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The Montreal Expos enjoyed their most lopsided win of the season, though that's not saying much.
Zach Day and Rocky Biddle combined on Montreal's second shutout, and Matt Cepicky hit a two-run double to send the Expos to a 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.
Montreal, shut out for the fifth time this season the day before, managed five hits. They won for just the third time in 14 games to avoid being swept by the Phillies for the second time this year.
The Expos have scored only 34 runs in 19 games and their 5-14 start remains the worst in team history. Their four previous wins were all by one run.
``Two runs is no margin for error, but Day pitched an outstanding game today,'' Expos manager Frank Robinson said.
Day (2-1) scattered nine hits through eight innings. Biddle finished with a perfect ninth for his fifth save in five opportunities as Montreal got its first win at Olympic Stadium.
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``I didn't have my best stuff,'' Day said. ``I didn't have my best breaking
ball, my best changeup or even my best sinker, but I knew I still had to go
out there. It was a big win for us. It felt good to go out there and put up
zeros and we pulled it off.''
The game drew only 8,267 despite a Brad Wilkerson bobblehead promotion.
Vicente Padilla (0-3) held the Expos hitless through four innings before Cepicky hit a looping single leading off the fifth.
``I'm disappointed, but I did my job,'' Padilla said through a translator. ``I kept the team in the game.''
Padilla allowed just three hits in six innings, but he was done in by Cepicky's two-run double with two outs in the sixth.
``He made one mistake -- the slider was a little flat and the guy hit it,'' Phillies manager Larry Bowa said.
Orlando Cabrera singled with one out, extending his hitting streak to 10 games. He advanced to second on Wilkerson's grounder to first, and Tony Batista walked before both runners scored on Cepicky's double to right.
AP - Apr 25, 4:25 pm EDT
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``That's what we've been missing quite a bit of, the big hit, and he got it
for us today,'' Robinson said. ``It picks everybody up because you're wondering
if you're ever going to score. We weren't giving ourselves many opportunities
and that was one, and you wondered if that might be the last one you would have
for the day if you don't take advantage of it.''
Cepicky was thrown out at third by catcher Mike Lieberthal when he tried to take the extra base on the throw home. The Expos left fielder slammed his face into the bag on the headfirst slide and came up woozy.
``When I got there I saw the base was right there,'' Cepicky said. ``My hands went under me and my head took the worst of it, so it's a good thing I've got a big head.''
He had a cut on his right cheek attended to by trainer Ron McClain and remained in the game, but came out in the eighth.
Philadelphia's Bobby Abreu was thrown out at the plate to end the first.
Abreu hit a two-out single and tried to score when third base coach John Vukovich waved him around on Pat Burrell's single to center. The tiny crowd got excited when catcher Brian Schneider took second baseman Jamey Carroll's relay throw with time to spare before Abreu was easily tagged out.
Padilla retired 12 of his first 14 batters, allowing just two walks before Cepicky's looper landed just beyond shortstop Jimmy Rollins' diving attempt inshallow left-center.
Notes
Phillies 1B Jim Thome was rested and missed his first start of the season.
Shawn Wooten replaced him in the lineup. Wooten hit seventh and went 0-for-4.
... Cepicky got his first career stolen base following his single. ... Cabrera
had a career-high 15-game hitting streak last July 7-20. ... Day's only career
complete game was a 5-0 win in Milwaukee last May 1. ... The Expos optioned
right-hander Jeremy Fikac and first baseman Luis Lopez to Triple-AEdmonton after
the game.