Expos’ 3-1 Victory Is a Crowd Pleaser

It isn’t often the Expos play before more than 25,000 at home, so they made sure their second-largest crowd of the season went home happy.

Orlando Cabrera homered for the second consecutive game to lead the Expos to a 3-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Saturday night.

A crowd of 25,104 took advantage of a $5-ticket promotion to see Dustin Hermanson (5-10) win for the second consecutive start after going nearly three months without a victory.

“Things are starting to go my way a little bit,” Hermanson said. “It feels good to have something finally going my way.”

The turnout raised Montreal’s average attendance to 9,585, a major league low.

Although he went 0 for 4 in the game, Tony Gwynn was honored by California Gov. Gray Davis, who declared Saturday “Tony Gwynn Day” in California after Gwynn collected his 3,000th hit Friday before a crowd of only 13,540.

Cabrera’s two-run homer against Woody Williams (5-10) sent the Padres to their 12th loss in 15 games.

Hermanson gave up one run on four hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out three and walked three. Ugueth Urbina pitched the ninth for his 24th save.