Expos 6 Yankees 4 Maybe it was perfect-game hangover. Or maybe it was just the simple fact that you can’t beat a team every time. Or maybe Montreal just outplayed the Yankees.

Whatever the reason, the result was the Expos’ 6-4 win over the Bombers last night at the Stadium.

The Expos broke a 4-4 tie on a two-out, two-run single from Shane Andrews in the eighth. Andrews, hitting just .214 entering the game and suffering through an 0-for-3 night, stroked Ramiro Mendoza’s pitch into center to plate Michael Barrett and Brad Fullmer for the final margin.

Montreal closer Ugueth Urbina, the Expos’ fifth pitcher, took care of the rest. He pitched a perfect ninth to earn the save.

“David Cone really showed some great pitching [in Sunday’s perfect game] – it would have been nice to have won today, but it just didn’t happen,” said Yankee starter Hideki Irabu, who gave up four runs on eight hits in six innings in a no-decision.

Jorge Posada agreed.

“It was a tough day [but] that’s how baseball is,” Posada said. “Yesterday was perfect. Today ….” he trailed off.

Then Posada went on, “You’ve got to go out with the same approach every day, and I thought we did that. We just didn’t win. It’s tough, but that’s baseball.”

The Yankees had lost series to the Mets and Braves sandwiched around the All-Star break, and hoped that Cone’s perfect game on Sunday might spark them toward a winning streak.

The Expos had lost five games in a row, and 21 of their last 28. And Irabu, who had won five in a row coming in, was starting for the Yankees against Jeremy Powell, who had just eight starts in his career. But he outpitched Irabu last night.

Irabu got no-hitter thoughts out of the way in the first inning, when left fielder Rondell White stroked a two-out single to right. And the shutout went the next inning when Barrett hit a one-out single to right and Brad Fullmer drove him home with a double to center.

” I tried to throw a splitter and it just didn’t bite enough,” Irabu said of his pitch to Fullmer.

The Expos added another run in the third. It could’ve been more than one, after Irabu was late covering first – where have we heard that before? – on a Wilton Guerrero groundball, but first baseman Tino Martinez just beat Guerrero to the bag, sliding in foot-first.

Still, Irabu walked Terry Jones and White lined a double just fair down the third-base line. Left-fielder Ricky Ledee – who had seemed to be out of his fielding funk by making a clutch, ninth-inning catch Sunday to preserve Cone’s perfect game – fell back into his sloppy defensive ways. He tried to scoop the ball up barehanded but botched the play, letting Jones score and White take third.

But the Yankees scratched back with single runs in the third and fifth innings to knot the score. Scott Brosius led off the third with a double to left-center, Chuck Knoblauch singled to right and Derek Jeter beat out an infield hit off Powell’s glove to load the bases. And even though Paul O’Neill hit into a double-play, it was enough to get a run home.

Montreal gave away another run in the fifth. Posada drew a leadoff walk and Brosius singled him to second. Posada moved to third on Knoblauch’s fly to right and scored on Powell’s wild pitch.

But no sooner did the Yankees draw even than the Expos broke the tie in the sixth.

Jose Vidro led off with a double to center, and Fullmer sent a 1-2 pitch into the bleachers for a two-run home run and a 4-2 lead. After retiring Mike Mordecai on a popup to third, Irabu’s night was over.

Mendoza came on and used a double-play to escape the seventh unscathed, and the Bombers tied the game in the bottom of the inning.

Scott Brosius flared a clutch two-out single to left, and the Expos inexplicably played deep in the outfield against Knoblauch, who has just six home runs this year. Knoblauch made them pay by dropping a single into center field, knocking reliever Anthony Telford out of the game.

Expo manager Felipe Alou decided to pitch to Jeter, who entered the game batting an AL-best .373. He went to the bullpen for Guillermo Mota, who promptly uncorked a wild pitch to move Knoblauch to second and Brosius to third. And Jeter – hitting .400 with two out and runners in scoring position – came through yet again, stroking a double just past a reaching Vladimir Guerrero in right to plate both runs and tie the game.

But Montreal snatched back the lead in the eighth, touching Mendoza for two runs.

Barrett hit a two-out single to left, and Fullmer doubled just past a diving Martinez at first. And Andrews took care of the rest.