AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Candiotti Sweetens His Return Trip, 4-1

It was almost like a home game for Tom Candiotti.

The knuckleball specialist pitched his first game in Cleveland Saturday since the Indians traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Candiotti (12-11) was greeted by 17,830, who stood and cheered when he completed a five-hit, 4-1 victory over the Indians.

He had a shutout until Carlos Martinez homered in the ninth inning.

“That almost brought a tear to my eye, to tell you the truth,” Candiotti said. “I don’t know if it was because there were more Blue Jays’ fans than Indians’ fans, but it felt good.”

Although he is only 5-5 since being traded from the cellar to the penthouse in the AL East, Candiotti lowered his league-leading earned-run average to 2.34.

He has won three in a row and the Blue Jays have won his past five starts. He is aware how much better it is playing for a team driving to a division championship.

“You can see the difference of a good quality team, where you have position players playing their normal positions,” Candiotti said. “You have Roberto (Alomar) at second making great plays. Devon White’s in center making great plays. Kelly Gruber is at third making great plays. It’s a great defensive team.

“I was kind of nervous at first. The hardest thing was trying to put this game on the same scale as any other. The press has built up that it’s the ex-Indians against the current Indians. Once that was out of the way, I just pitched a normal game.”

Gruber, who played on Blue Jay teams in recent years that earned a reputation for folding, figures Candiotti is one of the reasons the Blue Jays will win the East.

“A lot of things have changed since we blew the 3 1/2-game lead in the last week in 1987,” Gruber said. “We have new guys who haven’t been brought up in the Blue Jays’ era of underachieving--which is what the media has labeled it.

“We have to not worry about Detroit and Boston. We just have to go out and play each game.”

Gruber hit his 17th home run and White had four hits, scored two runs and raised his average to .291.

In the three-game weekend series with the Indians, the Blue Jays have outscored them, 24-6. After today’s game, Toronto has 23 games, all against West teams.

Boston 11, Seattle 10--Mike Greenwell drove in six runs with a home run and two doubles and the Red Sox won their fourth in a row to remain 5 1/2 games behind Toronto.

“It was a long day, but now it seems like we got it together,” said Wade Boggs, who went 2 for 5 and is hitting .340. “We either have to put it together for another (27) games or sell the farm.”

After Seattle scored five times in the first inning, Boston bounced back to win a game that lasted more than four hours.

Tom Bolton, although he gave up five hits and two runs in two innings, got the victory and Jeff Reardon got his 36th save.

Oakland 3, Detroit 1--The Athletics’ hopes of winning the West again are slim at best, but Jose Canseco still has a shot at the home run title.

Canseco hit his 37th homer, one fewer than the Tigers’ Cecil Fielder, the major league leader.

The two-run shot at Detroit dropped the Tigers five games behind Toronto in the East. Joe Slusarski gave up eight hits and four walks but only one run in six innings. Dennis Eckersley pitched the ninth for his 38th save.

Mark Leiter (8-3) who served up Canseco’s home run to end his six-game winning streak.

Minnesota 3, New York 2--Pedro Munoz, called up from the minors earlier in the day, singled with two out in the 10th inning at Minneapolis to drive in the winning run.

The Twins, driving toward the West title, remained 7 1/2 games in front of Chicago and 9 1/2 ahead of Oakland with 25 games left.

Jack Morris failed in his bid to win his 17th, despite giving up four hits in 8 2/3 innings.

Chicago 11, Texas 6--Tim Raines and Dan Pasqua hit two-run singles in a seven-run second inning at Arlington, Tex., that led the White Sox to victory.

Greg Hibbard (9-10) pitched 5 1/3 innings of shutout relief.

Julio Franco was one for five and his average dropped to .341, best in the majors.

Kansas City 7, Baltimore 4--Danny Tartabull went three for three at Baltimore to raise his average to .329 and help the Royals end a three-game losing streak.

With the score tied, 3-3, in the fifth, Gold Glove shortstop Cal Ripken booted George Pedre’s grounder and let in the go-ahead run. Terry Shumpert’s bloop double scored two more runs.

George Brett, who singled and scored in the four-run fifth, hit his ninth home run in the sixth.