Expos Blank The Braves

Two pitches cost Tom Glavine his chance to become the major leagues' first 20-game winner.

Glavine gave up two-run homers to Fernando Seguignol and Andy Tracy as the Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves 4-0 Sunday.

"I felt good about the way I was throwing the ball other than those two mistakes, that turned out to be the difference in the ballgame," Glavine said. "It was just one of those days. It was probably a game that in many respects I probably pitched better than in some of the games I've won lately."

Javier Vazquez (9-7), winless in eight starts since beating Florida on July 23, struck out a career-high 11 and pitched a six-hitter for his second complete game of the season. He had three complete games and a shutout last season as a rookie.

"What can I say? It was a great feeling to finally get another win," said Vazquez, who had gone 0-2 with six no-decisions during his dry spell. "To beat a team like that is a great accomplishment. My changeup was my out pitch. I was throwing it pretty good and I was throwing it for strikes."

"I like to face the best ," Vazquez said. "When you face them, you get pumped up a little more."

Montreal won its second straight over the NL East-leading Braves, whose NL East lead was cut to 2 1/2 games over second-place New York, a 3-0 winner over Philadelphia.

Glavine (19-7), bidding for his fifth 20-win season, had won five consecutive starts and was 12-1 in his previous 13 starts. Before a 6-4 loss to the Expos on June 7, he had won 13 consecutive decisions against the Expos since May 19, 1993.

"I don't think realistically that I was going to win the rest of my games," Glavine said. "Sooner or later things just don't work out and today was one of those days."

His next scheduled start is Friday, against Arizona's Randy Johnson.

Montreal went ahead in the second when Vladimir Guerrero reached on an error by second baseman Keith Lockhart and Seguignol followed with his ninth homer.

Orlando Cabrera doubled in the sixth and Tracy, who hit a three-run homer Saturday night in Montreal's 7-5, 12 inning win, hit his ninth homer.

Glavine allowed four runs three earned and six hits in seven innings.

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