MONTREAL - Wil Cordero hit his third career grand slam and had five RBIs to lead the Montreal Expos to a 10-3 win over the Atanta Braves on Sunday before the third-largest Olympic Stadium crowd of the season.
With 25,109 on hand - only Montreal's third crowd over 20,000 this season - for a Tim Raines bobblehead promotion, the second-place Expos split the four-game series to draw to within 9.5 games of Atlanta in the NL East.
Brad Wilkerson and Jose Vidro hit two-out singles in the third and Vladimir Guerrero walked to load the bases before Cordero hit an 0-2 pitch from Damian Moss (4-4) pitch over the left-field wall for his third homer of the season.
It was Cordero's first grand slam since Apr. 29, 1998, against Baltimore while playing for the Chicago White Sox.
The Braves, who lost for just the fifth time in their last 22 games, hadn't lost consecutive games since losing two in a row from June 16-18.
Atlanta's Gary Sheffield set a franchise record by reaching base for the 40th straight game with a two-out double in the fourth.
Javier Vazquez (7-5) scattered eight hits over seven solid innings, allowing a pair of runs in the sixth on Andruw Jones' RBI double and Javy Lopez's sacrifice fly as Atlanta drew to within 6-2.
Cordero's RBI single in the bottom half off reliever Kevin Gryboski made it 7-2 before the Braves got their third run in the eighth on back-to-back doubles by Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones off reliever T.J. Tucker.
Montreal increased its lead to seven in the bottom half on RBI singles by Fernando Tatis, Andres Galaragga and Michael Barrett.
After Cordero's grand slam put Montreal up 4-0, the Expos rallied for two more in the fourth and threatened to do more damage.
Vidro hit a two-out single with the bases loaded to make it 5-0 and Guerrero drew his second of three walks to push across Montreal's sixth run.
Cordero followed with a fly to left to end the threat.
Moss allowed eight walks and seven hits as he gave up seven runs in 5 2-3 innings.
NOTES: Moss threw 123 pitches and only 63 for strikes. ... Sheffield had been tied with Chipper Jones, who set the previous team record by reaching base in 39 consecutive games in 1999. ... Cordero had a career-high six RBIs for Pittsburgh on July 5, 2000, against the Chicago Cubs. He hit his first career grand slam on July 10, 1994, against Houston during his first stint with Montreal.
Friday
February 7th, 2025
8:36AM
