Expos 8 Padres 4

After a 1-0 win in the tenth last night, fans figured they would see an abundance of offense Sunday at the Q. Instead a comedy of errors ensued and the Expos beat the San Diego Padres 8-4.

Will Cordero elevated a low pitch from Kevin Jarvis (4-6) and sent it deep in the outfield to knock in the first run of the game in the second inning.

Brad Wilkerson hit a two run home run, his 16th of the season, on a 3-2 slider in the fifth to put the Expos up 3-0. Jamey Carroll scored on an infield single for the Expos fourth run of the game. Ojeda lost count of the outs when Jarvis struck out Vladimir Guerrero and rolled the ball back to the mound, taking off for the dugout. The problem was – it was only the second out of the inning.

Consecutive doubles by Miguel Ojeda and Lou Merloni brought in one run in the home half of the fifth. Then Sean Burroughs, who walked, and Merloni both scored on an error by pitcher Eric Knott (1-2) to come within a run at 4-3. Knott tossed a ball hit by Mark Kotsay all the way down the right field line enabling the two runs to score.

Jose Vidro hit a two run homer off Joe Roa and pinch-hitter Endy Chavez and Wilkerson added run-scoring singles in the eighth off Luther Hackman.

The Expos snapped a four game skid with the win.



Minors:

Rich Gomez hit his 13th homerun of the season in a 5-4 Portland win over Tacoma.

Jon Knott hit his 27th home run of the season for Mobile in a 8-1 loss to Chattanooga. Jesse Gutierrez blasted a grand slam in the third inning to break it open off BayBears starter Justin Germano.

Fort Wayne beat West Michigan 7-6 on Sunday. Four different Wizards had two hits, Virgilio DeLeon, LJ Biernbaum, Paul McAnulty and Steve Baker, with everyone else but Steve Shirley getting a hit in the 12 hit onslaught by the Wizards. Darwin Soto had his eighth save of the year.

Denis Savage can be reached at [e-mail]