"Doggie", Dog World !

[9/26 - Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada]

[GAME 1 - MON 3, NYM 2 - 10 inn]

The Expos are knee deep in a dogfight for their post season lives and the Mets are virtually playing out the string. You would never have know that from watching this contest, which had a playoff type atmosphere. New York tapped Masato Yoshii to start. Yoshii is coming off a great winning performance in his last outing vs the Cubs and looked to be up to the task. Montreal went with their enigmatic ace, Steve Rogers, who only has 1 win on the season. New York struck first by scoring a run in the third when Edgardo Alfonzo belted his 8th homer of the season. Both Rogers and Yoshii would continue to post goose eggs on the board until the Mets again scored in the top of the 7th off of Rogers. Mike Piazza led off with an opposite field single. Robin Ventura followed with a hit of his own to put two slow runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Judging by his past performances, this looked to be the time where Rogers would melt down again. Brian McRae came up to the plate with one thought in mind: bunt those two immobile guys up. McRae was able to get Piazza to third, but the slow footed Ventura was forced at second. The speedy Roger Cedeno stepped up with runners at the corner

s and 1 out. Rogers got him in the hole at 0-2 and Cedeno did a great job just putting the next pitch in play by hitting a slow roller to Rodney Scott at second. Scott hesitated for a mili-second before he decided to go for the DP and not for Piazza at the plate. That bit of hesitation cost him as Speier's throw to first was a step too late to get Cedeno.

New York was now up 2-0 and a dark cloud was hanging over Montreal's season. Expo catcher Gary Carter called a pitch out and Cedeno was nailed trying to steal second. Rogers didn't melt down and the Expos still had a chance. That chance would manifest itself in

the bottom of the inning when Scott attoned for his fielding faux pas by dragging a bunt past Masato Yoshii and hustling to beat it out. Larry Parrish followed by giving Yoshii's 1-0 offering a ride that Cedeno barely tracked down along the fence. Yoshii turned his attention to getting the dangerous Gary Carter and Rodney Scott saw that opening to swipe second and get into scoring position. On the next pitch Carter hit a shot that McRae barely kept in the ballpark. Scott easily tagged and went to third. All Yoshii needed to do was get Andre Dawson...and he did. Masato Yoshii was able to breathe a sigh of relief after tossing 7 innings of shutout ball. For all intents and purposes he believed his day was done. That was not to be the case as Yoshii was called on to bat and bunt in the top of the 8th after Rey Ordonez single. Some nifty fielding by Carter prevented Ordonez from reaching third on a bunt attempt and a nice peg to second nailed Rickey Henderson who had larceny in his heart. With time running out and down to their last 6 outs the Expos looked to Ellis Valentine to lead off the home half of the 8th. Yoshii jammed Valentine and Rey Ordonez easily caught the pop up for the first out of the inning. Up stepped the veteran leader on this club, Tony Perez. "Doggie", as he was affectionately known during his hey day with the Big Red Machine jumped on Yoshii's second pithc and hit it 356 feet and into the left field pavillion to cut the Met lead to 2-1. That swing also ended Yoshii's day as Turk Wendell was summoned to replace him. Wendell jammed Chris Speier, who hit a slow roller to Alfonzo at second. "Fonzie" couldn't transfer the ball cleanly from glove to hand and Speier was aboard with one out. Up stepped Le Grande Orange, Rusty Staub, who is tied so emotionally to the history of both these franchises. Staub is the only man to have recorded 500 hits for 4 different franchises...two of which were the Mets and Expos. Staub's appearance meant the end of Wendell's day. Turk face one batter and did a great job by jamming him, but this crazy game of baseball sometimes punishes those who do the right thing. Speier also departed for pich runner Jim Mason who is a bit more fleet of foot. Brooklyn native and lifetime Met fan John Franco came aboard to match lefty vs lefty against Staub, who worked the count from 1-2 back to 3-2 and eventually walked. Immediately upon touching 1st Staub was pinch run for by late season call up Tim Raines. With runners on 1st and 2nd Franco faced his second lefty in a row, Warren Cromartie. Quicker than you can bat an eyelash Cromartie was deep in a 1-2 hole. Franco's next offering was a bit inside, but Cromartie pulled in his hands and lined it just past the outstretched arms of Alfonzo. Mason scored and just like that the game was now tied at 2.

The top of the 9th saw the appearance of Expo closer Elias Sosa, who has not been having a banner season. After getting the first out he walked Alfonzo on 4 pitches. Robin Ventura followed with a line drive single to right that put runners at the corners with 1 out. Montreal was now in deep trouble as they pulled the infield in to pitch to McRae who lined Sosa's 1-2 offering to Mason at short. Mason thought quick and fired home to Carter, who tagged Alfonzo and then fired back to first to nip McRae who really didn't hustle down the line. Dennis Cook easily dispatched of the Expos in the bottom of the 9th to force extra frames. Roger Cedeno led off the top of the 10th with a single and promptly stole second for his 11th theft of the season. Ordonez bunted Cedeno over to third. Again the Expos were forced to draw their infield in and again a Met (this time it was Benny Agbayani) hit one to Mason at short, who looked Cedeno back at third and threw on to first for the second out of the inning. Henderson came up with 2 outs and weakly grounded to Parrish at third. Sosa escaped his second consecutive jam. Josias Manznillo started the bottom of the 10th for the Mets. He would not record an out. Tony Perez came to the rescue again and sent Manzanillo's 2nd pitch deep into the night for a walk off homer as the Expos rallied to keep their post season aspirations alive.