Dodger Anthem: Oh No, Canada : Baseball: Expos continue dominance in Olympic Stadium with 8-2 victory that drops L.A. to .500.

The game wasn’t 15 minutes old Friday night when the first meeting occurred on the mound. Whatever was said, it didn’t do any good. Pedro Astacio wasn’t only getting hit, he was getting drilled. Nine Montreal Expos came to the plate in the first inning, and when it was finally over, they had four doubles and four runs.

When the game was over, the Expos had eight doubles in an 8-2 victory at Olympic Stadium, where the Dodgers have won only five games in the last five seasons.

“I don’t know about anything else, but for the bullpen alone maybe we have to call in a witch doctor,” Jim Gott said. “We can burn uniforms, balls, hats, underwear, whatever it takes.”

The only consolation for the Dodgers, who dropped to 48-48, is that the Colorado Rockies and the San Francisco Giants also lost, allowing the Dodgers to maintain a three-game lead in the National League West. Even this, they know, is but a brief respite.

“We are leaving the park tonight scratching our heads, saying we are in first place, but we sure don’t deserve it,” said Gott, who was one of five Dodger pitchers Friday. “But the enlightening fact also is that we are where we are. We are a first-place club, but we need to play like it. We believe we have one of the most potent offenses in the National League. And if the bullpen does the job half the time that we didn’t do it, we have a 10-game lead.”

That offense couldn’t do much of anything against Expo starter Ken Hill (14-4), who became the first pitcher in the league to win 14 games. He held the Dodgers to one run and four hits in eight innings.

“I wanted to go all the way, but we have three games (against the Atlanta Braves) and we will need every bullet,” Hill said. “The key for me was when I went 3-and-0 against Brett Butler in the first inning and came back to get him out. You don’t want to let them get on base. They will steal off me, not (catcher Darrin) Fletcher. They are horses when they get on the basepaths--they get hungry.”

The loss is the Dodgers’ sixth in eight games, all on this trip, which ends with a three-game series against the Giants. This Eastern swing is traditionally bad for the Dodgers, but this one is reminiscent of the disaster of 1991, when the first-place Dodgers went 2-9 after the break and let the Braves climb from 9 1/2 games out to 3 1/2 out. Atlanta ended up winning the division title by one game over the Dodgers.

“Ninety-one was the biggest nightmare--we were there and all of a sudden, boom,” Gott said. “We should have been playing Pittsburgh in the playoffs. (That trip) took us out of the race.”

Astacio (6-8) gave up six runs in 2 1/3 innings his last start and lasted only two innings this time. He was behind nearly every hitter, and when he wasn’t, it’s because they hit the first pitch. By the time Astacio was in the trainer’s room icing his right arm, the Expos had seven hits--Larry Walker hit his second double in the second inning--and were ahead, 5-0.

Tim Wallach’s run-scoring single in the ninth inning extended his hitting streak to 10 games, but it was little satisfaction.

“It’s not satisfying when you don’t win,” Wallach said. “I’m not satisfied at all when the team isn’t winning.”

Butler scored the Dodgers’ first run in the fourth inning on a single by Mike Piazza. But he will best be remembered for what occurred in the eighth inning, when he fouled off a pitch and shattered the glass on the camera room behind the home plate, causing a seven-minute delay. Butler said that was the first time he had ever broken glass, except for in another sport.

“Dunking,” said Butler, who is 5 feet 10.