Adam Ulrey's Montreal Expos Diary

August 18, 2002 - Game 123
Ohka pitches complete game,leads Expos past Padres 9-2

Tomo Ohka threw a complete game for Montreal, leading the Expos to the 9-2 victory. He also received a little help from his teammate, pitcher Britt Reames. Ohka gave up 11 hits, but didn't walk a batter and gave up just the two runs. Reames helped him out by noticing a base running error made by Ryan Klesko of the Padres. The hitting star was Jose Vidro who was 3-for-5 with two runs and four RBIs on two homers, his 14th and 15th of the year. Jose Macias kept his hot bat going slugging another homer his 7th on the season.

The Expos were leading 5-0 when Tom Lampkin hit a leadoff single and took third on Ramon Vazquez's one-out single. Mark Kotsay hit a sacrifice fly and Klesko followed with an apparent double to the left field corner. As Klesko was removing his arm guard while at second base on what was believed to be an RBI double, Ohka stepped off the bag and threw to first base. Umpire Jim Wolf called Klesko out for missing the bag. Sitting in the dugout, Reames had seen Klesko's mistake.

"I look at the ball and I just kind of glanced over and saw him step over the bag and completely miss it." Reames said. "That was big for us. It saved a hit and a run."

"I was watching the ball and I just missed the bag," Klesko said.

The Padres couldn't get the big hit when they needed it as the stranded 9 runners. They scratched out 11 hits, but could only manage two runs. A crowd of 24,872 on Vladimir Guerrero bobble head day raised the Expos attendance through 63 home games to 653,203, surpassing their total of 642,748 for the entire year last season. The fourth-largest crowd of the season at Olympic Stadium saw Guerrero go 1-for-5. The star outfielder had missed a game with a strained shoulder, but didn't show any signs of a lingering effect as he made a shoestring catch to end the game. Ohka pitched his first complete game of his career after 60 starts. He walked none and struck out three in lowering his ERA to 3.33 and getting his 10th win of the season.

"He's just been outstanding for us this year," Robinson said. Vidro though had his bat working tonight as he connected in the second after Brian Schneider doubled. Then he came back up with the score 6-1 and hit another two-run shot to put the icing on the cake.

"I hit two sliders that kind of stayed up in the zone," Vidro said.

The Expos average attendance this season now has climbed to 10,368 per game up above the major-league low last year of just 7,935 over their 81 home games. They now are within one game of .500 at 61-62.