Wells' Two-Hitter Beats Expos

David Wells wasn't perfect this time, but he was close.

Wells pitched a two-hitter for his ninth career shutout and Tony Fernandez drove in the only run with a sacrifice fly as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Montreal Expos 1-0 Sunday.

"It was just a good day," said Wells, who pitched a perfect game last season for the New York Yankees. "I had all my pitches working. I hit the spots."

Wells (9-6) allowed a ground-rule double to James Mouton in the first and a single to Shane Andrews in the eighth in his second complete game of the season and 31st of his career. He struck out seven and walked one.

"He didn't make any bad pitches," Andrews said. "Everything seemed like almost a perfect pitch."

Wells gave a lot of credit to his catcher, Darrin Fletcher.

Wells retired 17 straight batters following Mouton's double before third baseman Tony Fernandez misplayed Mouton's grounder with two outs in the sixth.

"Wells controlled the game," Montreal manager Felipe Alou said. "He took a game with 18 people playing and dominated. He had no-hit, no-run stuff. I don't know if he had better stuff during his perfect game but if he did, I wish I would have seen it."

Shawn Green singled with one out in the fourth, went to third on Carlos Delgado's single and scored on Fernandez's sacrifice fly off Carl Pavano (6-8). The Blue Jays finished with only four hits off Pavano and two Montreal relievers.

"It was a great team win," Wells said. "It was great to have command and to get that run. That was the key, right there."

After Andrews singled in the eighth, he was replaced by pinch-runner Chris Stowers. Stowers moved to second on Orlando Cabrera's sacrifice and advanced to third on Terry Jones' grounder to short before Wells walked pinch-hitter Mike Mordecai.

After a visit from pitching coach Mel ueen, Wells got Mouton to fly to right to escape the jam.

"Boomer was into the game today," Blue Jays manager Jim Fregosi said. "I went to him after the eighth and asked him how he felt. He said he was fine so I said, Do you want it? And he said, Yeah, I want it. And I said, It's yours, big boy."

Wells pitched a perfect ninth, getting Vladimir Guerrero on a chopper to the mound to end the game.

Pavano held the Blue Jays to three hits in six innings before leaving for a pinch-hitter. Pavano, whose victory on June 25 was the last by an Expos' starter, struck out three and walked two.

The crowd of 15,201 was the fourth-highest of the season at Olympic Stadium, where Montreal is averaging a major league-low 9,085. Attendance topped 10,000 for all three games in the series. The Expos had reached that figure just nine times in 44 home games before the all-Canadian series.

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