Hitless Till 10th, Dodgers Win : Baseball: Montreal starter Gardner does not give up a hit for nine innings, but then Harris gets infield single. Strawberry drives in the winning run for 1-0 victory.

When is a no-hitter not a no-hitter?

Mark Gardner of the Montreal Expos will spend the rest of his career wondering after holding the Dodgers hitless for nine innings Friday night before giving up two hits in the 10th to lose, 1-0.

Before 38,957, Gardner became the first opposing pitcher to throw nine innings of no-hit ball in the 30-year history of Dodger Stadium . . . but the fourth opposing pitcher to lose a game there this week.

Lenny Harris beat out a slow bouncer over the mound for an infield hit on Gardner’s third pitch in the 10th. Two pitches later, Eddie Murray lined a single to right field to force Gardner from the game.

Reliever Jeff Fassero fell behind 2-and-0 to Darryl Strawberry, who then lined a single to left to drive in Harris with the winning run.

Gardner became the seventh pitcher in history, and first in 57 years, to throw nine hitless innings before giving up a hit in the 10th.

“I had a great game, but I don’t feel good about it,” Gardner said. “It’s still a loss. It was a great accomplishment, still a loss.”

No wonder Gardner (5-7) had left the field so quickly and quietly after Brett Butler ended the ninth inning with a grounder to second baseman Delino DeShields.

While the crowd gave him a standing ovation, perhaps thinking they had seen a no-hitter, Gardner sat in the dugout with a towel over his head. He knew they had seen nothing more than a good--but unfinished--pitching performance. And he knew he was tired.

“They all congratulated me, but I knew it wasn’t over,” said Gardner, who walked two and struck out four in nine-plus innings. “I was coming out of the game after the 10th, I just didn’t have it anymore.”

According to Elias Sports Bureau, baseball’s official statisticians, Gardner becomes merely another pitcher with nine no-hit innings. The Expos, who have had two pitchers get credit for no-hitters that lasted only five innings, now have a pitcher who has thrown nine no-hit innings and ended up with nothing.

Gardner nearly became the first pitcher to no-hit a Dodger team at home since Johnny Vander Meer beat Brooklyn at Ebbets Field on June 15, 1938--his second consecutive no-hitter. An opponent has never thrown a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium.

“All I can say is, you saw it, you have to believe it, quite a game,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “I feel bad for that young guy, he pitched a hell of a ballgame.

“But all I’m concerned with is, we scored that run. Thank God for small favors.”

In an odd footnote, the Dodgers’ pitchers gave up fewer hits than the Expos’ did. Orel Hershiser, Kevin Gross and Jay Howell combined to give up only two singles, with Howell getting the victory while Hershiser yielded only one hit in six scoreless innings.

One of the biggest winners Friday was Dr. Frank Jobe, who performed shoulder surgery on both Gardner and Hershiser last year.

“I’m going to be mad at Dr. Jobe if he doesn’t put an outing like that in my shoulder,” Hershiser said, referring to Gardner.

Gardner, 29, a former Fresno State star in his second full season, was making his 15th start since recovering from arthroscopic shoulder surgery last winter.

He has a 12-19 career record and is 4-13 in games played in the United States.

His low-hit game is a four-hitter. He had three career complete games.

And nobody had beaten him like the Dodgers, who had 19 runs in 21 1/3 innings against him, an 8.02 earned-run average. They had handed him two losses in three decisions.

But for one night, throwing slow curves and other off-speed pitches, he was nearly unhittable.

“He was just fantastic,” Harris said. “He really kept us off-balance.”

During the first nine innings, the Dodgers only came close to a hit once, and advanced a runner as far as second base once.

Hershiser was nearly as good, and nothing like he was in his last five starts, during which he had accumulated a 7.04 ERA while giving up 32 hits in 23 innings.

In the last two weeks, Hershiser has been the subject of speculation that he would be removed from the rotation, but Lasorda has stayed with him. Lasorda finally said last Saturday that the only way Hershiser could pitch his way back into shape after shoulder surgery was as a starting pitcher.

Hershiser threw 73 pitches Friday, only one more than he threw in his poor start last Saturday in New York. But this time he had a good excuse: Stan Javier pinch-hit for him in the sixth inning.

* ALLAN MALAMUD: No-hitter or not, hundreds of Dodger fans still left Friday night’s game early. C9.

* AN ODD NIGHT: Not many pitchers have done what Mark Gardner did. Larry Stewart’s story. C9.

No-Hitters Against L.A. Dodgers

Player Team Date Score John Candelaria Pittsburgh Aug. 9, 1976 2-0 Nolan Ryan Houston Sept. 26, 1981 5-0 Tom Browning Cincinnati Sept. 16, 1988 1-0*

* Perfect Game