MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Greg Maddux helped Dusty Baker reach a milestone.

Maddux pitched seven scoreless innings and drove in a run to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 5-2 triumph over the Montreal Expos , giving Baker his 1,000th career managerial victory.

"It's special," Baker said. "Not everyone gets to 1,000."

"You got be doing something right to win 1,000 games," Maddux said. "He's one of the top managers in the game right now. It's nice to see him get recognized."

The 38-year-old Maddux (13-8) scattered five hits and struck out two without a walk. He threw 69 of 102 pitches for strikes while improving to 6-1 since the All-Star break.

"He (Maddux) was great tonight," Baker said. "He had it working. Didn't want to take him out, but he had 100 something pitches and it was hot in here (Olympic Stadium) tonight. He'd done his job and it was time for the bullpen."

Kent Mercker pitched a scoreless eighth and Jon Leicester surrendered a two-run homer to Terrmel Sledge in the ninth before LaTroy Hawkins retired the final batter to pick up his 20th save.

Maddux helped his own cause in a four-run third inning. He slapped a single into right field and Paul Bako scored when Juan Rivera threw wildly over the head of third baseman Tony Batista . Corey Patterson followed with a run-scoring grounder and Sammy Sosa added a two-run double three batters later to give Chicago a 4-0 lead.

"Everybody contributed today," Sosa said. "I'm giving that victory to my manager Dusty Baker . "One thousand (wins) is something. Maddux pitched a great game today and that's how we've been winning."

After Bako doubled to lead off the fifth, Maddux added an RBI base hit off Montreal starter Rocky Biddle (4-8) to cap the scoring for the Cubs, who halted a three-game losing streak.

Biddle surrendered five runs - three earned - and seven hits in five innings.

"Things didn't fall our way," Biddle said. "There's a lot of things that could have happened in our favor, but they didn't. That's just the way it goes, especially for me this season."

With the help of a questionable call by plate umpire Ted Barrett in the second inning, the Expos failed to score first in the game.

After Rivera and Sledge started the inning with back-to-back singles and advanced on a sacrifice, Brian Schneider hit a grounder to first baseman Derrek Lee , who threw home. Rivera seemed to give Montreal a 1-0 lead when he dragged his hand across the plate as he slid around and under the tag, but Barrett called him out.

"After looking at the replay it looks like he made a great slid and he got his hand in," Barrett said. "So all I've got to figure out now is, next time, how to get in a position where I can see that."

"I just don't see how he could say he missed the plate, his hand mark was in the dirt," Montreal manager Frank Robinson said. "He just missed the play, it could have changed the complexion of the game."