Inside-Park Homer Wins It For Expos

Two days after hitting the longest home run of his career, Marquis Grissom connected for one of his fastest.

Grissom hit an inside-the-park homer off Rich Rodriguez in the bottom of the 10th inning Monday, leading the Montreal Expos to a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

“I don’t care how I get them, over the fence or running the bases,” said Grissom, whose 435-foot shot against the Florida Marlins Saturday was the deepest he had hit one.

Grissom rounded the bases in Montreal without ever hesitating Monday as third base coach Jerry Manuel gave him the green light.

“I only started getting tired around third base, but he kept waving, and I kept running,” Grissom said.

Center fielder Gerald Young didn’t appear to read Grissom’s leadoff hit well. He raced back to try an over-the-shoulder catch, but the ball hit the heal of his glove and took a strange hop on the artificial surface.

“I was surprised by how far it carried,” Young said.

Young bobbled the ball momentarily before relaying to shortstop Ozzie Smith, whose throw to the plate was just late.

“Anytime a player like him hits a ball that far, you have to execute the play cleanly,” Smith said. “Everything has to be clean or it’ll cost you. And it cost us.”

Grissom’s 10th homer, and third in as many games, came in the N.L. East leaders’ 12th win in 13 games.

Rodriguez (2-5) retired just two batters as St. Louis lost for the eighth time in nine outings.

John Wetteland (3-6) got the win despite allowing St. Louis to tie the game with two outs in the ninth on Geronimo Pena’s 11th homer.

Montreal starter Butch Henry scattered eight hits over six-plus innings.

Darrin Fletcher broke a scoreless tie with an RBI double in the sixth off Vicente Palacios and Montreal added a run later in the inning on third baseman Todd Zeile’s error.

Mark Whiten made it 2-1 with his 12th homer leading off the seventh against Henry, who left after issuing his only walk, to Bernard Gilkey, immediately after Whiten’s homer.

Mel Rojas relieved and walked Pena before retiring the side with runners on second and third.

“That was a superhuman effort by somebody who is overused,” Expos manager Felipe Alou said of Rojas. “The success of this club is attached to him.”

The Cardinals had at least one hit in each of the first six innings but failed to capitalize.

Rockies 8, Astros 3: At Houston, Lance Painter pitched four-hit ball over five innings and Mike Kingery had four hits as Colorado continued its mastery over Houston.

Braves 4, Mets 2: Greg Maddux pitched an eight-hitter for his majorleague-leading ninth complete game as Atlanta won at New York.

Reds 4, Giants 3: Cincinnati hit three solo homers and used a passed ball in the ninth inning for the goahead run to win at San Francisco.

Cubs 8, Marlins 5: Chuck Crim was victorious in his first start in seven years, leading Chicago to a home victory over Florida, which lost its seventh straight game.

Padres 5, Dodgers 4: Tony Gwynn and Brad Ausmus hit run-scoring doubles and Luis Lopez had three hits as San Diego was victorious at Los Angeles.

With their victory at Houston, the Rockies tied last season’s number of road wins with their 28th of the year.