Adam Ulrey's Montreal Expos Diary

July 19, 2002 - Game 96
Florida beats Expos behind Tejera's pitching 4-2

Desperate for a win, the Florida Marlins handed the ball to home-field ace Michael Tejera and he didn't disappoint. The Marlins ended an eight-game losing streak, winning for the first time since the All-Star break as Tejera pitched them past the Expos 4-2 Friday night. Tejera (6-2) won his fifth straight decision at home, giving up two runs in six innings. He worked around five walks and improved to 5-1 in eight starts since moving into the starting rotation last month.

The Expos out hit the Marlins 9-5, but left twelve men on base. Vladimir Guerrero had a run scoring single in the third and starting pitcher, Javier Vasquez also had an RBI single in the fourth for the only Expos runs of the game. Vasquez didn't pitch poorly, giving up five hits and four runs over seven innings, but it wasn't good enough. Vazquez dropped to 7-6 on the year and saw his ERA go up to 3.70. He did strike out three, but was behind the hitters too many times, which allowed the Marlins to take advantage of their five hits. He threw 108 pitches, but only 67 of them were for strikes.

Luis Castillo tripled to open the game for the Marlins and came home on Eric Owens groundout. Juan Encarnacion led off with a double in the fifth and Andy Fox drew a one-out walk. Both moved up a base on Tejera's sacrifice bunt. Castillo then hit a sharp grounder off the glove of Vazquez. Shortstop Orlando Cabrera came up with the ball barehanded, but his throw at home attempting to get Fox was late, and Castillo was credited with a two-run single. He later scored on Owens double putting Florida ahead for good 4-2.

The former Expos Carl Pavano pitched a scoreless seventh and then turned the ball over to closer Vladimir Nunez, who pitched to scoreless innings for his 19th save of the year. The attendance at Pro Player Stadium was only 6,941, but that's nothing new as they draw as bad as the Expos do at home. The Expos will look to get back on track with Masato Yoshii going to the mound against the Marlins' Brad Penny.