MONTREAL (AP) -- David Cone was far from perfect this time.

Orlando Cabrera hit a three-run homer one pitch after being knocked down by Cone, and the Montreal Expos beat the New York Yankees 6-4 Monday night for their season-high sixth straight win.

	Cabrera

"I feel great," Cone said. "I feel too good to be having these type of numbers out there."

Cone, whose ERA rose to 6.49 in 12 starts this season, would settle for much less than perfection to get back on track.

"I'm going to bang away at it," he said. "Physically, I feel great. I'm firmly confident that I'm going to bounce back and have a big second half, or rest of the year, for our team. They need me."

With the score 3-all in the sixth inning and runners on first and second, Cabrera was sent sprawling by a high, inside pitch with a 1-0 count.

Cabrera drove the next pitch into the left-field stands for his sixth homer.

"I got a good pitch to hit," Cabrera said. "He was behind in the count and he gave me a good pitch -- middle-in, high -- that I was looking for, and I hit it pretty good."

Before starting his home-run trot, Cabrera flipped his bat toward Cone, who had hit the previous batter, Mike Mordecai. Montreal's first runner of the inning, Brian Schneider, had reached on a walk.

Cabrera, who popped out to third baseman Scott Brosius for the final out of Cone's perfect game, said that repeated viewings of that out hadn't motivated him to perform against Cone.

"I like challenges but I wasn't trying to hit a home run because of that," Cabrera said. "I was just trying to put the ball in play and drive people home."

He also didn't want his delayed trot to leave any bad feelings between the teams.

"I want to say I'm sorry to the Yankees if I was looking at it too long," Cabrera said.

Cone started in place of Ramiro Mendoza, scratched prior to the game because of pain in his right shoulder. New York tries to get Cone an extra day of rest between starts, and he originally was scheduled to face Javier Vazquez on Tuesday night in a rematch of the starters in the perfect game.

Instead, Cone allowed six runs and seven hits in six innings, the seventh time in 12 starts he gave up four runs or more.

"We didn't know that Cone was pitching until about 10 minutes before the game," Expos manager Felipe Alou said. "We always thought it was Ramiro Mendoza. But we didn't see the same Cone today that we saw there that one afternoon. He still pitched well, just that one pitch."

Cone figured that another 2-0 pitch, which Vladimir Guerrero hit for a two-run homer in the first, also hurt him a lot.

"Two bad 2-0 pitches cost me five runs," Cone said. "At times I was really good and, like the rest of the year, I lose it. It's during these times when I lose it. It's really costing me because I'm giving up some big home runs."

Dustin Hermanson, making his first start since May 7 -- he had been sent to the bullpen to replace injured closer Ugueth Urbina -- allowed three runs and seven hits while throwing 80 pitches in four innings.

Mike Johnson (2-0) allowed three hits and one run in two-plus innings of relief as Montreal improved to 4-0 in interleague play this year. Steve Kline pitched the ninth to convert his fifth straight save chance, his sixth overall.

Montreal has won seven straight home games and 10 of 11, improving to 22-9 at Olympic Stadium this season.

Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch was scratched before the game with a strained left forearm he reaggravated last weekend.

New York, which dropped back into a tie with Boston for the AL East lead, took a 2-0 lead in the first on Ricky Ledee's leadoff homer and Scott Brosius' RBI single -- center fielder Peter Bergeron threw out Jorge Posada at third base to end the inning before Tino Martinez touched home plate while trying to score from second.

Guerrero tied it in the bottom half with his 17th homer, then doubled with two outs in the third and scored on Lee Stevens' single for a 3-2 lead. Ledee tied it with an RBI double in the fourth.

Brosius' sacrifice fly drove in New York's final run in the seventh. With two on, Anthony Telford struck out Clay Bellinger and retired pinch-hitter Felix Jose on a grounder.

Game notes
Cone has allowed 11 homers this season. ... The Yankees plan to use a reliever to start in Cone's place on Tuesday. Jason Grimsley has made two starts this year and Mike Stanton started once last season. ... Kline set a team record with five straight save conversions, topping a mark accomplished by Claude Raymond, John Wetteland, Mel Rojas (who did it twice) and Urbina.