bottom of the 12th. Tom Seaver and Steve Renko carried a 1-1 pitchers duel into the eighth inning, when Ken Singleton hit a two-run homer off Seaver in the bottom of the inning for a 3-1 lead. The Expos then brought in Mike Marshall to relieve, but Rusty Staub led off the ninth with a triple, Marshall walked two and, with two outs, yielded a game-tying single to Jerry Grote. Pat Jarvis got the win, and Jim McAndrew took the loss.

Pittsburgh 6, Houston 0: Nelson Briles struck out eight Astros in his complete game shutout, and Willie Stargell blasted a three-run homer. Dave Cash doubled in a pair of runs and scored twice. The Astros twice had three baserunners in an inning, but Al Oliver gunned down Bob Watson trying to score on a fly ball in the second inning and Briles wriggled out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the fourth. All nine Astros hits were singles. Don Wilson allowed five earned runs in four innings for the loss.

Philadelphia 8, Atlanta 7: Willie Montanez hit a two-run homer in the sixth to tie the game at 7, and Mike Anderson clubbed a pinch-hit homer leading off the bottom of the eighth off Tom House for the final run. Mike Wallace threw two scoreless innings in relief of Steve Carlton for the win. Del Unser also homered for the Phillies, while Dave Johnson hit the only homer for the Braves. Henry Aaron drove in three runs, and Mike Lum (4-for-5) had three doubles.