Dodgers’ Trail Gets a Little Shorter : Baseball: Javier knocks in the game-winner to beat Expos, 3-2. Reds’ lead cut to 6 1/2 games, the smallest since May.

Six and a half weeks. Six and a half games.

As the season grows shorter, so does the gap. And the Dodgers seem to loom ever larger as a threat to the Cincinnati Reds, season-long leaders in the National League West.

Time may be the Reds’ biggest ally as the Dodgers continue to play the best ball in their division.

They beat the Montreal Expos Saturday night at Dodger Stadium, 3-2, before a sellout crowd of 45,687 to move as close to the top as they have been since May 9.

With the San Francisco Giants losing, the Dodgers also moved into sole possession of second place for the first time since late May and moved five games above .500 (62-57) for the first time all season.

“The big difference,” said coach Joe Ferguson, “is that on May 9, we were going the other way.”

Stan Javier drove in the winning run with a seventh-inning single off reliever Mel Rojas, scoring Alfredo Griffin, who had walked and moved to second on a sacrifice by Fernando Valenzuela.

“I knew Rojas from the Dominican,” Javier said. “I never got any hits off him there, but it’s a different story up here. I like to be in that situation.”

Valenzuela (10-10) went seven innings to get the victory. Jim Gott got the save, his third. All three have come within the last eight days after he went a year and a half without one because of an elbow injury.

“How can you explain it?” Gott said. “I realize it’s just the benefit of hard work. I can’t thank the Dodgers enough for their patience. There have been times when I haven’t been a major league pitcher for them.”

The loss went to Rojas (0-1).

It took the Dodgers 3 1/3 innings to get a hit off Expo starter Chris Nabholz, but when they finally broke through, they made the most of it.

Kirk Gibson broke up the no-hitter with a hard liner that flew under the glove of second baseman Delino DeShields.

Nobody had a shot at the next pitch.

Eddie Murray smacked it halfway into the left-field pavilion for his 19th home run of the season to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. It was Murray’s first home run in 53 at-bats.

Montreal used the home-run ball to tie the game after two were out in the fifth.

Otis Nixon walked and stole second. Tim Raines followed with a fly ball to deep left. Gibson chased it to the wall at the 370-foot sign and leaped high into the air. But all he could do was grab the top of the wall and cling to it like a basketball player hanging on the rim as the ball cleared his glove, tying the game at 2-2.

It was Raines’ sixth homer.

The victory was the Dodgers’ fifth in a row at home against Montreal. All five have been one-run games, four of the five by the score of 3-2.

“It’s too early to worry about the standings,” Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia said. “Let’s just keep coming together and we’ll read the paper at the end of the season and see where we come out.”

But is there enough time left in the rapidly shrinking season to catch Cincinnati?

“All I’m thinking about is tomorrow,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “That’s all I can do.”

Dodger Notes

Relievers Ray Searage and Don Aase have again switched places. Saturday, the Dodgers placed Searage, suffering from an inflammation of the left elbow, on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to August 15. Aase, on the DL since July 2 because of tendinitis in his right shoulder, has been activated. Searage was 1-0 with a 2.97 earned-run average in 27 games. He had previously been on the DL with inflammation problems from May 11 to July 2, the day Aase went on the disabled list. Aase was 2-1 with a 2.62 ERA and three saves in 23 games before getting hurt. Before his return, Aase went down to Bakersfield to get some game action. In six appearances there, he compiled a 1.00 ERA. . . . Tim Belcher, placed on the disabled list Friday because of tendinitis in his pitching shoulder, doesn’t plan on being gone long. “Hopefully, it won’t be longer than the 15 days,” he said. “It just got to the point where I wasn’t getting any better. Dr. (Frank) Jobe suggested that I take some time off. I wasn’t helping the team a great deal anyway. I won’t throw now for 10 days.”

The Dodgers, perhaps hoping to inspire shortstop Jose Offerman, gave him No. 30 after recalling him from Albuquerque Friday. Offerman stole 60 bases in 116 games for the Dukes. No. 30 used to belong to another Dodger shortstop with some base-stealing talent: Maury Wills. . . . Pitcher Jim Neidlinger’s wife, Ann, gave birth to the couple’s first child Saturday, a girl as yet unnamed.

In the Hollywood Stars game that preceded the Dodgers and Expos, the big hits were an inside-the-park home run by Jason Bateman and a triple by Corbin Bernsen. . . . The series concludes at 1 p.m. today with a Martinez matchup, the Dodgers’ Ramon (15-5) against Montreal’s Dennis (9-8).