Expos play long ball to beat Cardinals

Montreal hits three homers off Morris in 5-2 victory.

The Associated Press

MONTREAL -- Vladimir Guerrero isn't reading too much into the Montreal Expos' strong start.

Guerrero had his second multihomer game of the season and 15th of his career, leading the Expos over the St. Louis Cardinals 5-2 Sunday.

"I can't pinpoint anything, but we're just playing well and I hope we continue to do it," Guerrero said through an interpreter.

Guerrero and Lee Stevens hit consecutive homers off Matt Morris (4-2) in a four-run fourth inning, and Guerrero homered again in the fifth.

"It's still early," he said. "There are a lot of games left with five months to go, and we just have keep on going out there and doing the good job we've been doing so far."

A crowd of 9,780 came to Olympic Stadium despite a storm that left at least 5 inches of snow in Montreal. The Expos, who lost their previous two games, went 9-4 on their season-high 13-game homestand.

Montreal raised its record to 15-10 and retained its share of the NL East lead with the New York Mets, who won their fourth straight to sweep a three-game series from Milwaukee.

Guerrero, who also homered twice against the Cubs on April 16, has 28 RBIs, one more than the team's previous April record, which he shared with Henry Rodriguez.

Tomo Ohka (3-2), who gave up the winning run in the 11th inning Friday, allowed two runs and seven hits in 7 1-3 innings, matching the longest outing of his career. He struck out a career-high seven and walked none.

"He didn't work that much the other day and I knew he'd be strong," Expos manager Frank Robinson said. "I knew he'd be out there to show us that he deserved to be out there, and he came through."

Matt Herges got two outs for his fourth save in five chances.

The Cardinals, who got RBI doubles from Jim Edmonds in the seventh and Fernando Vina in the eighth, went 4-9 on their season-long 13-game trip.

"Ohka pitched a great game," St. Louis first baseman Tino Martinez said. "He had a good forkball working and we couldn't get anything done today. We can play better. We haven't been playing our best baseball yet. We have injuries here and there but hopefully we'll get everyone healthy, get on a hot streak at home and get things rolling."

Morris allowed five runs and eight hits in six innings, losing his second straight start after winning four in a row. He also singled twice to right -- drawing throws to first by Guerrero both times.

"I felt all right," Morris said. "Yeah, we won the series, but I want to win every time out there. I didn't make pitches and ran into trouble that one inning."

Montreal's Jose Vidro went 0-for-4, ending his hitting streak at 13 games, one short of his career high.

In the fourth, Chris Truby hit an RBI double and Brad Wilkerson had a run-scoring single.Noteworty

***St. Louis has not swept a three-game series in Montreal since Sept. 26-28, 1969.

***Rodriguez had 27 RBIs in April 1996 during his first stint in Montreal, and Guerrero tied the record in 2000. Cubs LF Moises Alou set the Expos' record for RBIs in any month with 30 in June 1994.