Adam Ulrey's Montreal Expos Diary

July 30, 2002 - Game 106
Guerrero rescues Expos with a homer to beat Arizona 5-4 in 10 innings

The Expos didn't get much of a chance to celebrate their dramatic win over the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night. Vladimir Guerrero homered in the 10th inning to lead the Expos over the Diamondbacks 5-4, ending their season-high seven-game winning streak. Cliff Floyd, who homered in the second inning and was on deck when Guerrero connected, was traded to Boston immediately following the game.

"I don't know what to say. It's a shock," Expos second baseman Jose Vidro said. "We're just finally getting comfortable with the guy and he got traded again."

Floyd went 1-for-4 in the final game of his brief second stint with Montreal, hitting his third homer since being acquired from Florida on July 11th. From my point of view GM Omar Minaya must not believe that the Expos are going to be contracted, as he traded Floyd for three prospects. If you knew you were going to be contracted wouldn't you then trade Floyd for players that were going to go free next year or just keep Floyd? It shows me that Minaya thinks and believes that the Expos won't be contracted. I would also highly recommend that you go to www.baseballprospectus.com and read Joe Sheehan's column on the Trade of Floyd. He believes that Bud Selig had a hand in this to help strengthen the Red Sox. He is a friend of Red Sox owner John Henry and even though there were higher bidders for the Red Sox, Selig still gave the team to Henry. Just take the time to read the column called "The Daily Prospectus" for July 31st and see what I mean.

After Montreal allowed an unearned run with two outs on Orlando Cabrera's throwing error his 18th of the season and remember this is last year's Gold Glove winner at shortstop, to blow a 4-3 lead. Guerrero hit Byung-Hyun Kim's 3-1 pitch into the left-field stands with one out in the 10th for his 27th homer of the season.

"This club has overcome an awful lot this year," Robinson said. "A lot of tough bumps in the road and a lot of tough situations, and they've bounced back and played hard."

Andres Galarraga also homered for Montreal, which won for the third time in four games. Galarraga continues to amaze me, he's a 40-year old who is playing outstanding baseball, batting .292 with 6 homers and 21 RBIs in very limited time. He now with the trade of Lee Stevens has become the full-time first baseman. He will get a rest here and there with Wil Cordero taking over and sometimes Brad Wilkerson will also play first.

T.J. Tucker pitched a scoreless 10th inning to pick up his 6th win against only two losses and lowered his ERA to 2.96. Guerrero also had two other hits to give him three on the night and raise his average to .321 for the year, which leads the team. Javier Vasquez pitched a very good game going seven innings giving up 8 hits and three runs to lower his ERA to 3.61. He also struck out five and walked only one. With the win the Expos improved to 53-53 to reach .500 for the first time in eight games, as the last time was when they were 49-49. They have a tough task tomorrow as they face the former Expo Randy Johnson.