Guerrero Hits 31 In Loss

Vladimir Guerrero is giving the Montreal Expos plenty of hope for the future.

Guerrero hit a two-run homer in his second at-bat to extend his hitting streak to 31 games the longest in the majors in 12 years

in the Expos 10-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday night.

"He puts the bat on the ball so well, especially for a big guy," Expos manager Felipe Alou said. "Just wait until he hits his peak."

"He's a good hitter, I can tell you," Guzman said. "I tried to throw him a slider for the first pitch. I tried to make a good pitch and he got me."

Milwaukee's Paul Molitor had a 39-gamer earlier the same season, the longest streak since Pete Rose tied Wee Willie Keeler's NL mark with a 44-game streak in 1978.

Guerrero came out for a curtain call for the second straight night to acknowledge the ovation from the crowd of 6,796. Guerrero also homered Wednesday to extend his streak.

"He's a good hitter," Guzman said. "That's why he's hit in so many games in a row because everybody knows he's a good hitter."

The Reds improved to a major league best 39-20 on the road and snapped a season-long four-game road losing streak. Cincinnati drew to within one game of Houston in the NL Central, and three games of the New York Mets in the NL wild card race.

"It was a really important game because we lost those three games in Atlanta, so today is like a new beginning," Guzman said. "We just picked it up again and played the way we've been playing."

The Expos, who lead the majors with 132 errors, committed five miscues, leading to six unearned runs.

Guzman, who was acquired from Baltimore on July 31, won his fourth straight start in his fifth outing for the Reds. He allowed four runs three earned and eight hits in seven innings.

Scott Williamson pitched the last two innings for his 18th save.

Tied at 3-3 after blowing an early three-run lead, Cincinnati regained the lead with two runs in the sixth off Mike Thurman (5-10) on Pokey Reese's RBI single and Sean Casey's sacrifice fly.

"Overall, I'm very disappointed," Thurman said. "We did score four runs and I expect myself to be able to win ballgames when we score four runs."

The Expos drew within one at 5-4 on Wilton Guerrero's RBI single in the seventh but Cameron's RBI double in the eighth restored Cincinnati's two-run margin.

Reese and Jeffrey Hammonds had run-scoring singles and Casey had a two-run single in the ninth off Anthony Telford.

Hal Morris, who went 2-for-2 with an RBI before leaving the game with a sprained right wrist, doubled in the first and later scored on a passed ball.

Morris' run-scoring single in the third made it 2-0 and Michael Tucker hit his 10th homer leading off the fourth.

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