BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Candiotti Tough Indoors

The way Tom Candiotti looked Friday, he should have considered signing with the Houston Astros last winter. Or the Seattle Mariners. Or Minnesota Twins.

By giving up one run in seven innings, he lowered his earned-run average in permanently domed stadiums to 2.85 since he began using the knuckleball most of the time with the Cleveland Indians in 1986.

In 14 starts in Minnesota, Seattle and Houston, Candiotti has failed to go at least six innings only twice and has given up more than three earned runs in a start only three times.

“I always seem to have luck in domes with the knuckleball because the conditions there never change,” Candiotti said earlier this year.

When former top draft pick Jamie McAndrew was sent to double-A San Antonio seven weeks ago, the Dodgers hoped he would regain the confidence that once helped made him the organization’s top pitching prospect. Instead, he has not pitched an inning there after coming down with a sore shoulder that was diagnosed as biceps tendinitis.

“I’m starting to lose it emotionally,” said McAndrew, a first-round pick in 1989. “This has been just a terrible year. It’s been very tough.”

McAndrew is joined on the San Antonio sidelines by Bill Bene, the Dodgers’ No. 1 pick in 1988, who has a bruised leg.

When the Dodgers face Jimmy Jones today, it will be the first time they have played against consecutive right-handed starters since May 29-30, when they faced the Chicago Cubs’ Frank Castillo and Shawn Boskie. They won both games. . . . Orel Hershiser has won a Victor Sports Award for comeback player of the year in an annual vote by sportswriters and sportscasters. The awards show, to be held tonight in Las Vegas, is being taped for later airing on TBS.