Expos Extend Dodger Woes : Baseball: Montreal joins teams battering L.A. bullpen and wins, 6-5, in 10th.

For members of the Dodger bullpen, the lonely life of the relief pitcher extends even beyond the games.

After the Olympic Stadium field had been cleared shortly before midnight Monday, two Dodgers remained on the dugout bench, elbows on knees, staring into nothing.

On one end sat Steve Wilson. On the other was Roger McDowell.

Between them was the weight of the Dodgers’ world, which grew heavier Monday when the bullpen blew a one-run lead in the 10th inning as Larry Walker’s two-run single gave the Montreal Expos a 6-5 victory before 7,075.

Moments after they believed they had won, the Dodgers had matched the team’s worst start since it moved to Los Angeles in 1958.

Their 10-18 record equals the start of the 1958 and 1967 Dodgers, teams that finished a combined 49 1/2 games out of first place.

“I know one thing,” Manager Tom Lasorda said. “This is driving me out of my mind.”

And to think, their ninth loss in 10 games was nearly their most inspirational victory so far this season.

Without Darryl Strawberry or Eric Davis, they fought back from a 4-0 deficit against starter Ken Hill to tie the score in the eighth inning, then took a 5-4 lead on Mitch Webster’s triple and an error in the 10th.

But McDowell gave up a single to .218-hitting pinch-hitter Bret Barberie to start the 10th. Then, after Barberie was bunted to second base, Wilson came into the game and walked Delino DeShields.

After a grounder moved runners to second and third, Walker hit Wilson’s first pitch up the middle, scoring Barberie and DeShields, just ahead of catcher Mike Scioscia’s tag.

Relievers have absorbed three of the Dodgers’ last four losses, all three coming on the team’s final at-bat. The Dodgers are 1-10 in one-run games.

In their clubhouse Monday, the silence was deafening.

“We didn’t have (Strawberry and Davis) tonight, yet we scratched and clawed and got ahead . . . and the next thing you know, you get beat,” Webster said. “We need to stop these things.”

It would have been the first time this season they have won after trailing after seven innings, and it would have been their biggest comeback in a season in which they have had only two other comeback victories.

“It’s hard when you let everybody down. It stinks,” said Wilson, who has an 0-3 record, with all three losses coming in his last appearances.

“You try to come to the park every day and do better but . . . it’s not easy,” Wilson added. “Either you are the hero or the guy who screwed up. It’s very, very hard.”

The Dodger bullpen had some unlikely defenders--members of the Expo bench. They wondered if Wilson was not tired by the time he entered the game because, with starter Ramon Martinez allowing four runs in the first inning, Wilson warmed up several times.

“I didn’t even bring it up. A lot of guys were saying, ‘Man, Wilson has been up all night,’ ” said the Expos’ John Wetteland, a former Dodger reliever. “And all of their other guys, some were up three and four times.”

Wilson shook his head.

“No excuses, no nothing,” he said.

To make matters worse, another former Dodger was one of the Expos’ heroes. In his first game against the Dodgers since not being invited back last winter, Gary Carter hit a three-run double in the first inning--doubling his previous season RBI output--and picked two runners off base.

Because Carter was quoted in a national magazine this spring as saying that Lasorda plays favorites--quotes which he says were misconstrued--he and Lasorda have not been best friends.

Carter said this victory was “satisfying,” but he hopes he and Lasorda can being speaking again.

“The wrong choice of words appeared in the Sporting News, and when we came to Vero Beach this spring, I made an effort to see Tommy about it, but he blew me off,” Carter said. “I have nothing against him, but if he wants to feel this way, it’s his prerogative.”

Said Lasorda: “I gave Gary a chance, and what does he say about me?”

The Carter affair was one of the few interesting sidelights in a game that should have been expected from the two worst fielding teams in the National League.

The Dodgers tied it, 4-4, on a bad throw by Archi Cianfrocco in the eighth inning, with Webster scoring from second after Eric Karros’ grounder was thrown away.

Webster then scored the go-ahead run in the 10th inning when DeShields threw the relay from right field against the Dodgers’ dugout fence, turning Webster’s triple into a run.