Dodgers Throw Away Chances Again, 5-1 : Baseball: Their 99th error in 99 games helps Giants put the game out of reach.

Tom Candiotti watched Jose Offerman throw the ball into the dirt Monday night and, as he has done so many times this season, he cursed.

Except he did it quietly. He has grown too weary for anger.

He knows anger would not have saved him the eventual unearned run in a 5-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

It was the Dodgers’ sixth consecutive defeat.

After the Dodgers committed their 99th error in 99 games, it seems nothing can stop the bleeding.

“I cursed under my breath, because it really doesn’t matter anymore,” Candiotti said. “You see it. I see it. Everybody sees it. We aren’t fooling anybody anymore.”

Well, they did appear to fool 18,364 at Candlestick Park, who actually chanted “Beat L.A.” early in Monday’s game, when the Dodgers trailed, 3-1.

But then they realized that this Dodger team can beat itself, as it did after Offerman’s major league-leading 24th error with one out in the sixth inning.

Cory Snyder, who gave the Giants their lead on a three-run home run off Candiotti in the first inning, was safe on the throw that bounced past Eric Karros.

Candiotti (8-9), who gave up only two hits and one runner as far as second base since giving up the homer, tried to maintain his concentration.

“But I’m human,” he said. “After a while, all of this affects people.

“You make your pitch, you get your grounder . . . and you get dejected. Sometimes you let it get the best of you.”

And so Snyder was able to steal second base behind him. Then he walked Matt Williams.

Mark Bailey, who was just recalled from triple-A Phoenix, collected his first hit of the season, a run-scoring grounder to right.

Williams scored on Candiotti’s second wild pitch since June 2.

“With a two-run lead in this park, anything can happen, but once a guy gets a four-run lead. . . . “ Candiotti said. “Buddy just put it on cruise control.”

He was talking about the Giants’ Bud Black, who allowed the Dodgers only three hits in throwing his second complete game of the season.

Black fell behind 1-0 before the Giants even batted, but that simply meant the Dodgers would suffer a seventh defeat involving a blown lead in 11 games since the All-Star break.

Black (9-3) did not allow a hit after Dave Hansen’s two-out double in the fifth.

Since June 13, Candiotti has a 3.05 earned-run average in nine starts. But in that span, he is 2-5.

While Candiotti has thrown his share of fat pitches, including a curveball to Snyder in the first inning because his knuckleball had not settled down yet, he is suffering from a different sort of burden.

For the the first time in his career, he is playing for a team that has committed 15 more errors than any other team in his league.

If he had stayed with the Toronto Blue Jays, where he finished last season and was wanted back, he would be playing for a team that has committed 40 fewer errors than the Dodgers.

“I was talking to him before the game, I know how frustrated he is,” said Chris James, an outfielder for the Giants and former teammate of Candiotti’s when both played for the Cleveland Indians.

“I really do feel sorry for him,” James added. “He is such a competitor. I know even after we scored the three runs off him tonight, I told everybody, don’t let up, because this guy is going to be around until the end.”

James didn’t feel too sorry for Candiotti, because he leaped against the left-field fence and robbed him of what would have at least been the first extra-base hit of his career.

Yes, the hardest hit ball for the Dodgers Monday was by a former American League pitcher.

“I heard all the cheering, I thought I hit the ball out,” Candiotti said.