Adam Ulrey's Montreal Expos Diary

July 24, 2002 - Game 101
Javier Vazquez comes to the rescue, leads Expos to 2-1 win

It took two powerful arms to stop the New York Mets, who have been on a roll of late, one on the mound and the other in right field. Vladimir Guerrero threw out the potential tying run at the plate in the seventh inning and Javier Vazquez silenced the Mets' bats. The Expos ended a five-game losing streak Wednesday night with a 2-1 victory.

"It's a good feeling. It was a nice win," Montreal manager Frank Robinson said. "It will make the food taste better, the flight will be better and I'll be able to sleep better tonight. We needed a win real bad to stop the bleeding. You can't turn a losing streak around until you win a game."

Rookie Brad Wilkerson supplied all the runs, hitting a two-run homer in the fifth inning. Vazquez pitched five-hit ball into the seventh, also getting defensive help from 41-year-old first baseman Andres Galarraga. Wilkerson leads all NL rookies with 12 home runs.

Back to Guerrero, who has one of the best arms in baseball, he charged and came up firing. He threw a low strike to catcher Michael Barrett and nailed a sliding Roberto Alomar to end the inning, and keep the Expos ahead. It was Guerrero's 12th assist of the year.

Shawn Estes didn't pitch badly for the Mets, but just didn't get any run support. He went 7 innings, giving up just the two-run homer to Wilkerson. With the win the Expos climbed to within one game of .500. They sit 50-51 on the year with 61 games to play. The Expos had eight hits, but stranded seven base runners. Scott Stewart after a couple of rough outings got his 13th save going the final 1 1/3 innings.