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  Wednesday, Sep. 20 7:05pm ET
Vazquez strikes out 11 in Expos win
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

MONTREAL (AP) -- Vladimir Guerrero is poised to raise his own bar, once again.

Guerrero tied his club record with his 42nd homer and Javier Vazquez struck out 11 as the Montreal Expos beat the Florida Marlins 4-2 Wednesday night.

"He's going to break it soon," Expos manager Felipe Alou said. "But he's going to have to break it again next year. He's putting up some kind of numbers -- he's going to make it tough on himself."

Vazquez (11-7) gave up two runs and nine hits in 8 2/3 innings as he won his third straight start. He also had two hits and tied his career high for strikeouts.

"I've got two starts left here, so I've got to finish strong," Vazquez said. "We're not in a race or anything, but I'd rather finish strong."

Guerrero's sixth-inning homer was his fifth in his last four games, and the Expos' third of the game off Reid Cornelius (3-10) to tie the team record of 172 homers set in 1997.

"I'd throw the same pitch again," Cornelius said. "I think he went down and got it -- he's a darn good hitter."

Geoff Blum and Andy Tracy hit back-to-back homers in the first, the fifth time the Expos have homered in consecutive at-bats this season.

Florida's Luis Castillo had three hits for his 54th multihit game of the season, tying Jeff Conine's team record set in 1994.

Scott Strickland relieved Vazquez after Ramon Castro hit a two-out RBI single in the ninth. Strickland got one out for eighth save.

Castillo doubled in the first, advanced to third on Mark Kotsay's grounder to second, and scored on Kevin Millar's sacrifice fly to put the Marlins ahead 1-0.

Blum's 11th homer with one out in the bottom half tied the game and Tracy followed with his 11th to put the Expos ahead 2-1.

Guerrero's leadoff homer in the sixth was his 24th homer at Olympic Stadium this season, breaking the team record for home runs at home that he set last season.

The home run was also the 85th the Expos have hit at home, breaking the team record set last year.

Montreal added a second run in the sixth as Orlando Cabrera scored from third to make it 4-1 on shortstop Alex Gonzalez's 19th error.

Cornelius, who has not won since his last appearance at Olympic Stadium, allowed four runs -- three earned -- and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. He is 0-8 in 13 starts since beating Montreal 2-1 on July 2.

"If you dwell on it, it's nothing but negative thoughts," Cornelius said. "Each game I've pitched, I think I've learned something."

Game notes
Castillo's next stolen base will break the Marlins' single season record of 58 he currently shares with Chuck Carr. Castillo stole three bases Tuesday after going 12 games without a steal to tie Carr's 1993 mark. ... CF Preston Wilson needs one more home run to become the 23rd player in major league history to hit at least 30 home runs and steal at least 30 bases in the same season. Wilson has 32 steals and 29 homers. ... The Expos have hit 87 homers on the road, four off the record of 91 hit by the 1997 team with six road games remaining. ... Blum, normally a switch-hitter, batted left and singled against left-hander Armando Almanza in the seventh.
 


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