The magic number is still two.

Rain washed out last night's scheduled Pirate-Giant game, and Chris Short washed out the Dodgers, 5-3.

Short, of the Phillies, held the Dodgers to one run for eight innings, weakening for two more in the ninth when the game was well out of reach. Bill White's three-run homer in the seventh helped put it that way.

And so the backward race for the National League pennant will move to the next to the last day. The Giants will play a double-header in Pittsburgh with Juan Marichal scheduled to pitch one, and the Dodgers will serve up the "new" Don Drysdale against the Phillies.

The leader in the other league didn't look so good last night, either. The Orioles dropped two games to Minnesota. 10-7 and 8-2. The Birds' two winningest pitchers--Dave McNally and rookie JHim Palmer--were the twin Twin victims.

With the league leaders all doing to badly, the Mets may win the Series on a write-in vote. They survived eight innings of perfect ball by Larry Dierker to beat the Astros in the ninth, 1-0. Fat Jack Fisher pitched his second straight shut-out.

Unfortunately, the Astros have already sewn up eighth place from the stampeding Mets. The Faithful, however, can still take comfort in New York's first ninth-place finish. The Cubs lost to St. Louis, 2-0, last night.