Hawk Soars More: Expos take 2 of 3 from Bucs

9/12 - 9/14 - Three Rivers Stadium
GAME 1 - Pirates 2, Expos 1
2:39,  75ø, Light Rain,  10mph Right to Left
Being groomed to become the ace of one's staff has it's ups and it's downs.  Today would be considered a "up" for Doug Drabek (1-2, 3.38) who allowed only 4 hits over 7 2/3 innings of work.  The big bonus was the fact that the normally porous Pirate Pen held on to save the day for Drabek.  Montreal's Bill Gullickson had a fine day himself, but wound up on the short end of the ledger during this pitcher's duel.  Gullickson's undoing, if you can describe 2 runs as an undoing, was the home half of the 3rd.  After Drabek flew out ot center Andy Van Slyke doubled off the right center fence.  Skinny Barry Bonds singled to put runners on the corners and Bobby Bonilla cranked one off the rightfield fence to score them both.  Montreal would threaten in the second and the 8th when they loaded the bases, but reliever John Smiley was able to get  Al "Scoops" Oliver to fly out weakly to the area he once patrolled in center.  Montreal was finally able to crack the scoreboard with a 2 out pinch hit single by Warren Cromartie that scored Gary Carter, who got a rare start at 1st base today.  Mike Vail came on to pinch hit for Doug Flynn and he too singled.  Manny Trillo, who barely has warning tack power, took Pirate reliever Jim Gott deep to center, but Andy Van Slyke was able to harness the ball for the final out.

GAME 2 - Expos 2, Pirates 1
2:28,  77ø,  10mph In from CF
Turnabout is fair play, or at least that's how the expression seems to go.  In any case it was the Expos turn to win a 2-1 nail biter.  Charlie Lea (3-1, 1.31) and Rick Reuschel (4-2, 3.65) hooked up in a second consecutive pitcher's duel between these two divisional rivals.  The Pirates scored in the first to take the lead off Lea when Van Slyke led off with a single and then scored on a long Bobby Bonilla single as the Pirates expertly executed the hit and run.  The score would remain 1-0 for the home team until the top of the 4th when Andre Dawson led off with a opposite field parachute single.  Al Oliver, who was batting cleanup for the first time all season, stepped up and delivered the type of blow a #4 hitter is expected to deliver.  "Mr. Scoops" launched one out of Three Rivers in a hurry to make it 2-0 and exact some sort of revenge against the team that traded him 6 years earlier.  That would be all of the offense the Expos could muster on the day.  Lea was cruising until the 8th when pinch hitter Jose Lind led off with a double.  Van Slyke popped to second and Lea was now done for the day.  Bob James would come on board to fan Bonds for out number 2.  A wild pitch allowed Lind to move to third where a single by Bonilla would easily score him.  Bobby Bo ripped the ball to second, but was easily thrown out at first to end the threat.  Pittsburgh made 2 quick outs in the 9th and everything looked like it was going to be easy until the normally surehanded Doug Flynn, who came on as a defensive replacement to start the inning, booted a 2 hopper by R.J. Reynolds.  With righty John Cangelosi stepping to the plate the Expos went to the pen and replaced lefty Dan Schatzeder with closer Jeff Reardon.  Before even throwing his first pitch, Reardon noticed that Reynolds was leaning toward second but not paying attention.  Reardon side-armed the ball to Carter at first who slapped the tag on a dazed R.J. for the final out of the game.  A bizarre ending for sure.  Reardon earned his 6th save without the benefit of even throwing a pitch.

GAME 3 - Expos 8, Pirates 6
3:41,  72ø, Threatening,  10mph In from LF
After two straight pitcher's duels the fans were bound to be treated to a slugfest.  If you look at the final score that's the impression one would get.  First impressions can be wrong and in this case that is exactly how it played out.  In fact ace starters Steve Rogers (Montreal) and Mike Dunne (Pittsburgh) locked horns in a (guess what ?) 2-1 pitcher's duel over the first 6 innings.  Montreal tied it with a solo run in the 7th when Dunn lost his control and walked everyone in site.  Dunne was gone after recording only 1 out in the inning, but Montreal was incapable of breaking through to score more.  That was until the top of the 8th when Mr. Scoops, Al Oliver, led off with a walk and Andre “the Hawk” Dawson pummeled the ball deep into the upper deck in left field to make it 4-2 as Pirate reliever Jeff Robinson could only hang his head in despair.  By the 8th inning Rogers was gone for Montreal and Dan Schatzeder came back to try his luck for a second consecutive day.  "Schatzie" gave up a lead off double to Sid Bream, who wound up one homer short of the cycle.  With the score 4-3 Pittsburgh was reduced to playing mix and match out of the bullpen in the hopes of maintaining the status quo and getting to the home half of the 9th down by just one.  That plan was not going to succeed, because the Bucs own one of the most porous pens in the biz.  John Smiley started the inning and walked pinch hitter Jim Wohlford.  Jeff Reardon was the next hitter.  Popular thought said to pinch hit for the bearded closer, but knowing the lack of depth in the Expo pen reason said that Reardon was going to have to stay in this contest and close it out.  Smiley wasn't smiling too much after he walked Reardon on 5 pitches, which setup a run scoring double by Tim Raines.  Smilley then fanned Warren Cromartie and got Oliver to ground out easily to first with the infield drawn in.  It looked like the Bucs were going to escape without further damage and still have a fighting chance in the bottom of the inning.  That was until Brett Gideon came on board for the righty/righty matchup and served up a tape measure gopher ball to "the Hawk" for his second bomb in as man at bats.  With the score now 8-4 Expos Reardon took the mound in the bottom of the 9th expecting a cakewalk.  As what happens so many times when a closer is in a non save situation, Jeff Reardon lost his focus  and almost lost this game.  Van Slyke harmlessly singled to center, then scored when Bonds narrowly missed a homer and tripled off the right center field wall.  Bobby Bo struck out, but Sid Bream repeated to a "T" what Bonds did and recorded a run scoring triple of his own to cut the Expo lead to 2.  By this point Ray Burris and James were both warming up like sprinters in the pen.  Pinch hitter Jose Lind walked to put the winning run at the plate in the form of Junior Ortiz who popped up to Carter behind the plate.  Reardon finally regained his composure and equilibrium and fanned R.J. Reynolds for the final out of the game.  Poor R.J. !  He had the inglorious luck of making the final out in both Pittsburgh losses.  By virtue of taking 2 of 3 in the series the Expos increased their NL East lead over the Bucs to 5 with 12 left to play.