Adam Ulrey's Montreal Expos Diary

July 14, 2002 - Game 91
Cordero's grand slam sinks Braves 10-3

The Atlanta Braves wouldn't pitch to Vladimir Guerrero so they took their chances with Wil Cordero. He made them pay by hitting his third career grand slam to lead the Expos to a 10-3 victory.

"He's been getting big hits for us - big, big hits," Expos manager Frank Robinson said. "He got a couple of real big hits for us in Philadelphia coming off the bench and today was a real big blow."

Cordero got a rare start in place of the newly acquired Cliff Floyd, and homered on an 0-2 pitch from Damian Moss (4-4) after Guerrero drew the second of his four walks to load the bases with two out in the third. Guerrero showed uncustomary patience - 19 of his 50 walks have been intentional.

With 25,109 on hand only, Montreal's third crowd over 20,000 this season - for a Tim Raines bobblehead promotion, the second-place Expos split the four-game series to draw to within 9 1Z�2 games of Atlanta in the NL East. Javier Vazquez (7-5) scattered eight hits over seven solid innings, allowing a pair of runs in the sixth on Andrew Jones RBI double and Javy Lopez's sacrifice fly as Atlanta drew to within 6-2.

"I think I located pretty good today," Vazquez said. "I was struggling with my command a little bit but I made some good pitches to get out of jams."

Jose Vidro helped the cause going 3-for-4 with three runs scored and his 59th RBI of the season. Andres Galarraga continued to swing a torrid bat going 3-for-3 with an RBI to raise his average to .313, not bad for a 40-year-old. The star was Cordero who had five RBIs after adding an RBI single in the ninth. His playing time will decrease some with the addition of Floyd, but Robinson has promised him some time at 1st base.

So now after bouncing back to even the series at 2-2 they Expos will entertain the last place Phillies and try to keep their winning streak going. �