Mondesi Plays Relief Role for Dodgers, 2-1 : Baseball: Right fielder’s 10th-inning home run ends a pitchers’ duel against Expos.

It was like a 98-m.p.h. blast of fresh air after nine innings of congestion. Whoosh! and it was over.

John Wetteland threw it, Raul Mondesi hit it, and when the ball finally came to rest in the right field stands, the Dodgers had wrested a 2-1 victory from the Montreal Expos on Tuesday before 32,449 at Dodger Stadium.

But this was a game not so much about one swing as it was about scores of swings and misses.

It was about starting pitchers--Jeff Fassero for the Expos, Pedro Astacio for the Dodgers--who weren’t around for the decision, but who dominated the hitters, just

the same.

Between them, they struck out 18, surrendered only four hits and gave up one earned run in 17 innings.

How frustrated were the Dodger hitters facing Fassero? When Wetteland (2-6) and his near-100-m.p.h. fastball were summoned to replace Fassero to start the 10th, the Dodgers, who are struggling against left-handed starters, were happy.

“Everybody knew Fassero would be tough,� outfielder Brett Butler said. “It’s the sign of a very good pitcher--when he came out of the game we were relieved. It was like, ‘Now we only have to face a guy who comes in and throws 98.’

“But that’s the way it is, the way he throws from that side. We’ve struggled against left-handers. And Pedro was the big man today who kept us in it. Pedro just pitched a magnificent game.�

Fassero gave up a weird unearned run in the first inning, when Butler singled and took second on an error by center fielder Marquis Grissom before scoring moments later from second on a bounding wild pitch.

Butler said that when he saw the pitch skip high and softly to the backstop, he figured catcher Lenny Webster would not expect him to try to score. Webster took some time getting to the ball, wheeled quickly when he realized Butler was coming around, then threw high and late to Fassero covering the plate.

“It was just anticipation, and it paid off,� Butler said.

But after a two-out single by shortstop Rafael Bournigal, Fassero, mixing a hard slider, splitter and fastball that he moved in and out of the strike zone, was perfect--literally.

He retired the last 22 Dodgers he faced, finishing with his fourth strikeout of Mike Piazza--Fassero’s 10th strikeout of the game--to end the Dodger ninth. Fassero gave up only two hits and walked one.

Astacio, meanwhile, did his own dazzling. His only wobble was a high, 3-1 fastball that Webster knocked into the left field stands, tying the score at 1-1 in the fifth inning.

Appearing to have complete control of his sweeping breaking ball, Astacio pitched eight innings, gave up one run on two hits and struck out eight. He walked two.

“It was a hell of a pitching duel,� Montreal Manager Felipe Alou said. “We don’t (usually) hit Astacio that well, and the Dodgers haven’t been hitting very well against left-handers.

“I guess they hit right-handers pretty good.�

The difference was that when Astacio left, he was replaced by rookie reliever Ismael Valdes, who continued his impressive season with two perfect innings, earning his first major league victory.

When Fassero left after throwing 105 pitches, Wetteland got Tim Wallach on a flyout to open the 10th, then pumped the game-losing pitch to Mondesi high and over the outside corner of the plate.

“Fassero pitched a good game,� Wetteland said. “I didn’t come through, and that was that. One pitch, a little high . . . “

For once, Mondesi, who, like most of the Dodger hitters, has been struggling at the plate recently, followed Manager Tom Lasorda’s suggestion and didn’t try to muscle the pitch on the outside corner to left.

“That’s what Tommy’s been trying to get him to do--when you’re struggling go the other way,� Butler said of Mondesi, who, like Astacio, changed his clothes and left the clubhouse before print reporters could speak to him.

“Raul can hit it out of any part of the ballpark, and when he hit that one, we all knew it was gone.�

Then Mondesi, too, was gone. Whoosh!