Tight Shoulder Takes Out Dreifort

The Dodgers were cruising along with a one-run lead over Montreal on Wednesday until starter Darren Dreifort was forced to leave the game because of tightness in his pitching shoulder after facing one batter in the fifth inning.

The Dodgers made it out of that inning, but the sixth was another story. The Expos jumped all over Jamie Arnold and then roughed up Robinson Checo in sending 11 players to the plate to account for seven runs.

That proved to be more than enough as the Expos defeated the Dodgers, 10-7, before 25,084 at Dodger Stadium to take two games of a three-game series.

The Dodgers had the tying run at the plate in the ninth, but Todd Hollandsworth grounded out to second.

Dreifort’s 3-1 lead was wiped out thanks to the ineffectiveness of Arnold (2-4), who gave up four hits, two walks and six earned runs in 1 1/3 innings and Checo, who gave up two hits, one unearned run and had a wild pitch.

Geoff Blum’s three-run triple was the major hit in the sixth inning for the Expos. Montreal also received a big night from Vladimir Guerrero, who made a spectacular catch over the wall to take a home run from Eric Karros in the third inning, homered to center in the ninth inning (his 37th), scored three times and knocked in two.

Jeremy Powell (3-6) gave up five hits and two earned runs to pick up the victory for the Expos.

After the Dodgers scored a run in the first inning without getting a hit against Powell, Dreifort helped his own cause when he singled and later scored on a throwing error in the second inning to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

Hollandsworth scored from second base on a wild pitch to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 3-1 in the at the bottom of the fifth, setting the stage for Montreal’s big outburst.

Todd Hundley’s 24th home run in the sixth cut the Expos’ lead to 8-4 but Montreal answered with another run in the seventh.

Raul Mondesi had a double and knocked in the Dodgers’ first run on a fielders’ choice. He also stole second base in the eighth inning for his 30th steal, leaving him one home run shy of reaching 30-30 for the second time in his career.

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Dodger coach Manny Mota was given a special tribute before Wednesday’s game as part of the 14th annual Fiesta Dodgers Latino heritage celebration. . . . The Dodgers’ single-A San Bernardino team crushed San Jose, 17-2, in the first game of a best-of-five California League championship series. Game 2 will be tonight at San Bernardino at 7.

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The Dodgers will begin a three-game series at Colorado on Friday and Manager Davey Johnson has decided not to put rookie Eric Gagne into the rotation to face the Rockies because of homer-friendly Coors Field. Ismael Valdes will start against Darryl Kile on Friday, with Chan Ho Park facing Pedro Astacio on Saturday and Kevin Brown going against John Thomson on Sunday.