National League Roundup : Horner Is Back Again and Hot Again as He Leads Braves to Win

When Bob Horner came straight from Arizona State to the Atlanta Braves in 1978, he immediately started hitting home runs. He hit 23 homers in just 89 times at bat as a rookie.

Despite injuries that kept him out of more than 30 games each of the next two seasons, he had 33 and 35, respectively. Injuries have continued to plague him ever since.

Last year he reached a low ebb when he played in only 32 games because of a broken wrist. It seems that every year he is making a comeback from some sort of injury.

Although the wrist, which kept him out of games earlier this season, still hurts, another comeback seems complete.

Horner hit a two-run homer and added two RBI singles Friday night at Philadelphia to lead the Braves to a 6-4 victory over the Phillies in a rain-delayed game.

Horner’s hitting helped Rick Mahler improve his record to 15-8, although Mahler gave up 10 hits and four runs in six innings. Bruce Sutter finally came in to strike out three batters and get the last five outs for his 17th save.

The Braves are beginning to play better, mainly because Horner is taking some of the pressure off Dale Murphy. In his last 11 games, Horner has 22 hits in 44 at-bats. In his hot streak, he has hit six home runs and driven in 19 runs.

Although he has missed 19 games this season because of the wrist, he has hit 18 home runs and driven in 58 runs.

Horner, who was hitting .214 on May 21, has raised his average to .290. He credits the weather.

“I’ve been seeing the ball real well,” he said. “The hot weather really helps me. In the chilly weather my wrist hurt most of the time. Now, it’s almost like I never hurt it.”

The Braves have feasted on the Phillies. This was the 10th time in a row they have beaten the Eastern Division team.

The Phillies jumped in front, 3-1, on a two-run home run by Mike Schmidt and a solo blast by John Russell. The Phillies led, 4-2, in the bottom of the third when rain delayed the game for more than 1 1/2 hours.

Horner’s two-run home run capped a three-run fifth that put the Braves ahead to stay.

St. Louis 2, San Diego 1--Ozzie Smith of the Cardinals dealt his former team’s pennant hopes a severe blow. With two out in the 12th inning at San Diego, ex-Padre Smith ripped a single to right off Tim Stoddard to score Jack Clark from third with the winning run, sending the Padres to their sixth defeat in a row.

Joaquin Andujar, who pitched the first 11 innings for the Cardinals, improved his record to 17-4. Andujar, a 20-game winner last season, has more victories than any pitcher in the majors.

Ken Dayley pitched the 12th, retiring Tony Gwynn, Steve Garvey and Graig Nettles in order to gain the save.

The Cardinals scored in the first off Dave Dravecky when Vince Coleman singled, stole his 69th base and eventually scored on an infield out.

The Padres tied the game in the fifth when Garry Templeton, the player they got for Smith, doubled and eventually scored on Tim Flannery’s sacrifice fly.

Although the Padres threatened often against Andujar, they couldn’t score again.

Clark led off the 12th with a single, was sacrificed to second by Tito Landrum, went to third on an infield out and came home on Smith’s second game-winning hit of the season.

Dravecky worked nine innings, allowing only four hits, but had nothing to show for his fine effort.

The loss dropped the Padres 4 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the West. The Cardinals’ sixth win in a row increased their lead in the East to four games.

Cincinnati 7, Montreal 6--The Reds blew a five-run lead in the eighth inning at Montreal but managed to pull out a victory when Nick Esasky led off the 11th inning with his eighth home run.

It was a wild game in which Cincinnati player-manager Pete Rose was called out for interference for running out of the basepath to first and in which the relief pitcher with the best record, John Franco (9-1), couldn’t hold a lead.

Mario Soto, pitching with three days’ rest, left after six innings, giving up just three hits and holding a 5-1 lead.

But Franco was chased in the eighth, and Ted Power couldn’t stop the Expos, either. In the inning Hubie Brooks had a two-run single, Terry Francona a two-run double and Tim Wallach a run-scoring single that tied it.

The Reds forgave Esasky for not following orders. When he came to bat in the 11th, Reds’ coach Billy DeMars came up to him and told him not to try to hit a home run.

“I really did try to follow orders,” Esasky said. “I took a short swing and it just went out.”

The home run beat Jeff Reardon (2-4), who has 25 saves to lead the majors.

“It was a big game for us to win,” Rose said, “especially after we blew that big lead.”

San Francisco 3, Pittsburgh 1--Chris Brown hit a three-run homer at San Francisco to enable Bill Laskey to win his third in a row and improve his record to 4-11.

Laskey gave up five hits in 8 innings, and Scott Garrelts came in to get the final out for his seventh save.

Lee Tunnell held the Giants scoreless on two hits through five innings, but gave up two singles before Brown hit his game-winning home run.