Guerrero Powers Expos Over Brewers, 5-1

Vladimir Guerrero prefers to let his bat do his talking, and it has been speaking volumes lately.

Guerrero hit a pair of two-run home runs and drove in five runs Friday night as the Montreal Expos defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1, at Montreal, handing the Brewers their fifth consecutive loss.

Guerrero, who also had a run-scoring single, went three for four to raise his average to .441. Guerrero homered against Jimmy Haynes (2-1) in the sixth and Curtis Leskanic in the eighth to give him an National League-leading 23 runs batted in in 16 games.

“I don’t surprise myself,” Guerrero said through a translator. “I just want to do my job.”

Dustin Hermanson (2-1) gave up one run and six hits in eight innings. He has given up one run in 17 innings in his last two starts, including a shutout against the Philadelphia Phillies, to lower his earned-run average from 6.55 to 2.89.

Ugueth Urbina came on with runners at first and third and one out in the ninth and got two outs for his fourth save. Urbina moved past John Wetteland with 106 saves for the Expos, the third most in team history.

“It feels good,” Urbina said. “I never think about things like that, though. I just try to save as many games as I can.”

Guerrero got his 300th RBI in the fourth inning when he singled home Rondell White, who had doubled against Haynes to lead off the inning.

Milwaukee’s Geoff Jenkins hit his fifth homer of the season against Hermanson with two outs in the sixth to tie the score at 1-1.

Jose Vidro walked with one out in the bottom half and advanced to second on White’s groundout. With first base open, the Brewers elected to pitch to Guerrero, who launched a 401-foot shot deep into the left-field stands for his sixth homer of the season.

“He’s seeing the ball really well right now, and he’s catching mistakes,” Haynes said. “If you make mistakes or leave the ball out over the plate, he’s hitting it well. You have to make good pitches to him, and we didn’t do that a couple of times today.”

Philadelphia 4, Florida 3--Bobby Abreu went four for four with a home run and a double, and Andy Ashby pitched a seven-hitter as the Phillies overcame a three-run deficit at Miami.

Abreu, who has hit safely in seven of eight games, scored twice, stole two bases and broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth with his third homer of the season. He increased his all-time average against Florida to .365.

“Abreu kills us. He crushed us last year,” Marlin Manager John Boles said. “We have a plan on how to get Bobby out, but so far he’s beaten the plan.”

Ashby (1-1) gave up one earned run, struck out three and walked three in his 19th complete game, his first since last July 4 against the Colorado Rockies. With runners at first and second in the ninth, he retired pinch-hitter Mark Smith on a game-ending grounder.

Vladimir Nunez (0-2) gave up four runs and eight hits in seven innings.

Colorado 6, St. Louis 4--Kevin Jarvis won in the majors for the first time in 3 1/2 years and Todd Helton hit a three-run homer in the first inning at St. Louis.

Jarvis (1-0), brought up from the minor leagues earlier in the day, gave up four runs and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings, improving his all-time record to 13-19. He hadn’t won in the major leagues since beating the Chicago Cubs for the Cincinnati Reds on Sept. 26, 1996.

Jarvis retired 11 consecutive batters starting in the third. Jose Jimenez got five outs for his second save.

Mark McGwire was two for four with two singles and an RBI after sitting out seven consecutive games because of back pain. He has sat out nine of the Cardinals’ 17 games.

Pat Hentgen (3-1) gave up six runs, eight hits and four walks in six innings.

San Diego 7, Houston 2--Woody Williams gave up one run and four hits in seven innings at Houston to beat the Astros for the second time in six days.

“I don’t worry about who I’m pitching against or what I’ve done against a team in the past,” Williams said. “I just try to concentrate on the hitters I’m pitching against.”

Ryan Klesko, Bret Boone and Damian Jackson each doubled twice for the Padres, and Phil Nevin doubled once.

Wiki Gonzalez had three RBIs, and Klesko and Boone each scored three runs, with Boone going three for four and Klesko two for four.

The game drew 42,092, the largest crowd thus far at the Astros’ new stadium, Enron Field.

Williams (3-1), making his second start in his hometown, struck out seven and walked five.

“He pitched a good game against us in San Diego and did a good job again tonight,” Astro Manager Larry Dierker said. “He kept the ball out of the strike zone a lot. It’s not like he was overpowering us. I figured if we faced him twice, he’d pitch well once and we’d hit him once. But it didn’t work out that way.”

Jose Lima (1-3) gave up five runs and eight hits, among them five doubles, in five innings. His ERA climbed to 5.88.

Atlanta 6, Pittsburgh 2--Terry Mulholland pitched Atlanta’s first complete game of the season, and Andres Galarraga hit a go-ahead single in a two-run sixth inning at Atlanta to lead the Braves to their fifth consecutive victory.

Mulholland (2-2) walked two and struck out three in his first complete game since June 18, 1997. Mulholland has 46 complete games in his career.

“Who’d have thought our fourth starter would be the one to get our first complete game?” asked Manager Bobby Cox.

Galarraga, who hit two home runs and drove in four runs in Thursday night’s 6-4 victory over the Phillies, singled to left against reliever Mike Garcia (0-1) to score Chipper Jones to break a 2-2 tie in the sixth.

“He seems to be always getting the big hit,” Cox of Galarraga, who sat out last season because of cancer in his lower back. “It never stops. It’s an incredible story.”

Jones opened the sixth with a walk and took second on a single by Brian Jordan. Jordan took third on Galarraga’s hit and scored on a sacrifice fly by Javy Lopez.

The Braves added two more runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Quilvio Veras and Andruw Jones. Veras went three for three with a walk and two RBIs.

Chicago at New York, ppd. rain--The game between the Cubs and Mets was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader today.