Adam Ulrey's Montreal Expos Diary

Unfortunately even the winning isn't bringing the fans out. Only 3,561 showed up in Montreal, a season-low crowd. They missed a good win by the Expos. Montreal played hot potato with the ball and made three errors, which lead to all four runs being unearned. They overcame it behind the pitching of Tomo Ohka, who couldn't even get out of the first inning in his last start, but went six innings for the win, his second on the year. He gave up six hits and struck out four as he gutted it out to give the Expos their fourth win in a row.

The Brewers were riding a four-game winning streak themselves, so something had to give. "We didn't play good defense tonight, but we stayed together and we picked each other up," Expos manager Frank Robinson said. Speaking of Robinson, he recorded his 692nd career victory, moving him into sole possession of 73rd place all-time, ahead of former Expos manager Felipe Alou.

Jose Vidro and Vladimir Guerrero continue to pound the baseball as they both had two hits on the night, Guerrero getting two RBIs on a two-run single in the third. Now Vidro sits at .342 and Guerrero is hitting .346, and leads the NL in RBIs with 23. Also in the fourth Brad Wilkerson had a two-run single that scored Guerrero and Stevens.

The Expos won despite three errors and twelve men left on base as they continue to battle no matter what happens throughout the game. Peter Bergeron, who couldn't get on base last year, might not have the high average, but his OBP is over .400 and he again reached base via the walk twice plus got his eighth stolen base of the year.

The story forthe last two weeks is the improvement in the bullpen, where four pitchers combined to keep the Brewers off the scoreboard. The pen went three innings, giving up just two hits and striking out three. Matt Herges, who came over from Los Angeles and started his tenor with the Expos on rocky grounds, has rebounded nicely to convert his third save in a row. He is coming in throwing strikes and getting ahead of the hitters. Tonight it was no different, he threw just 13 pitches and 8 were for strikes as he had two strikeouts to put the side down in order.

The Expos pitching held the two big bats of Richie Sexson and Geoff Jenkins to two hits and one RBI. Ben Sheets was the winner of the Gold medal game in Australia for Team USA, but tonight he didn't make it past the fourth inning. The Expos laid a five spot on the board and made it hold up. Sheets saw his ERA shoot up to 4.62 on the year. The Expos send out their ace tomorrow in Javier Vazquez to try and continue the streak and keep the Expos in first place.