These Pitchers Getting Second Shot at Success : AL playoffs: Few expected Blue Jays’ Tom Candiotti and the Twins’ Jack Morris to be where they are tonight.

The one, Jack Morris, was thought by some to be through, his stuff and stamina left in the 1980s, when he was baseball’s winningest pitcher.

The other, Tom Candiotti, seemed destined to spend another long summer in the cellar with the Cleveland Indians.

But tonight, when the Minnesota Twins play the Toronto Blue Jays in the opening game of the best-of-seven series for the American League pennant, the redeemed Morris and revived Candiotti will be the starting pitchers.

“I feel like I’ve gone from the outhouse to the penthouse,” said former Indian Candiotti, who might have been speaking for Morris as well.

Signed by the Twins as a new-look free agent after going 15-18 in the last of his 14 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, Morris pitched 246 2/3 innings, won 18 of 30 decisions and proved to be a valuable role model for Kevin Tapani (16-9) and Scott Erickson (20-8), who will pitch Games 2 and 3 of this series.

Candiotti (13-13) was only 6-7 in 19 starts after being traded June 27, but the Blue Jays averaged only 3.6 runs in those games. His earned-run average of 2.65 was second-best in the league.

“I think Tom and I both feel that our careers were reborn,” said Morris on the eve of a pitching matchup that would have seemed as improbable at the start of the season as the playoff matchup itself.

The Twins, in winning the West title, became the first AL team to go from last to first in consecutive seasons, propelled by a 15-game winning streak in June.

They are returning to the playoffs for the first time since 1987, when they beat the Detroit Tigers for the pennant and then upset the St. Louis Cardinals in a World Series remembered for the Homer Hankies and decibel levels of the Metrodome.

The sights and sounds will be the same, but Kirby Puckett insisted Monday that there is no comparison between the 1987 and 1991 teams.

“We basically had two starting pitchers then--Frank Viola and Bert Blyleven,” Puckett said. “Our pitching now is much stronger.”

The Blue Jays will be trying to erase the memory of their 1985 and ’89 playoff defeats and reach the World Series for the first time.

Said Candiotti of the Blue Jays’ reputation as chokers: “An unfair rap. This is a whole different team.”

Candiotti is part of a turnover that includes center fielder Devon White, right fielder Joe Carter, left fielder Candy Maldonado and second baseman Roberto Alomar.

The Blue Jays won eight of 12 against the Twins during the regular season, but the more meaningful statistics could be these:

--The Blue Jays out-stole the Twins, 148-107, and figure to do well against catcher Brian Harper, who threw out only 22 of 121 base stealers.

--The Twins led the league in team batting at .280 but hit only .219 against the Blue Jays.

According to scouts, Minnesota is basically a fastball-hitting team, vulnerable to the changes of pace--in style and substance--that the Blue Jays throw at them.

In this series, the Toronto blueprint calls for Candiotti’s knuckleball to be followed by the velocity of Juan Guzman (10-3), the finesse of Jimmy Key (16-12) and the power of Todd Stottlemyre (15-8).

Why Candiotti in the opener?

“When I was the hitting coach with the Blue Jays, I hated to go into Texas and face (knuckleballer) Charlie Hough in the first game,” Manager Cito Gaston said. “I thought it threw our hitters off for several days after that. Hopefully, Candiotti will do the same to the Twins.”

Said Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly: “We’ve seen Candiotti and all of their pitchers quite a lot. I can’t see where (the order in which they are used) will be a problem. The problem isn’t the contrast, it’s that they’re all very good.”

Candiotti, who will be eligible for free agency when the season ends, said he had grown used to Cleveland after six seasons and was actually thinking he would re-sign there when the latest of many trade rumors became a reality.

“I was with the Blue Jays for about a week when I realized what I had been missing all those years,” he said. “I liked it there, but this is why you play.”

For Morris, who said that mechanical changes have left him as strong and effective as ever, the season has been a homecoming. He was born in St. Paul, and his deal with the Twins included a Metrodome suite for family and friends.

“As a kid, I always dreamt of pitching championship games, and it was always in a Minnesota Twins’ uniform,” he said. “I’ve been around long enough to know the game doesn’t change, but for the kid inside of me, this is quite a thing.”

One player who hasn’t been smiling is Toronto relief ace Tom Henke, who pitched one inning Friday and another Sunday, his only activity since experiencing tendinitis in his right shoulder Sept. 17.

For now, Gaston said, Duane Ward, who has converted 23 of 25 save chances, will remain the Blue Jays’ closer.