DODGERS STUNG BY EARLY SLAM : EXPOS ROUGH UP SHAKY CANDIOTTI MONTREAL 7, DODGERS 3.

Byline: Michael Rosenthal Daily News Staff Writer

One bad pitch at the wrong time. In effect, that's all it took to slow down the streaking Dodgers.

No score. First inning. Bases loaded. Two outs. Two strikes. Tom Candiotti pitching to Rondell White. One more out Sunday and Los Angeles dodges a potentially disastrous start and gets a significant emotional lift.

Then the pitch: A floating curve ball that White smashes deep over the left-field wall for a grand slam and the Dodgers never recover, falling to the Expos for the first time in eight games 7-3 before an announced crowd of 36,673 at Dodger Stadium.

The loss, only the Dodgers' second in nine games, drops them into a virtual dead heat with San Diego - a winner over the New York Mets - for first place in the National League West. The Dodgers lead by percentage points.

``It was there for me,'' Candiotti said. ``One strike and we're out of the inning. It would've been a whole different ballgame.

``. . . You don't make a mistake like that with runners on base. That was the game.''

The Expos added three runs off Candiotti in the fourth - his unfortunate line: three-plus innings, seven earned runs - to give Montreal a 7-0 lead that even one of the hottest teams in baseball had little hope of overcoming.

The poor performance doesn't jibe with his previous three starts against the Expos this season. Before Sunday, he was 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA.

He admitted he typically is a slow starter. If a team is going to get to him, it generally had better do it early. And the Expos did it early.

``The first inning has been trouble for Candiotti all year,'' Dodgers manager Bill Russell said. ``I thought he was going to get out of it, with two outs and two strikes. White just got a good pitch (to hit) and hit it out.

``Why does he have problems early? I have no idea.''

Meanwhile, Mark Leiter was effective against the Dodgers for the first time this season.

In three starts before he was traded from the Giants, Leiter had been as bad as Candiotti had been good: He was 0-2 with an ungodly 15.00 ERA against Los Angeles. The Dodgers had to be smacking their lips in anticipation of Sunday afternoon's game.

He has pitched well since the July 30 trade that sent pitchers Tim Scott and Kirk Rueter to San Francisco, however. With the Giants, he was 4-10. In three starts with the Expos, he's 3-0.

Leiter shut out the Dodgers on three hits through six innings before he finally cracked, allowing three runs on four hits in the seventh as the Dodgers made it 7-3 and raised the faint possibility of a comeback.

``He's pitched well for the Expos,'' Russell said. ``That fastball, that split-finger, we just couldn't do anything with him until the seventh.''

Reliever Dave Veres, who had given up Mike Piazza's game-winning homer on Saturday, made certain nothing like that would happen again. Entering the game with two out in the seventh, he retired seven straight batters to put an end to a less-than-pretty performance by the Dodgers.

The question now is, ``Where do the Dodgers go from here?''

They've been streaky in the past, having been consistently inconsistent prior to the latest streak, which began on their most recent road trip. They finished 6-3 on the road and then beat the Expos in the first two games in this three-game series.

Will this loss be the first step in another slide? Or, with the last-place Phillies coming to town for a three-game series beginning Tuesday, will they maintain the momentum they had gathered in the past week and a half?

Russell is optimistic.

``We've been through this the whole year,'' he said. ``I think they've learned they're good enough to come back. Winning seven of (their past) nine, you know you're good enough to come back.''

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PHOTO (color) Tom Candiotti was just a shadow of the pitche r he usually is against the Expos.

John McCoy / Daily News