Sympathy, No Runs for Belcher in Loss : Baseball: Candiotti commiserates with former Dodger pitcher after shutting out Reds, 1-0.

Tom Candiotti suspected that Tim Belcher’s emotions were fluttering in the manner of the knuckleball that frustrated the Cincinnati Reds Sunday and made an undeserving loser of Belcher in his first start against the team that traded him last winter.

Belcher gave up only three hits in seven innings, but an error by first baseman Hal Morris, some daring baserunning by Jose Offerman and a clutch single by Brett Butler generated the unearned run that Candiotti turned into a 1-0 victory over the Reds, giving the Dodgers a split of the four-game series.

A Dodger Stadium crowd of 45,799 saw Candiotti give up six hits, strike out five and walk only one as he reversed his 1-0 setback to the Pittsburgh Pirates of five days earlier and improved to 6-4.

Signed as a free agent after the Dodgers traded Belcher to Cincinnati and lost Mike Morgan as free agent, Candiotti reflected on the matchup with Belcher and said:

“It wasn’t as if I was traded for Tim, so it didn’t affect me as much as it did him. I remember going back to Cleveland after I had been traded to Toronto and wanting to beat the Indians more than anything. I can sympathize with what he was going through today.”

Belcher iced his arm for 20 minutes after the game, but it didn’t do anything for his psyche. He returned to his locker to express displeasure with the microphones being shoved in his face and accepted only a few questions.

“I was excited to pitch in this park again because I’ve had good success here,” he said. “I was pumped up to pitch here, not because I was facing old teammates.

“I was able to keep us close, but I was outpitched.”

Only on the scoreboard and in the box score. Belcher is 5-6. He had beaten the New York Mets, 1-0, and St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1, in his previous two starts and found himself in another tense game that was decided, in part, during the fifth inning. It opened with Offerman reaching base when Morris booted his grounder.

Candiotti then sacrificed, bunting up the first base line. Belcher fielded the ball and waited to tag Candiotti. Offerman didn’t hesitate. He wheeled around second and kept going.

Belcher heard third base coach Joe Amalfitano calling to Offerman, spun around Candiotti while making the tag and fired to third baseman Bip Roberts, who reached into foul territory to make the catch and had no play on Offerman.

Belcher shook his head angrily and returned to the mound. Butler, who had made a diving catch of Bill Doran’s potential hit with two on and two out in the fourth inning, then slapped a single to left field to score the only run.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Belcher said of Offerman’s decision to go from first to third on the bunt. “We used to practice that in spring training. I heard Joey calling, ‘come on, come on.’ If I make a good throw I have him.”

Told he had pitched well, Belcher was in no mood for compassion.

“Still a loss,” he snapped.

Candiotti had been expressing that same sentiment in Pittsburgh.

“I really felt I threw better in that one than I did today,” he said. “I didn’t think the knuckler was that great today. It didn’t seem to have much movement, but they were only getting a piece of it. The real key was the catch Brett made on Doran.”

Candiotti shook his head, reflecting on Belcher’s fate.

“He was throwing as hard as I’ve seen anyone throw this year,” Candiotti said. “Guys were coming back to the dugout shaking their heads. I was lucky to get the bunt down, and I just think he was a little slow getting to it.”

By salvaging a split, the Dodgers moved back to within 4 1/2 games of the Reds in the National League West.

Butler suspected the partisans have lost some faith. He caught Paul O’Neill’s fly to center in the ninth inning and waved his arms at the fans in both pavilions.

“I was trying to say, ‘Let’s go, let’s get involved,’ ” Butler said. “They seemed flat, and we need their support. We need that 10th man.”

Over time, the Dodgers probably will need more. One unearned run isn’t going to do it. Their 5-14 record in one-run games says so.

Dodger Attendance

Sunday: 45,799

1992 (25 dates): 958,313

1991 (25 dates): 1,015,160

Decrease: 56,847

1992 Average: 38,332