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GAME LOG
MONTREAL (AP) -- If Darren Dreifort thought about a perfect game,
he wasn't about to admit it.
|  | | Darren Dreifort, who took a no-hitter into the sixth vs. San Diego on April 22, took a perfect game into the sixth in Montreal on Wednesday. |
"No, I was thinking, 'keep us in the ballgame,' " Dreifort said
after he retired the first 17 batters as the Los Angeles Dodgers
beat the Montreal Expos 7-2 Wednesday night.
Dreifort (3-2) was working on a perfect game until he walked
Expos starter Britt Reames (2-5) with two outs in the sixth.
"I didn't know it was a perfect game until my walk. Wow!"
Reames said. "We ran into a buzzsaw tonight."
Dreifort allowed a run on Orlando Cabrera's RBI double before
pitching his way out of a jam to leave with a 2-1 lead.
Shawn Green hit a three-run homer in the eighth and Eric Karros
added a two-run single in the ninth to secure Dreifort's win.
"The killer was the three-run homer by Green," Expos manager
Felipe Alou said. "We knew we had a ballgame, with enough time to
come back. The big fly that made it 5-1, that made it tough to come
back."
Dreifort, who also took a no-hitter into the sixth against San
Diego on April 22, lost both his no-hit and shutout bids when
Cabrera followed with an RBI double to cut Los Angeles' lead to
2-1.
Dreifort hit Geoff Blum with a pitch and walked Lee Stevens to
load the bases. Dreifort escaped the jam by getting Vladimir
Guerrero on a groundout.
Dreifort, who struck out nine, allowed one run, one hit and two
walks in six innings. He singled out catcher Angel Pena's
contributions to his effort.
"He's good back there because he's got a lot of confidence in
his catching ability," Dreifort said. "And he calls a great game, too. We had solid defense, and we put some runs up on the board
there in the eighth and the ninth that really helped us shut them
down."
The game drew just 4,759 fans -- dropping Montreal's season
average to 10,662. The Expos drew 45,183 for their home opener.
Los Angeles went ahead 2-0 on Mark Grudzielanek's RBI single in
the third and Tom Goodwin's solo homer in the sixth. Grudzielanek
finished the game going 3-for-5.
Green's eighth homer, in the eighth inning against reliever
Scott Strickland, made it 5-1.
Montreal finished with four hits in the game. The Expos added a
run in the eighth off Mike Fetters when Ryan Minor hit a leadoff
single, moved to third on a double by Cabrera and scored on Blum's
sacrifice fly.
Karros hit a two-run single in the ninth for the Dodgers.
Reames lost his fifth straight start, despite allowing just two
runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings. He struck out seven and walked
one.
Game notes
Dodgers INF Tim Bogar went 1-for-4 with a double in his
rehab assignment with Triple-A Las Vegas. ... Expos 1B Lee Stevens
went 0-for-3 with a walk to end a career-best 10-game hitting
streak. Stevens, who also had 10-game streaks with Texas in 1997
and 1999, is hitting .275 (11-for-40) with one homer and five RBIs
over the course of the streak. ... Guerrero has yet to hit a grand
slam in the majors. He has 143 career homers _ the most of any
active player without a grand slam.
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