With parts of his bullpen under fire,…

With parts of his bullpen under fire, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa came to the defense of Rick Honeycutt: “If you’re not careful, fans and even teammates can take a guy like him for granted.” . . . Dennis Eckersley is feeling the heat in St. Louis too. “I don’t feel real comfortable pitching here,” he said after getting booed at Busch Stadium. “There’s a lot more pressure these days.” . . . The Cubs will play the regular-season opener at Olympic Stadium in Atlanta next year. . . . Padres owner John Moores knows the baseball talks are healthy when he doesn’t see a sound bite from union boss Don Fehr. “It’s very encouraging that I don’t see Fehr blasting American capitalism in front of the TV cameras,” Moores said. . . . When Pittsburgh starts to take a hard look at its 1997 roster, don’t be surprised to see oft-injured Carlos Garcia (strained hamstring) as a player the Pirates are willing to deal to a team that needs a second baseman or shortstop. . . . Philadelphia manager Jim Fregosi always comes right to the point. Of recalled reliever Larry Mitchell, he said: “He told me, `It’s great to be here.’ I told him the object is to stay here.” . . . You have to hand it to Montreal manager Felipe Alou for being even-handed. After the brawl with Houston, he admitted his dislike for Henry Rodriguez’s home-run walk that precipitated the fracas, as well as how Houston’s Danny Darwin turtled after hitting Rodriguez. “If I had a pitcher throw at somebody, I’d want him to stand there and fight,” he said of Darwin turning away as Rodriguez arrived.