Dodgers Win in a Pinch : Baseball: Hansen’s single in the ninth gives L.A. a 2-1 victory. Ceremony for Campanella and Drysdale precedes the game.

It was a night that began with mourning and silence, shifted eventually to one of tension, then ended with one, long explosion of noise.

Pinch-hitter Dave Hansen, who has been a final-inning hero before, singled home Tim Wallach with one out in the bottom of the ninth at Dodger Stadium on Friday night, giving the Dodgers a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Expos.

The Dodgers failed to break a 1-1 tie in both the seventh and eighth innings. But in the ninth, with their pitchers continuing to hold back the Expos, they pulled through.

Wallach led off the inning with a single to center and was bunted to second by Jody Reed. Wallach went to third on a wild pitch by reliever John Wetteland (4-1).

Hansen, who won a game with a pinch-hit grand slam earlier this season, stepped up against Wetteland, worked the count to 2-2, then grounded a single into right field through the drawn-in infield.

“It was a great game, but it was kind of tough to watch, you know?” Hansen said. “With the way those pitchers were going, I could have been sent up there anywhere from the fifth inning on. Those guys were battling it out.”

After seven strong innings by Orel Hershiser, Pedro Martinez (7-2) pitched the final two innings.

Three hours earlier, as the sun set over the stadium, the Dodgers paid a final farewell to their two fallen Hall of Famers, Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella, with a ceremony that featured moving words from the widows of both men.

“It was sad, but also, it was good to have it,” Hansen said.

“Those guys fired us up a lot in the past, and I felt really excited to see some of the memories of what they did for this team.

“And to win the game on a night like this, that’s really, really exciting.”

The reflective mood, tinged by the moment of silence the crowd of 39,878 observed, seem to hang in the air as the game began.

Hershiser, who has always considered Drysdale a role model, began the game aggressively. Hershiser had hit only one batter with a pitch all year entering the game, but he hit Expo right fielder Marquis Grissom with a high fastball with two out in the first inning, drawing a glare from Grissom but no visible reaction from Hershiser.

In his last start, Hershiser bounced back from a string of four consecutive losses with a complete-game victory over the Mets. Friday, he gave up some hard-hit balls but stayed in the game with key pitches with runners on base and with the help of his defense.

Three times, successful sacrifice bunts by Expo starter Kirk Rueter put a runner into scoring position; and three times that runner did not score.

Right fielder Cory Snyder kept the Expos off the board in the third after a bunt by Rueter when he threw out Sean Berry at the plate to end the inning. Snyder charged Delino DeShields’ ground-ball single, took two steps and threw hard and high to catcher Mike Piazza, who left his feet and slapped the tag on Berry, who was trying to score from second base.

Snyder couldn’t prevent the Expos’ from scoring in the next inning.

On a 1-1 pitch from Hershiser, first baseman John Vander Wal barely cleared Snyder’s glove and the right-center field wall for a home run that gave Montreal a 1-0 lead.

That was the only run Hershiser gave up in seven innings. He gave up six hits, struck out four and walked a batter and was not involved in the decision.

The Dodger batters in general, and Brett Butler in particular, seemed to start the game out of rhythm against the tall, quick-working Rueter, who pitched 8 1/3 shutout innings against the San Francisco Giants on July 7 in his first major league start.

Rueter was replaced by Wetteland after seven innings, and still has not given up an earned run in the majors.

The Dodgers scored an unearned run in the fourth to tie the score, 1-1

Wallach lined a two-out single to left-center, scoring Eric Karros, who had doubled and reached third on a fielder’s choice.

In the bottom of the seventh, Reed lined a one-out double to left that gave the Dodgers their first scoring chance since the fourth inning. But the threat was ended when Mike Sharperson struck out while pinch-hitting for Hershiser and Butler flied out to left.