The South Korean airliner shot down by the Soviet Air Force in 1983 was not on an espionage mission, but the Russians, in a series of blunders, believed they were attacking an American reconnaissance flight, according to a magazine article. The article, which will be published next month in The Atlantic Monthly, is based on a review of American intelligence data and on interviews with Soviet officials. It concludes that the plane penetrated Soviet airspace because of navigational errors by the Korean Air Lines crew and not, as the Soviet Union contended, because it was on an espionage mission. The evidence gathered by American intelligence, which has not been made public, also contradicts the United States’ initial contention that the Soviet Union had knowingly shot down the airliner, killing the 269 people aboard. The article is drawn from a new book by Seymour M. Hersh, a journalist who has reported for The New York Times on corruption in Panama and on intelligence topics and who uncovered the My Lai massacre in Vietnam for an independent news agency.
A Soviet physicist assigned to the United Nations Secretariat was arrested on a Queens subway platform as he gave $1,000 to an employee of an American defense contractor for three classified documents, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. The physicist, Gennadi Fyodorovich Zakharov, 39 years old, was charged with espionage against the United States, according to John L. Hogan, the assistant director of the F.B.I. in charge of the New York office. According to the F.B.I., Mr. Zakharov, who holds a Ph.D. in physics and mathematics, was a scientific officer assigned to the Center for Science and Technology for Development, a branch of the United Nations Secretariat. Officials at the Soviet Mission to the United Nations declined to comment on the arrest.
Reagan Administration officials said today that a fire destroyed a Soviet airborne laser laboratory near Moscow in late May or early June. The laboratory was in an Ilyushin 76 transport plane, and the fire occurred while the plane was on the ground at an air base, the officials said. Central Intelligence Agency analysts are said to have told the Government that some Soviet officials involved in the laser program are believed to have been injured or killed in the fire.
Solidarity underground leader Zbigniew Bujak, the most wanted man in Poland until he was captured May 31, may be released from detention under a limited amnesty program that began July 22, Justice Minister Lech Domeracki said. Bujak, 31, was arrested after five years on the run as head of the outlawed labor union’s Temporary Coordinating Committee. Domeracki, in an interview with the government daily Rzeczpospolita, stressed that only those prisoners who promise to behave will qualify for release under the amnesty.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has accepted an invitation to visit the Soviet Union, her office said today. Mrs. Thatcher has written to Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, suggesting they meet next year, a spokesman said. The Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard A. Shevardnadze, extended the invitation to Mrs. Thatcher during a visit to Britain last month. Mrs. Thatcher will be the first British Prime Minister to make a working visit to Moscow since Harold Wilson went in 1975.
Gunmen shot and seriously wounded a police reservist on foot patrol in a predominantly Protestant area of Northern Ireland, a spokesman for the Royal Ulster Constabulary said. The spokesman said gunmen opened fire from a passing car on the policeman in Ballymena’s North Road, in County Antrim 15 miles north of Belfast.
In the face of grass-roots opposition to asylum-seekers from the third world, the West German Government has taken steps to discourage unwanted immigration. One step is to impose a $1,000 fine on airlines that carry passengers to West Germany without a valid visa and to oblige the airlines to take the passengers back. Visa-granting practices will be tightened at consulates. Another measure, according to Government sources, is to extend to five years, from two, the period that asylum-seekers may not seek employment. Most applicants are believed to be seeking a rosier economic future, not fleeing political persecution.
A recent surge in terrorism by the Basque separatist group E.T.A. has underlined how the 18-year-old group remains one of the most effective and elusive terrorist organizations in Europe and a thorn for Spain’s young democracy. An army colonel was shot and killed near here this month. Since mid-July, 12 members of the paramilitary Civil Guard were killed by a car bomb in Madrid, an E.T.A. squad staged a grenade attack against the Defense Ministry and two guardsmen were killed by a booby-trap bomb near this Basque industrial city. According to the police, 32 people have died in E.T.A. attacks since the beginning of the year. Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, vowing to wipe out E.T.A., has counterattacked with increased police force, offers of limited amnesty and heightened cooperation from France in handing back terrorist suspects and closing an E.T.A. sanctuary there.
An Israeli air force delegation will travel to Washington today to meet with Pentagon officials to discuss possible alternatives to the costly, U.S.-financed Lavi jet fighter, Israel radio reported. A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the meetings without giving details. The multimillion-dollar, Israeli-designed Lavi (Lion) is a state-of-the-art, supersonic fighter resembling the U.S. F-16. With production yet to begin, the project has already cost $1.2 billion, almost all of it paid by Washington.
Egypt and the United States will conduct military exercises this week over the Mediterranean Sea not far from waters claimed by Libya, the Defense Department said tonight. The exercises, which the department said have been planned “for a long, long time,” are designed to provide the Egyptian Air Force with practice in defending that nation’s air bases, a Pentagon official said. He said American and Egyptian forces, which will also include naval units, would not cross into the Gulf of Sidra. Libya claims the gulf as part of its territory but the United States considers it international waters and warplanes of the two nations have clashed there in the past. American aircraft flying from the carrier Forrestal will simulate attacks against Egyptian targets, and Egyptian pilots will pretend to fend them off, the official said.
A bomb exploded at a fashionable beach resort in East Beirut, injuring at least one person, in the latest in a series of attacks apparently aimed at wealthy Christians. According to militia sources, the explosion, the 23rd in the Lebanese capital this year, ripped through the ground floor of an apartment building adjacent to the Golden Beach Hotel, one of several beach clubs in the suburb of Antelias. Some residents attributed the attack to unrest within the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia.
Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq returned home from a two-week pilgrimage to Mecca to face the aftermath of Pakistan’s worst political violence since 1983. At least 29 people were killed and dozens injured in clashes with police during a drive by the opposition to oust Zia and force elections. Hundreds of Zia’s political opponents were arrested, including opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Protesters burned Government buildings today and skirmished with riot policemen in various parts of Pakistan, but clashes and demonstrations were comparatively minor. The Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, an alliance of 11 opposition parties, tried to keep alive the flagging drive it began last Monday to oust General Zia and force elections. The alliance called for foreign governments to protest recent events in Pakistan and support the opposition.
Three years of violence in Sri Lanka has uprooted more than 300,000 Sri Lankan Tamils, according to estimates by Government officials and human rights groups. Most of these uprooted ethnic Tamils, who make up Sri Lanka’s largest minority population, are now displaced people in their own country, once South Asia’s model of ethnic harmony, or in refugee camps in India. About 60,000 are in the West and Australia.
50,000 Tamil refugees fled to Western Europe in the last five years. These mostly Hindu refugees fleeing a separatist insurgency in Sri Lanka are but one group who flee troubled third world nations for the welfare states of Western Europe. The Tamils are perhaps the least welcome.
China confirmed that its troops clashed with Soviet forces along the border last month. One Chinese soldier reportedly was killed and another wounded in the fighting. “There occurred an isolated incident along the Sino-Soviet border area,” a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Peking said, but she had no comment on the casualty report. Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper reported last week that 13 Soviet border guards crossed into China on July 12 near the Chinese border town of Korgas, in northwestern Xinjiang province, and opened fire on a Chinese patrol, killing one soldier and wounding another.
China sentenced an American citizen to 12 years’ imprisonment on charges of spying for Taiwan, the New China News Agency said. It said Roland Shensu Loo, 67 years old, a naturalized American citizen who immigrated to the United States in 1980, and three Chinese who received shorter terms, pleaded guilty to spying for a Taiwanese espionage group that is based in the United States. A United States Embassy spokesman confirmed that the trial and conviction of an American citizen had taken place, but declined to name him or give details of the case.
Philippine rebels dragged 11 members of an obscure religious sect from their homes, lined them up on a roadside and killed them as villagers watched, Brigadier General Jesus Hermosa, a regional military commander, said. Hermosa said victims were all members of a sect called God the Father. The shooting occurred in San Roque Village on Mindanao Island. He said the victims’ hands were tied behind their backs and they were forced to shout, “Long live the NPA!” before being shot. The NPA is the New People’s Army, the Communist guerrilla group that has been trying to overthrow the government for 17 years. Investigators said they knew of no motive for the killings.
After an 18-month manhunt and a two-year extradition fight, Mexico City’s former Police Chief is on trial here in two separate courts on charges of extortion and illegal firearms possession. The former Police Chief, Arturo Durazo Moreno, 67 years old, who had been the country’s most famous fugitive, has been accused at one point or another of everything from murder to fostering prostitution. In better times, he traveled regally through Mexico City in a caravan of cars and motorcycle escorts and lived in a mansion. Now he is held without bail in prison.
The Government of El Salvador and leftist rebels have agreed to hold a third round of peace talks, and according to a communique issued today the talks will begin September 19 in the eastern Salvadoran farming town of Sesori. The time and place were set in three days of private meetings in Mexico between delegations from the two sides. The meetings, held at an undisclosed location, ended Friday night.
Beneath a hill in the center of Managua there is an underground jail where, according to former inmates, political prisoners are often held for days or weeks under harsh and disorienting conditions. The question of conditions at the jail was raised when Nicaraguan officials said a former official committed suicide in his cell there in June. Relatives of the man, Eduardo Trejos Silva, a former Interior Ministry offical who had been convicted of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency, have said privately that they do not believe he killed himself. No non-Sandinista journalist or human-rights organization has been granted access to the jail, which is called El Chipote, since the Sandinista Government came to power in 1979. Senior security officials did not respond to requests for interviews to discuss conditions there.
Military rulers in this nation often characterize Ethiopians as “backward,” and most often use the term in trying to explain why failed policies of the feudal past require a Marxist solution. Western diplomats and some Ethiopians, however, suggest there are subtle indications that the Government of Lieut. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam views some of the backwardness as a result of its own policies and is taking tentative steps toward change, although not relinquishing its commitment to Marxism. Among these moves, according to the sources, is a softening of criticism against the United States and proposed economic changes that do not mesh with Marxist ideology.
Six of South Africa’s black-ruled neighbors have issued a statement here praising Zimbabwe and Zambia for imposing sanctions against South Africa, but stopped short of moving as a group to impose similar sanctions. Instead, the countries, the so-called front-line nations, issued what was viewed as an inconclusive communique Friday at the end of a meeting of heads of government. The six nations — Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe — are generally known for their harsh criticism of apartheid. Officials had indicated they would take a position on sanctions in line with the stand of Zambia and Zimbabwe.
A leading Roman Catholic prelate in South Africa was tortured during questioning by the authorities this week, and lawyers have appealed to that nation’s Supreme Court to grant an immediate order barring further abuse, according to Catholic officials and court documents. The prelate, the Rev. Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, secretary general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, was taken, blindfolded and bound, to an undisclosed location Wednesday and was physically abused, according to an affidavit filed by his secretary. At one point, the affidavit says, he was forced to stand for almost a day.
President Reagan, saying “absolutely no reason” existed for further delay, urged Congress to give prompt passage to the tax bill approved by a House-Senate committee last week. Devoting his weekly radio address to making another appeal for tax overhaul, Mr. Reagan also called on Europe to follow the United States in moving to lower some taxes as a method of encouraging economic growth. The President’s suggestion was that tax revision is good for the United States economy as well as for the world economy. With the tax revision, he said, America will have the lowest top rates and the most modern tax code in the industrialized world. That code will encourage risk-taking, innovation and enterprise, he said.
President Reagan attends a birthday party celebration put on by the Wilsons and Jorgensens in honor of the First Lady’s recent birthday.
Unemployment, international tensions and the federal budget deficit are named by the American public as the biggest problems facing the nation, the Gallup Poll found. About equal proportions named unemployment (23%) and international tensions (20%), while 13% named the budget deficit. Next was drug abuse, cited by 8%. In a separate Gallup Poll on education, the public identified drugs as the biggest problem confronting schools. By wide margins, adults said they favored expulsion of students caught using drugs and allowing teachers to search lockers for drugs. And by a narrow 49–44 margin, they even approved the testing of students for drug use by urinalysis.
A White House task force on the American family plans to suggest that teen-agers avoid pregnancy by abstaining from premarital sex, according to U.S. News & World Report. The magazine said the task force will not support proposals to set up health clinics in schools to dispense contraceptives. Gary Bauer, undersecretary of education and chairman of the task force, told the magazine: “Our goal should be to tell children (premarital sex) is wrong and explain why it’s bad for them-not to teach them so much about sex that they can engage in it in early adolescence.”
Radical public-school reorganization was called for by the nation’s governors who also want authority to declare school districts that fail to meet basic standards “bankrupt,” then take over and reorganize them. The proposals contained in a 173-page report titled “Time for Results” were based on hearings held by gubernatorial panels across the nation over the past year. The report was released as the National Governors’ Association opened its annual convention in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
Eight more burials were held today for victims of the mail carrier at the Edmond Post Office who killed 14 co-workers before taking his own life. “We’ve experienced pain, haven’t we?” the Rev. Finley Tinnin said at the funeral of Patty J. Husband, a five-year postal employee. “You bet we have.”
Five antiwar protesters convicted of breaking into two nuclear missile silos have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven to eight years. The five, who were sentenced Friday by Federal District Judge Elmo Hunter, are to begin serving their sentences September 15. Judge Hunter also fined them $50 each, ordered restitution totaling $4,617.81 to the Government and placed them on probation for five years. The five — three men and two women who call themselves the Silo Plowshares — were convicted June 27 on charges of conspiracy and destroying government property. They were arrested March 28 at two missile launch sites near Warrensburg, Missouri, about 60 miles east of Kansas City, for cutting the fences around the missile launch sites and damaging mechanical and electrical equipment. The five said they were following the Biblical precept to beat swords into plowshares.
A high-speed trolley crashed through a wall at the 69th Street Terminal in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, after its brakes failed, injuring at least 41 people. The trolley came to rest with one-fourth of its length jutting into the terminal. One person was hurt in the terminal. One rider was reported in critical condition, and at a hospital that received nine of the injured, a supervisor said: “Some are bad fractures and lacerations.” The driver, Albert Chesire, 31, shouted to passengers to brace themselves when the brakes failed. He suffered a broken ankle.
To friends and neighbors, Patrolman Stephen Richard Smith seemed a polite, shy man with a taste for classical music who liked to feed stray cats. Now that the 31-year-old officer is dead by the hand of his best friend and former patrol partner, the authorities say he may have been a brutal vigilante who had murdered or beaten several people and was planning to assassinate the District Attorney and two top San Antonio police officials. After Mr. Smith’s death Monday, the police discovered a cache of weapons in his home that included 18 pistols, 5 shotguns, 6 rifles and as much as 100,000 rounds of ammunition. He was buried Thursday in a military cemetery after a quiet ceremony attended by Mr. Smith’s family and a few friends, and also by Patrolman Farrell Tucker, the man who shot him, apparently in self-defense.
Frontier Airlines, which lost $10 million a month for the first six months of this year, denied reports that the Denver-based carrier was on the brink of a shutdown. Air Line Pilot Assn. officials claim that People Express, which bought Frontier last year, has ordered a shutdown of the carrier beginning this weekend because United Airlines has failed to complete its buy-out of Frontier for $146 million. Neither People Express in Newark, New Jersey, nor United in Chicago would confirm or deny the reported order. Frontier, which has 4,700 employees, serves 60 cities in 22 states across the country and in Canada and Mexico.
A wildcat walkout by city sanitation workers has ended, but some ill feelings linger as a result of Houston Mayor Kathy Whitmire’s refusal to rescind the dismissal of 91 employees. Mayor Whitmire said the 91 participated in an illegal work stoppage and broke their word to her. She said their leaders had promised that the workers would return to their jobs shortly after the walkout began Monday over increased workloads. Several City Council members and a local Democratic Congressman said that the city was largely to blame for poor working conditions and that the Mayor was taking a harsh, insensitive approach in the midst of a depressed economy. The unemployment rate here stands at 10.8 percent.
About 7,500 members of the United Automobile Workers struck three Deere & Company plants today after the union and the farm tractor manufacturer failed to agree on a new contract. The strikes began in Waterloo and Dubuque, Iowa, and Milan, Illinois. No new talks have been scheduled. The U.A.W. called the strikes after the two sides failed to agree on a new agreement for about 13,000 workers at 14 Deere plants in Illinois and Iowa. The contract covers an additional 8,000 laid-off workers, said a Deere spokesman, Bob Shoup. The three plants were chosen because they have local issues as well as the basic contract to be worked out, a U.A.W. spokesman, Bill Casstevens, said. Workers at the other plants will continue on their jobs without a contract, Mr. Casstevens said. Mr. Casstevens said the major issues were job security and the company’s efforts to “emasculate our cost-of-living benefits.” Deere has said that the depressed agricultural market and the company’s large losses make it impossible to meet union demands.
Thousands of wildfires in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon have overwhelmed firefighters who have been using hand-held computers, infrared mapping and satellite dish antennas. The fires, which have been burning for three weeks, have blackened entire river valleys and have swept through the mountains, destroying an area the size of Rhode Island. Firefighters, predicting victory, struggled to surround a major Idaho fire, one of the last of the hundreds of Western infernos that scorched forest and range lands with a total area larger than Rhode Island. An electrical storm rolled across Idaho, triggering 21 new fires that were controlled by Boise National Forest firefighters or burned themselves out by midday. Doc Smith, in charge of 1,400 firefighters battling Idaho’s 18,000-acre Anderson fire, predicted that the blaze would be tamed this weekend. In Washington, several families were warned to prepare for evacuation as that state’s largest fire grew to 3,200 acres when winds gusting up to 30 mph blew flames across fire lines on the Colville Indian Reservation.
Alaska’s Augustine Volcano is continuing to erupt, producing a vigorous plume of ash, and small earthquakes too numerous to count are rocking the 4,025-foot island volcano 180 miles southwest of Anchorage, a scientist said. Coast Guard officials issued a warning to mariners to stay away from the uninhabited Cook Inlet island because “hot gas clouds from an eruption may burn vessels and endanger lives within seven miles of the volcano,” Chief Petty Officer Bill Rice said. Pilots were warned to fly no closer than five miles.
The National Institutes of Health, unable to recruit enough skilled nurses to work under a government pay scale that is $5,000 below Washington-area standards, says it has been forced to close 5 percent of the beds in its world-renowned clinical research center. “There is difficulty in recruiting professional nurses and technical workers, and we happen to be in one of the acute phases,” said Tanya Crow, acting associate director for nursing services at the institutes’ Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center. Colleen Henrichsen, a spokesman for the center, said Friday that the institutes had closed 19 hospital beds for cancer patients, which is more than 15 percent of the beds reserved for patients undergoing cancer therapy in research projects conducted by the institutes
Seizures of tons of cocaine in the past few weeks in about 15 states have failed to make a dent in prices, and the drug remains widely available on the streets, law-enforcement authorities say. The world’s cocaine traffickers are still believed to have enough of a stockpile to last several months. Meanwhile cocaine use has grown, and drug is creating political, social and foreign policy problems that enforcement officials say present their greatest challenge yet.
Convicted Oakland drug dealer Felix Mitchell died after being stabbed in federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was serving a life term for conspiring to sell heroin and operating a continuing criminal enterprise, prison officials said. Mitchell, 32, was found stabbed in his cell and rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead nearly 11 hours later. The FBI was investigating the slaying. Federal prosecutors described Mitchell as the leader of the “69 Mob,” a notorious Oakland heroin ring that reportedly made as much as $400,000 a month on heroin sales. Four other defendants were given lesser sentences in a trial that concluded last year. Mitchell will receive an ornate “royal” funeral in Oakland.
Stephen Schwartz and Charles Strouse’s musical “Rags” closes at the Mark Hellinger Theater in NYC after four performances and is nominated for six Tony Awards.
Major League Baseball:
The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Boston Red Sox, 4–2. Cal Ripken and Jim Traber hit first-inning home runs and Fred Lynn added a homer in the fifth inning to power Baltimore. Mike Flanagan (7–9) pitched six and two-thirds innings for the victory. The left-hander allowed six hits, but four came in the first inning when California scored twice. Don Aase went two innings for his 31st save. Ray Chadwick, a rookie making his third major league start, fell to 0–3. The right-hander allowed three home runs in five innings.
Tom Browning scattered eight hits over seven and two-thirds innings, and Eric Davis and Nick Esasky highlighted rallies with two-run doubles to lead Cincinnati over the Chicago Cubs, 7–3. Browning (11–10) struck out five and walked none as Cincinnati won for the ninth time in 12 games. The Reds went ahead by 3–0 as the game’s first five batters reached base against Scott Sanderson (6–10). Ron Cey, who had three hits, spoiled Browning’s shutout bid in the seventh with his 12th home run.
Andre Thornton, a pinch-hitter, singled with the bases loaded in the ninth inning today as the Cleveland Indians ended a four-game losing streak by defeating the Boston Red Sox, 5–4. The victory was the first for the Indians over the Red Sox this season. Boston, which lost for only the third time in 11 games, had won the first 8 meetings between the teams and 11 straight in two years. Bob Stanley (5–5) walked Chris Bando to start the ninth. Tony Bernazard had a bunt single and, after Julio Franco bunted into a fielder’s choice, Bill Buckner and Dwight Evans collided on a fly ball by Joe Carter down the right-field line. The ball fell for a single to load the bases.
The Detroit Tigers destroyed the Seattle Mariners, 14–0. Darnell Coles drove in five runs, and Frank Tanana pitched a seven-hitter for his 28th career shutout as Detroit routed Seattle. Tanana (10–6), who walked two and struck out a season-high 10 batters, retired the first 10 hitters before yielding a single to Phil Bradley. By that time, the Tigers had given Tanana a 9–0 lead against Mike Brown (4–5), the starter, and Karl Best. In the first, Kirk Gibson singled between walks to Lou Whitaker and John Grubb before Coles cleared the bases with a two-out double. Detroit increased its lead to 6–0 in the second when Chet Lemon drew a leadoff walk, took second on a grounder and scored on a single by Alan Trammell. Gibson followed with a line drive into the lower deck in right field for his 20th homer of the season.
The Montreal Expos topped the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7–4. Angeles — Jim Wohlford hit his first home run of the season with a man on in the first inning and Mitch Webster and Andre Dawson added run-scoring singles in the fifth as Montreal ended a six-game losing streak.
Rob Deer hit his 29th home run and Robin Yount and Ben Oglivie had three hits each as Milwaukee defeated Kansas City, 8–4. Dan Plesac, 9–6, who replaced Milwaukee starter Chris Bosio in the fifth, pitched 3 ⅓ innings of two-hit relief for the victory.
Lloyd Moseby’s home run was the first of a team-record eight straight hits in Toronto’s six-run first inning, and the Blue Jays beat Minnesota, 7–4. The beneficiary of the barrage was Toronto starter John Cerutti, 7–3, who allowed three runs on six hits in 5 ⅔ innings.
Wasted opportunities. There have been so many for the Yankees this summer, and last night there was another. Their offense was reduced to a bases-empty home run by Willie Randolph in the sixth inning, and then they lost the game in the ninth, falling by 2–1 to the Oakland A’s at the Stadium. Surprisingly, it was Jose Canseco — mired in an 0-for-40 hitting slump — who delivered the key blow, a double off Dave Righetti that scored Alfredo Griffin from second base. The Yankees received a superb pitching performance for eight innings from Ron Guidry, but it did them little good. They stranded two runners at third base, and their best hit balls were merely outs, including deep shots in the eighth by Rickey Henderson and Randolph.
The Pittsburgh Pirates edged the Atlanta Braves, 4–3. Tony Pena hit a home run and Barry Bonds drove in two runs with a triple. Pena gave Pittsburgh a 1–0 lead with his ninth home run of the season, a shot against Zane Smith (7–12) with two out in the third. Pittsburgh went on to add three runs in the fifth. Sid Bream and Rafael Belliard singled, and both scored when Bonds tripled to center field. A squeeze bunt by Bobby Bonilla scored Bonds. Rick Reuschel (8–14) won his eighth consecutive decision against Atlanta, a streak that began in April 1979. He worked the first seven innings, gave up seven hits, struck out six and walked none. The Braves scored twice in the seventh on a triple by Ken Griffey, who had three hits, and a home run by Ozzie Virgil, his 14th. Dale Murphy hit his 24th homer in the eighth inning.
Bruce Bochy, a pinch-hitter, hit a bases-loaded single through a five-man infield in the 12th inning to give the San Diego Padres a 4–3 victory over the Phillies. Tim Flannery reached second on a two-base error to open the inning on a ball that sliced off the glove of Gary Redus in left field. Tony Gwynn was intentionally walked by Kent Tekulve (6–3) and Marvell Wynne singled to load the bases. Kevin McReynolds grounded to the shortstop, Luis Aguayo, who threw out Flannery at the plate. Bochy, who is now 6 for 12 as a pinch-hitter, then followed with his single to center field. Lance McCullers (6–6) pitched one inning of hitless relief. LaMarr Hoyt gave up seven hits, struck out six and walked two. He took a 3–0 lead into the ninth, but Mike Schmidt singled with one out and Juan Samuel followed with his 12th homer.
Were it another time, or were these not the New York Mets, this would have been a suspenseful day, for the San Francisco Giants brought the tying run to third base in the eighth. But this is the Mets’ special summer when they are killing the good name of suspense. They handled this crisis as routinely as usual. Ojeda retired the last two batters in the eighth and McDowell induced three batters to ground out in the ninth and the Mets beat the Giants, 3–2. The Mets won their sixth straight — McDowell got five saves in those six games — and reached a new high. With the Phillies losing to the Padres today, the Mets’ lead in the National League East reached an incredible 20 games, the largest lead any National League team has held since the Reds closed the 1975 season with a 20-game lead.
Danny Cox pitched a six-hitter for his fourth complete game of the season as the Cardinals beat Houston, 7–1, tonight, handing the Astros their third straight loss. With the score tied, 1–1, in the sixth inning, Ozzie Smith drew a walk from Mike Scott (13–9) and stole his 25th base. Tom Herr followed with a high hopper that fell between Scott, Glenn Davis, the first baseman, and Jim Pankovits, the second baseman, and rolled to the edge of the infield as Smith raced home. Curt Ford followed with a triple to make it 3–1.
The Texas Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox, 3–1. Texas third baseman Steve Buechele, batting .176 in his last 41 games, broke a scoreless tie with a two-run single in the fifth inning as the Rangers and rookie right-hander Jose Guzman beat Chicago. Buechele’s game-winner came off veteran left-hander Steve Carlton, 1–2, who went 6 ⅓ innings and allowed six hits and three runs.
California Angels 2, Baltimore Orioles 4
Cincinnati Reds 7, Chicago Cubs 3
Boston Red Sox 4, Cleveland Indians 5
Seattle Mariners 0, Detroit Tigers 14
Montreal Expos 7, Los Angeles Dodgers 4
Kansas City Royals 4, Milwaukee Brewers 8
Toronto Blue Jays 7, Minnesota Twins 4
Oakland Athletics 2, New York Yankees 1
Atlanta Braves 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 4
Philadelphia Phillies 3, San Diego Padres 4
New York Mets 3, San Francisco Giants 2
Houston Astros 1, St. Louis Cardinals 7
Chicago White Sox 1, Texas Rangers 3
Born:
Christine Day, Jamaican sprinter (Olympics, bronze medal, 4 x 400 meter relay, 2012), in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica.
Neil Cicierega, American cartoonist (“Potter Puppet Pals”) and musician (Lemon Demon), in Boston, Massachusetts.
