Vazquez Takes Lead, Runs With It

Javier Vazquez is being held to a pretty high standard.

Vazquez pitched eight strong innings and Orlando Cabrera and Vladimir Guerrero each had three hits to lead the Montreal Expos to a 6-3 victory over San Francisco on Friday night, ending the Giants’ season-high winning streak at seven.

Vazquez (2-2) allowed six hits--including a leadoff homer and an RBI single by David Bell.

“Vazquez is better than that,” Giant Manager Dusty Baker said. “I’ve seen him sharper than that. He wasn’t as sharp as we’ve seen him before.”

Fernando Tatis hit his second homer in the second, and Montreal scored four runs off Livan Hernandez (4-3) in the third to take a 5-2 lead.

“We haven’t been getting those runs early for Javy and giving him something to work with, and tonight we did and this is what he’s capable of doing when you get him some runs,” Expo Manager Frank Robinson said.

Montreal won its second in a row after a season-high six-game losing streak.

Barry Bonds was 0 for 3 with a walk.

“You just have to pitch [Bonds] carefully,” Vasquez said, “and today I tried to mix up all my pitches.”

Trailing, 2-1, Endy Chavez started Montreal’s third-inning rally with a leadoff double before scoring the tying run on Jose Vidro’s RBI single.

Vidro advanced to third on Guerrero’s single and scored the go-ahead run on an RBI single by Troy O’Leary, who made his Expo debut after being called up from triple-A Ottawa on Wednesday.

The Expos scored two of their final three runs on double-play grounders hit by Tatis.