Murphy Starts Off July With a Bang at Candlestick Park

Dale Murphy, who has been struggling at the plate lately, started off July with a bang.

One day after he concluded the month of June with a .229 batting average, Murphy belted a two-run homer and a single Monday to power the Atlanta Braves to a 4-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park.

Murphy’s 19th home run, which came in the third inning, followed a single by Claudell Washington and tied him with the Dodgers’ Pedro Guerrero and Oakland’s Dave Kingman for the major-league lead. It also gave rookie Zane Smith (5-4) a 2-0 lead over Mike Krukow (5-6) in the third inning.

“It doesn’t take much to improve on what I’ve done lately,” said Murphy, bemoaning his June swoon. With runners on base, however, the Atlanta star is batting .339 with 11 homers and 43 RBIs.

“I was just trying to get on base,” Murphy explained after sending a 3-2 outside fastball into the right-field seats. “I’m starting to swing a lot better, but I haven’t been doing that much lately.”

Terry Harper homered in the fourth to make it 3-0 and Smith allowed three hits in 7 innings. Smith pitched a seven-hit shutout against the Giants on June 10. This time, he blanked them on two hits until the eighth when Jose Uribe was safe on third baseman Ken Oberkfell’s fielding error, took second on Smith’s wild pitch and scored on a two-out single by Manny Trillo.

Following Trillo’s hit, Smith was relieved by Jeff Dedmon, who got the final out of the inning. Bruce Sutter pitched the ninth for his 15th save.

The Braves, winning for the sixth time in their last eight games, added their final run in the fifth. Smith and Rafael Ramirez singled and advanced on Krukow’s wild pitch. After Murphy was walked intentionally to load the bases, Bob Horner walked to force Ramirez home.

The loss was the Giants’ 11th in their last 12 games.

Montreal 3, St. Louis 2--Andre Dawson singled to score Jim Wohlford from third base in the bottom of the 10th inning at Montreal as the Expos moved to within a half-game of the first-place Cardinals in the National League East.

Dawson now has seventh game-winning hits this season.

“I did not do a thing all day and was due for one,” said the right fielder. “There’s no better time to get a hit than in extra innings. This is the type of series I wanted to get into and forget about my bad knee.”

The Expos’ starting pitcher was Floyd Youmans, a minor leaguer who was called up Saturday from Jacksonville of the Double-A Southern League.

“Their young pitcher Youmans pitched an excellent ballgame for his first start in the majors,” losing manager Whitey Herzog said.

The Cardinals had won 12 of their last 16 games prior to Monday’s game.

Youmans didn’t get the victory, but Expo Manager Buck Rodgers was pleased.

“He was throwing the ball at 93, 94 miles an hour,” he said. “He was very poised. He’ll stay with the club for awhile.”

Youmans, one of four players acquired from the New York Mets last December in exchange for Gary Carter, went 6 innings, giving up six hits and two runs. He walked five and struck out five.

The victory was credited to reliever Gary Lucas (3-0), who pitched two innings.

Wohlford was pinch hitting for Lucas in the tenth when he drew a one-out walk off Rickey Horton (0-2), and moved to second when Tim Raines walked. After Wohlford took third on a fly out by Mitch Webster, Dawson greeted Bob Forsch with his game-winning single down the left-field line.

St. Louis scored twice in the seventh to tie it 2-2. Rookie Vince Coleman singled and Willie McGee followed with his third home run of the season.

The Expos opened the scoring in the fifth when Dan Driessen walked, went to second on a wild pitch by starter Kurt Kepshire and scored on Tim Wallach’s single to left.

They took a 2-0 lead in the sixth when Raines tripled and came home on another wild pitch by Kepshire.

Kepshire pitched six innings, giving up two hits and two runs. He walked three and fanned four.

New York Yankees 4, Toronto 1--In an American League game at Toronto, Don Mattingly hit a solo home run in the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie and spark the Yankees to victory before a Canada Day crowd of 41,476.

“With two outs in the eighth inning and the game tied I was definitely looking to hit something in the air,” said Mattingly, who raised his league-leading RBI total to 53. “But I still feel I’m a better hitter when I’m not trying to hit them (home runs). I had a stretch earlier this season when I was trying to pull everything and it got me in trouble.”

Mattingly’s homer made a winner of Joe Cowley (7-3), who limited the Blue Jays to three hits in eight innings before Dave Righetti pitched a perfect ninth for his 14th save.

The victory moved the Yankees within 6 1/2 games of the first-place Blue Jays in the AL East.

Cowley yielded only two infield singles and a double, struck out two and walked two.

Losing pitcher Doyle Alexander (7-5), a former Yankee, allowed one run and three hits before Mattingly sent a 2-0 pitch over the right-field fence for his seventh homer of the season. Alexander has given up 19 home runs, tops in the American League.