Adam Ulrey's Montreal Expos Diary

August 25, 2002 - Game 130
Bonds leads the Giants to win to avoid sweep by the Expos 8-4

Barry Bonds, who sat out Saturday's game to get treatment for an assortment of injuries, had two doubles, missing his 603rd homer by inches and scored two runs in leading the Giants to an 8-4 victory over the Expos to avoid a sweep. Earlier in the week Bonds had called Vladimir Guerrero the games best young hitter. But when Bonds is feeling good he still is the best hitter in the world.

The Giants pounded out 12 hits as David Bell and Jeff Kent joined Bonds in the two hit club. The Giants did all this while leaving 10 men on base. The Expos are to some extent lucky the Giants didn't do a better job of hitting with runners in scoring position.

Guerrero, who leads the NL with 165 hits, was a one-man show for Montreal. He went 3-for-3 and stole two bases to finish a 7-for-10 series, but he was stranded four times.

"He's one of the best players I've seen in this league for a long time," San Francisco manager Dusty Baker said. "He plays hard. He's an all-effort guy."

Jason Schmidt won for the fourth time in his last five decisions to run his record to 9-6 and lowered his ERA to 3.36. He went seven innings, giving up just six hits and two runs, while striking out seven. Javier Vazquez, on the other hand, has been in one of the worst slumps of his career after losing his fifth straight start. He saw his record drop to 8-11, giving up eight hits and six runs in just 5 1/3 innings. His ERA now sits at 4.08, the highest it's been all year. Montreal tied a season high with four errors that lead to the Giants scoring two unearned runs. The Expos dropped to 0-11 in Sunday road games this season, yet at home on Sunday's they are 9-1; you explain this. The Expos now (65-65) haven't been at .500 this late in the season since Sept. 17, 1997.