MONTREAL (AP) -- Chris Widger did his part to give the Montreal Expos a little bit of breathing room.

Widger and Orlando Cabrera hit three-run homers and Vladimir Guerrero had a two-run shot Thursday night to lead the Expos to an 11-3 rout of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"We needed something easy so everybody could go out and relax a little," Widger said. "Everybody was trying a little bit too hard the last couple of games."

Carl Pavano (1-0) gave up one run and five hits in eight strong innings. He struck out three and walked one.

After losing the first two games of the season by identical 10-4 scores, the Expos recovered to split the season-opening series.

"I think the name of the game tonight was Pavano," Expos manager Felipe Alou said. "Three of the four starters threw the ball really well for us in the series, even though it was a split. We feel good about our starting pitching, just like we did at spring training."

Cabrera, who missed the rest of the season after suffering a severely sprained ankle last Aug. 8, had a career-high four RBI. He went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI single.

"There are a lot expectations about the team, and about me, coming back from a bad injury," Cabrera said. "I'm just going to try to play hard every day, and see what happens."

Cabrera's homer keyed Montreal's five-run second inning.

Perez, traded by Montreal to the Dodgers on July 31, 1998, allowed eight runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

"I'm going to go to bed and I'm going to think about my next start," Perez said. "I'm not going to drive myself crazy like I did last year."

Jose Vidro singled leading off the second, Widger walked with one out and Cabrera homered to make it 3-0.

"I wasn't looking for it," Cabrera said. "I was just trying to hit the ball hard and not hit into a double play."

A single by Pavano and a walk to Peter Bergeron set up Rondell White's two-run double.

After Devon White's RBI single in the Dodgers third, Montreal finished Perez in the fifth.

Guerrero singled and stole second and Vidro reached on third baseman Adrian Beltre's error. Widger's home run made it 8-1.

Widger doubled in the seventh and scored on Cabrera's single.

Game notes
Beltre, who turns 21 on Friday, went 1-for-3 after having multi-hit games in each of the first three games of the season, including a pair of three-hit games. ... Dodgers C Todd Hundley started after sitting out the last two games with a slightly sprained right knee. He was 0-for-2 with a sacrifice fly and was hit by a pitch. ... The Expos play their first 22 games on artificial turf. Montreal's first game on grass is on April 28 at San Francisco's brand-new Pacific Bell Park. ... Montreal 3B Michael Barrett made his fourth error of the season. "I never saw him make one bad throw all year, last year," Alou said. "I never saw him make one bad throw in spring training. He's throwing the ball low so I guess we're going to tell him to go ahead and throw the ball over the first baseman's head, as opposed to bouncing it."