Candiotti Stops Cubs Without Bullpen Help : Baseball: Beleaguered relievers take day off as Dodgers end trip with a 2-1 victory at Wrigley Field.

There was a Todd Worrell sighting Sunday at Wrigley Field in the eighth inning, but he never got into the game. Tom Candiotti, hanging on to a one-run lead, stranded the potential tying run at second base in the ninth inning of the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

It was the Dodgers’ third victory during a nine-game trip, and they all came on complete games, underscoring the struggles of the bullpen. But Candiotti, who hasn’t gone more than seven innings in his last three starts, said he didn’t feel pressure to go nine.

“You can’t think like that,” said Candiotti (5-2), who pitched his fourth complete game, tying him for the league lead. “You always expect to go nine when it’s your day to pitch. . . . The way the bullpen is right now has no bearing on how I approach the game.”

Worrell, who has blown his last four save opportunities, said he was throwing in the bullpen to work on a few things. “If the manager feels he needs me, I was ready,” Worrell said.

But when Sammy Sosa, whose home run in the seventh inning tied the game, came to the plate with two outs in the ninth, Manager Tom Lasorda stayed with Candiotti.

And after Sosa doubled to put the tying run on second, Worrell was not summoned. Candiotti, who walked none, gave up five hits and faced only 31 batters, retired Derrick May on a groundout to end the game.

“You feel bad for the way (the bullpen) has been giving up runs lately,” Candiotti said. “One of these guys has to say, ‘Let’s go,’ that’s what they have to do. Hopefully, someone will have a good outing.”

The Dodgers won two of three games from the Cubs, the only series they won on the trip. They were swept by the Atlanta Braves and lost two of three to the Florida Marlins before facing the Cubs, who have lost 10 of 11.

The trip was marred by controversy, with Jose Offerman and Worrell being lectured about insubordination, Jim Gott undergoing an appendectomy in Chicago, and grumblings about Orel Hershiser playing too much golf on the road.

But nothing has caused morale to drop more than the struggles of the bullpen, which has blown 15 of 24 saves, including three during the trip.

“I have been impressed with our club in so many ways, the only thing stopping us from reaching the point where we should be is that we have blown those saves,” Lasorda said. “Once we get that straightened out, that will make it real good.”

Players say their consolation is that after leaving Los Angeles with a three-game lead in the National League West, they now lead the second-place Colorado Rockies by 3 1/2 games.

“Nobody’s going to win this division two games over .500,” said Tim Wallach, whose home run in the second inning was his third in four games. “We haven’t played well the last couple of weeks. Everybody is pointing at our pitching, but we haven’t swung the bat well the last 1 1/2 weeks or so and we have to put more runs on the board than we have been.”

Wallach’s homer, his 16th, came against starter Anthony Young (3-5), who held the Dodgers to five hits in 7 1/3 innings and left the game in the eighth, trailing, 2-1, with one out and two on.

“I’m not frustrated, I came from the Mets and they were last in hitting and pitching last year,” said Young, whose three victories are a career high. “The guys are trying hard. It seems like every time I go out on the mound, I’m facing Cy Young.”

Brett Butler hit Young’s first pitch of the eighth inning off the ivy in right-center field for a double. He went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Offerman and scored on a single by Mike Piazza, who has 55 runs batted in, 25 in his last 23 games.

Candiotti, whose sore neck had been troubling him the past three games, said he has worked hard between starts to regain sound mechanics. Sunday, he mixed in some sliders, fastballs anda variety of curveballs, but his knuckleball had the Cubs swinging at air. Except for Sosa.

After Sosa hit a 2-and-2 knuckleball to center for his 15th homer of the season, Piazza was impressed. “Mike walked up to me and said, ‘Hey dude, how did he hit that?” Candiotti said.