Adam Ulrey's Montreal Expos Diary

August 21, 2002 - Game 126
Wilkerson leads the Expos route of the Rockies 13-5

Brad Wilkerson would like nothing better than to win the NL Rookie of the year award. He's making a strong case to win it. Wilkerson hit two of the six homers the Expos had in their 13-5 win over the Rockies at Coors Field.

"I want that award," Wilkerson said. "I made that one of my goals in spring training and I will do anything I can to win it."

His stiffest competition comes from the Reds stud, Austin Kearns, who virtually leads all rookies in every major category. The two homers gives Wilkerson 17 on the year and his 3 RBIs brought his total to 47. Wilkerson was 3-for-4 with a double and his 17 homers are just two short of the franchise record for rookies held by the great Andre Dawson (1977) and Larry Walker (1990).

"Wilkerson continues to improve and just keeps getting better and better all the time," Montreal manager Frank Robinson said. "He's performing the way people thought he'd perform when they drafted and signed him."

Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Vidro, Wil Cordero and pitch-hitter rookie Matt Cepicky also all homered to bring the Expos back to .500 at 63-63 on the year. The Expos finally in the sixth were able to knock out Colorado's starter Shawn Chacon. Chacon left after 5 2/3 giving up seven runs. Masato Yoshii had another strong performance, going five innings, giving up just three hits and one earned run, before having to leave with back spasms. It was just Yoshii's fourth win of the season, and also saw his ERA lowered to 3.65 on the year.

The Expos pounded out 13 hits, as four different players had two hits. This team just keeps hanging around the .500 mark. They just can't seem to put any type of a winning streak together.