Games of Friday, June 6

                             W      L        Pct.     GB
Houston               26     18       .591     ---
New York            25     19       .568     1
St. Louis              23     22       .511     3.5
Chicago               22     22       .500     4
Pittsburgh            21     21       .500     4
Atlanta                 20     20       .503     4
Montreal              18     23       .439     6.5
Philadelphia         15     25       .375     9

(Note: A St. Louis loss on April 25 was not recorded in the standings and has been added now)

Saturday's games
Pittsburgh (Rooker) at Montreal (Renko)
St. Louis (Wise) at Atlanta (Morton)
Houston (Forsch) at Philadelphia (Ruthven)
Chicago (Hooton) at New York (Matlack)

St. Louis 5, Philadelphia 4: A four-run rally in the seventh inning lifted the Cardinals to their third straight victory. St. Louis peppered Phillies reliever George Culver for five singles and a double in the inning. Tim McCarver had a pair of RBIs for St. Louis. Alan Foster, who allowed three runs in six innings, was credited with the win. Rich Folkers allowed one run in three innings for the save.

Houston 12, Atlanta 4: Cesar Cedeno went 4-for-4 with a walk and a double, scored three times, drove in a pair and stole two bases as the Astros clobbered Phil Niekro and the Braves bullpen. Doug Rader hit a three-run homer off Ron Schueler in the seventh. Dave Roberts shut out Atlana for six innings but didn't get an out in the seventh, when the Braves scored all four of their runs.

Games of Thursday, June 5

                             W      L        Pct.     GB
Houston               25     18       .581     ---
New York            25     19       .568     0.5
St. Louis              22     21       .517     3
Atlanta                 20     19       .513     3
Chicago               22     22       .500     3.5
Pittsburgh            21     21       .500     3.5
Montreal              18     23       .439     6
Philadelphia         15     24       .385     8

Friday's games
St. Louis (Foster) at Philadelphia (Lonborg)
Houston (Roberts) at Atlanta (Niekro)

Pittsburgh 8, Montreal 5: Nelson Briles hit a two-run homer in the sixth to put the Pirates ahead for good and picked up the win. He worked six innings, allowing four runs on five hits. One of the runs was unearned. Manny Sanguillen went 3-for-4 and scored twice, while Rennie Stennett hit a pair of doubles. Bob Bailey and Bob Stinson each homered for the Expos. Balor Moore was the loser; Dave Giusti got the save.

Chicago 3, New York 0: The Mets were shut out for the third straight game, this time by Fergie Jenkins (six innings) and Jack Aker (three innings). Paul Popovich hit a two-run homer in the top of the seventh pinch-hitting for Jenkins. Jerry Koosman took the loss; he allowed two earned runs in seven innings. The Mets got six hits off Jenkins and one off Aker, and their scoreless streak is at 30 innings.

St. Louis 5, Philadelphia 0: Reggie Cleveland fired a three-hit shutout at the Phillies. He hit one batter (Greg Luzinski, who will miss Fridy' game), walked one and struck out three. Ted Sizemore doubled, singled, walked twice and scored two runs. Wayne Twitchell took the lose; two of the four runs he allowed over eight innings were earned.

Houston 6, Atlanta 2: The Astros took advantage of two errors to score three runs in the first inning and forced Carl Morton out of the box after two innings. Don Wilson held the Braves scoreless until Dave Johnson homered in the sixth. The Braves scored a run in the eighth but left the bases loaded in both the eighth and ninth innings. Jim York got the final out for the save, and the Astros nosed ahead of the Mets for first place in the standings.

 

Game of Wednesday, June 4

                             W      L        Pct.     GB
New York            25     18       .581    ---
Houston               24     18       .571    0.5
Atlanta                 20     18       .526    2.5
St. Louis              21     21       .500    3.5
Chicago               21     22       .488    4
Pittsburgh            20     21       .488    4
Montreal              18    22       .450     5.5
Philadelphia         15    23       .395     7.5

Thursday's games
St. Louis (Cleveland) at Philadelphia (Twitchell)
Pittsburgh (Briles) at Montreal (Moore)
Houston (Wilson) at Atlanta (Morton)
Chicago (Jenkins) at New York (Koosman)

St. Louis 7, Philadelphia 0: Bob Gibson allowed just three hits and Joe Torre homered in his first two at-bats as the Cardinals roughed up Steve Carlton. The Phillies lefty allowed all seven runs in the first four inning and departed after the leadoff man in the fifth doubled. Gibson walked one and struck out three.

 

Games of Tuesday, June 3

                             W      L        Pct.     GB
New York            25     18       .581    ---
Houston               24     18       .571    0.5
Atlanta                 20     18       .526    2.5
Chicago               21     22       .488    4
Pittsburgh            20     21       .488    4
St. Louis              20     21       .488    4
Montreal              18    22       .450     5.5
Philadelphia         15    22       .405     7

Wednesday's game
St. Louis (Gibson) at Philadelphia (Carlton) 

Montreal 4, New York 0: Four Expos pitchers combined for a three-hit shutout to beat Tom Seaver in the first game of a doubleheader. Mike Torrez allowed two hits in the first three innings before leaving with a mild injury; he will not miss a start. Joe Gilbert followed with three hitless frames and got credit for the win. Bill Stoneman got one out while allowing a hit and a walk, and Pat Jarvis got out of that jam and finished the game without another Mets hit. Bob Stinson hit a two-run homer off Buzz Capra in the eighth for the final margin. Seaver allowed two runs on four hits in seven innings for the loss.

Montreal 6, New York 0: Steve Rogers threw a seven-hit shutout as the Mets went scoreless in the doubleheader. The Expos scored four runs in the first inning off Ray Sadecki and were never challenged. Ken Singleton went 3-for-5 with a double and homer and scored three times. John Boccabella was 4-for-5 with a triple and double and two RBIs. 

Philadelphia 6, St. Louis 3: Del Unser singled to open the Phillies' three-run sixth inning, then hit a two-run homer in the seventh as the Phils overtook the Cardinals. Winner Ken Brett pitched into the ninth inning, allowing three runs on nine hits. George Culver retired all three men he faced in the ninth for the save after the first two Cardinals got hits off Brett. Rick Wise took the loss.

Houston 12, Atlanta 4: Pat Dobson shut out the Astros for four innings, but the visitors started putting up crooked numbers at that point -- five runs in the fifth, two in the sixth, two in the eighth and three in the ninth. The Astros put up 18 hits, 16 of them after the fourth inning, and hit four doubles in the fifth inning alone. Jerry Reuss went eight innings for the win. Lee May drove in four runs and scored three; he was 4-for-5 with two doubles and a sac fly.

Games of Monday, June 2

                             W      L        Pct.     GB
New York            25     16       .610    ---
Houston               23     18       .561    2
Atlanta                 20     17       .540    3
St. Louis              20     20       .500    4.5
Chicago               21     22       .488    5
Pittsburgh            20     21       .488    5
Montreal              16    22       .421     7.5
Philadelphia         14    22       .388     8.5

Tuesday's games
Montreal (Torrez and Rogers) at New York (Sadecki and Seaver), 2
Houston (Reuss) at Atlanta (Dobson)
St. Louis (Wise) at Philadelphia (Brett) 

Atlanta 9, New York 2: Phil Niekro scattered seven hits and hit a home run off Jon Matlack. But the Braves' win came with a loss as Henry Aaron was injured and will be out until June 11. Marty Perez and Dave Johnson each had a pair of RBIs for Atlanta. Four of the six runs allowed by Matlack were unearned.

St. Louis 6, Pittsburgh 4: The Cardinals, held scoreless for seven inning by Bob Johnson, erupted for six runs in the eighth against Dave Giusti to steal the win. Bernie Carbo hit a three-run homer off the Pirates bullpen ace to put the visiting Cardinals in the lead. Mike Nagy got the win with two scoreless innings of relief for Scipio Spinks, who was deactivated after the game in favor of Ed Sprague. Diego Segui gave up a run in the ninth but was still credited with a save.

 

Games of Sunday, June 1

                             W      L        Pct.     GB
New York            25     15       .625    ---
Houston               23     18       .561    2.5
Atlanta                 19     17       .527    4
Pittsburgh            20     20       .500    5
Chicago               21     22       .488    5.5
St. Louis              19     20       .487    5.5
Montreal              16    22       .421     8
Philadelphia         14    22       .388     9

Monday's games
Atlanta (Niekro) at New York (Matlack)
St. Louis (Spinks) at Pittsburgh (Johnson) 

Philadelphia 2, Montreal 0: Jim Lonborg allowed five hits in eight-plus innings and drove in the Phillies second run with a sac fly. Larry Bowa tripled past Expos left fielder Ron Fairly to plate Bob Boone with the first run in the second inning, and Lonborg followed with a fly to center that ended the scoring. Mac Scarce relieved Lonbord in the ninth after a lead off single by Ken Singleton; he walked two but struck out two and kept the Expos off the board. Loser Steve Renko went all nine innings, allowing six hits while striking out 10.

New York 6, Atlanta 2: Cleon Jones hit two of the Mets' four homers and drove in three runs to back Jerry Koosman's five-hitter. Rusty Staub and Wayne Garrett also homered for the Mets off loser Ron Schueler. Dusty Baker and Darrell Evans hit solo homers for Atlanta. Bud Harrelson was injured late in the game and was taken off the active list, with Jim Fregosi reactivated.

Chicago 15, Pittsburgh 9: The Pirates' winning streak ended with a crash of bats as the Cubs scored in six of their eight innings. Rick Monday drove in five runs, three of them on a sixth-inning homer that widened the margin after the Pirates had pulled within a run. Jim Hickman had four RBIs and Billy Williams scored five times. Larry Gura went five innings, allowing three earned runs and two unearned runs, for the win. Mike Paul gave up a grand slam to Manny Sanguillen in the ninth. Dock Ellis took the loss.

St. Louis 4, Houston 3 (14 innings): The St. Louis bullpen threw eight scoreless innings of relief as the Cardinals came back from a three-run deficit to beat the Astros. The Astros scored all three of their runs in the fourth, with two of those runs unearned. St. Louis got a run back in the sixth and tied it in the seventh. With one out in the top of the 14th, Jose Cruz doubled off Cecil Upshaw and came in on Tim McCarver's single for the go-ahead run. Mike Nagy got the win after pitching the 12th and 13th innings; Diego Segui picked up the save.

Games of Saturday, May 31

                             W      L        Pct.     GB
New York            24     15       .615    ---
Houston               23     17       .575    1.5
Atlanta                 19     16       .542    3
Pittsburgh            20     19       .513    4
Chicago               20     22       .475    5.5
St. Louis              18     20       .474    5.5
Montreal              16    21       .432     7
Philadelphia         13    22       .371     9

Sunday's games
Philadelphia (Twitchell) at Montreal (Renko)
Atlanta (Schueler) at New York (Koosman)
St. Louis (Foster) at Houston (Roberts)
Pittsburgh  (Ellis) at Chicago (Gura)

Atlanta 8, Montreal 7: Paul Casanova's pinch-hit single in the top of the ninth plated Marty Perez with the eventual winning run. The Braves scored four runs in the first, with consecutive RBI doubles by Darrell Evans, Dave Johnson and Mike Lum. Ralph Garr had three hits, a steal and three runs. Pepe Frias drove in three runs for the Expos. Adrian Devine (one run in two innings) was credited with the win, Tom Walker took the loss and Dan Frisella got the save.

Pittsburgh 7, St. Louis 2: Willie Stargell homered twice and Richie Hebner added a three-run homer as the Pirates won their seventh straight. Luke Walker took a shutout into the seventh inning; he allowed two runs on seven hits in 6.2 innings. John Morlan retired all four men he faced, and Steve Blass wriggled out of his own ninth-inning jam to finish. Dave Cash had three singles and scored on each of the Pittsburgh homers, all off loser Reggie Cleveland.

New York 6, Philadelphia 2: Willie Mays hit a two-run homer in the third inning off Steve Carlton and Jim McAndrew held the Phillies scoreless into the sixth inning. Cleon Jones tripled in a pair of runs in the top of the ninth. McAndrew went 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on six hits. Ray Sadecki got the final two outs of the sixth, then Tug McGraw and Harry Parker combined for three innings of one-hit ball. 

Chicago 7, Houston 6: Randy Hundley homered twice and drove in four runs as the Cubs broke a six-game losing streak. Four of the six runs winner Rich Reuschel allowed in 8.1 innings were unearned. Bob Locker got two outs in the ninth for the save. Don Wilson took the loss; three of the seven runs he allowed were unearned.