Message Dour for Dodgers : Baseball: They suffer their seventh loss in nine games, 2-0 to the Expos, and drop below .500.

Right after the woman dancing in the stands at Olympic Stadium won $4,500 in a promotion and right before Delino DeShields reached the batter’s box to lead off the sixth inning, the message board at Olympic Stadium flashed an even better prize:

“GUESS WHAT? ANOTHER BABY BOP, LOVE, TISHA.”

Decoded, that meant DeShields’ wife, Tisha, is pregnant, which was the only good news the Dodgers received in Saturday’s 2-0 loss to the Montreal Expos, though the timing of the message was questionable.

DeShields, whose nickname as well as his father’s is Bop, was standing at the plate when he saw the message, and he looked stunned. After he struck out, he looked a little mad.

“I was like sinking in my seat,” Tisha DeShields said after the game. “I can’t believe this. I tried to wait (to tell him), but the wives found out about it and said they were going to do it. I’m waiting for his reaction now. Bad timing.”

DeShields, visibly disturbed after the game, had this reaction in the clubhouse: “I don’t have anything to say, nothing.”

But DeShields’ anger was probably more about the team’s seventh loss in nine games, which dropped them below .500 (48-49), than the fact that he struck out. At least he was still in the clubhouse after the game; most of the players left out the back door before the media was let in. The loss decreased the Dodgers’ lead to two games over the Colorado Rockies and 2 1/2 games over the San Francisco Giants in the National League West.

“It’s a matter of us playing solid baseball,” said Tom Candiotti (7-5), who gave up two earned runs over seven innings. “It’s more up to us to play fundamental baseball. . . . We have to do the things like make good pitches and get guys over on base. When you do, you win.”

Candiotti has given up four earned runs in 20 innings and three appearances on this trip for an 1.80 earned-run average. They got a perfect inning from Ismael Valdes, whose blisters are apparently behind them. But they had no hitting, being shut out by another left-hander, Jeff Fassero, for 6 2/3 innings and two solid relievers, Mel Rojas and John Wetteland, who earned his 17th save. Even the Dodgers’ league-leading bench couldn’t knock in a run.

Against Fassero (8-6), the Dodgers got five hits but scored no runs and twice were caught stealing on pick-off moves. Against Candiotti, the Expos didn’t fare much better. They scored a run in the first inning on a single by Marquis Grissom, a double by Cliff Floyd and a sacrifice fly by Larry Walker.

After a single in the second inning, Candiotti retired the next 13. Then, in the seventh inning, the Expos scored on an infield grounder, a bloop single and a line drive single to left that Cory Snyder couldn’t get to, then bobbled.

Fassero left the game in the seventh inning after he suffered a strained muscle beneath his right shoulder blade while pitching to Tim Wallach, but the Dodgers weren’t encouraged by seeing Rojas, who has a 1-0 record and five saves against the Dodgers this season.

So in the eighth inning, Manager Tom Lasorda went to his bench, pinch-hitting for five consecutive batters. With one out, Chris Gwynn walked and went to second on a broken-bat single by Mike Piazza, who, until then, had the day off. Wetteland relieved Rojas, and Jeff Treadway flew out to left before Dave Hansen popped out.

Wetteland followed up with a perfect ninth inning, striking out the first two, including DeShields.

So if DeShields wasn’t talking after the game, it could have been because of something other than the timing of the message. Tisha had nothing to do with that, anyway. The scoreboard operators coded the message in before the game, and the computer assigns the rotation. They knew it was coming up before the sixth inning, but didn’t know DeShields would be batting. When they realized what was happening, they said they tried to stop it, but it was too late.

* ANOTHER LOSS

A 7-2 victory by the New York Yankees drops the Angels to a season-low 15 games below .500. C2

* NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP

Jeff Blauser beats out an infield single to shortstop Ozzie Smith and Atlanta defeats St. Louis in 12 innings, 8-5. C7

Going, Going. . .

The Dodgers’ grip on first place grows more tenuous with each day of their first trip after the All-Star break: * NL WEST AT ALL-STAR BREAK

Team W L Pct. GB Dodgers 46 42 .523 ... Colorado 42 48 .467 5 San Francisco 39 50 .438 7 1/2 San Diego 35 54 .393 11 1/2

* NL WEST TODAY

Team W L Pct. GB Dodgers 48 49 .495 ... Colorado 47 52 .475 2 San Francisco 46 52 .469 2 1/2 San Diego 39 60 .394 10