Dodger Loss Is Big Deal in Montreal : Baseball: Unhappily traded Rodriguez gets a key hit in Expos’ five-run inning and trouncing of Martinez en route to 9-4 victory.

The two men walked toward each other Friday night, smiled, shook hands and began to talk. It was as if an E.F. Hutton commercial was being re-enacted. Everyone strained to hear them.

You see, when Dodger Executive Vice President Fred Claire and Montreal Expo General Manager Kevin Malone get together, they’re overcome with this irresistible temptation to make trades.

This is why the Expos’ 9-4 victory over the Dodgers before a paid crowd of 25,314 at Olympic Stadium resembled a family outing more than a baseball game.

“I really respect Fred, and we’ve become friends,” Malone said. “We have very frank, straightforward, truthful discussions. Unlike a lot of my colleagues. When we want to do something, we do it.

“What’s happening is that they’ve got players we like, we’ve got players they like, and we’re not afraid to trade with each other.”

It explains the five former Expos playing for the Dodgers and four former Dodgers playing for the Expos, including one teary-eyed first baseman still adjusting to life outside the Dodger organization.

Henry Rodriguez, still distraught over Tuesday’s trade, was instrumental in breaking the game open with his run-scoring single in the Expos’ five-run fifth inning. Rodriguez’s hit knocked Dodger starter Ramon Martinez (4-3) out of the game, ending his worst performance of the season--four innings, six hits and seven earned runs.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him pitch like that,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said.

The Expos, behind starter Gil Heredia’s career-high eight strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings, ended the Dodgers’ three-game winning streak, cut their scoreless pitching skein at 24 innings, and continued their mastery over the Dodgers at Olympic Stadium. The Expos have won 26 of the last 31 home games against the Dodgers, who guaranteed their fans a victory or ran the risk of providing free tickets to another game.

Considering the Dodgers’ history in Montreal, the Expos’ marketing department hardly appeared stressed.

“I don’t know what it is about this place,” Dodger third baseman Tim Wallach said. “It might just be a matter of guys hearing about it, reading about it, and then believing it. We don’t have to struggle here.”

Yet, if there was any gratification that Rodriguez finally was on a winning team at Olympic Stadium, he refused to embrace it.

“It was a strange feeling out there,” Rodriguez said, “I mean, those guys are my friends. I was with the Dodgers for a long time, and I miss them.

“It’s a very lonely feeling.”

Rodriguez and veteran infielder Jeff Treadway were traded Tuesday for all-star center fielder Roberto Kelly and rookie left-handed reliever Joey Eischen. Three days later, they found themselves playing against their former teammates and picking up the belongings they left behind.

“It was no big deal to me,” said Kelly, who hit two doubles and drove in a run. “I still got my apartment here, so nothing much changed for me. I felt like I was home.”

Eischen, who pitched two hitless innings and struck out three in his Dodger debut, felt a bit different.

“I thought my heart was going to pop when I first went out there and faced Tony [Tarasco],” he said. “In between innings, I tried to calm myself down. Thank God everything went well.”

Perhaps there will be a time when Rodriguez, who spent 10 years in the Dodger organization, will accept his new team. Maybe one day, he’ll even thank the Dodgers for trading him. But for now, he needs time to grieve.

“I just never imagined something like this could happen to me,” Rodriguez said. “When Tommy [Lasorda] called to tell me I was traded, I said, ‘You’re joking. Come on, you’re playing with me.’ I thought I’d be with the Dodgers for the rest of my life.

“I cried. I was so sad. I still am sad.”

Said second baseman Delino DeShields, quite familiar with the feeling after being traded from the Expos to the Dodgers 18 months ago: “It’s going to take a little while, just like it did me. But eventually, he’ll put everything in perspective.

“You just got to get used to the idea that the guys you’ve been going to battle with are now the guys you have to battle against.

“And that’s not easy.”

Just ask around.