Northern Expos-ure

Expos 6, Mets 5
Jon Matlack vs Steve Rogers
Everyone has begun to wonder when and if it would actually stop raining up here.  The Cubs came for a 3 game series and were only able to get 1 game in.  The Mets crossed the border looking to beat up on the Poor Sisters of Charity (aka..the Montreal Expos).  For 7 innings they were only able to get 2 hits off of Steve Rogers.  Then in the 8th New York put on their hitting shoes and chased Montreal's young ace from the hill.  An RBI single by "the hammer", John Milner was followed by a bases loaded walk to Dave Kingman to score the second run of the inning.  Fred Scherman was summoned from the pen to face the lefties and go Kranepool to fly out to center and Unser to end the inning with a line out to first.  Kranepool's fly out scored Felix Millan to make it a 5-3 ball game.  Dale Murray started the 9th in relief of Scherman needing just 3 outs to protect the 2 run lead he was handed.  Murray once again failed in his task, thus blowing his 4th save of the season.  A walk to Mike Phillips with 1 out was followed by an opposite field homer by third string catcher "Grandma" Ron Hodges, who was pinch hitting for reliever Bob Apodaca.  Just like that Steve Rogers' 5-0 shutout was now a 5-5 ballgame.  All 5,000+ fans in attendance had this eerie sense of Deja' Vu come over them.  Like so many times before in this young season the Expos looked to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Nobody expected much from the home team in the bottom of the 9th.  Even after Gary Carter reached first thanks to Lockwood hitting him on the arm, nobody held out much hope.  Larry Parrish popped out weakly to short for out #1.  Tim Foli came to the plate.  The sure-handed shortstop was having himself a 2 for 3 with a walk day heading into this at bat, but nobody expected anything special.  Foli was given the hit and run sign and took Lockwood's second pitch and lined it down the line in right field.  "Kid" Carter, who was moving on the pitch, turned third and began chugging home.  Dave Kingman, who is no Roberto Clemente in rigfield, bobbled the ball a bit, then airmailed the cutoff man because his throw had to come to the plate.  After a skip and a short hop John Stearns fielded  Kingman's throw, but was a hair too late to sweep tag Carter who scored the improbable winning run in a game the Expos tried so hard to lose.