Dodgers End Streak--Barely : Baseball: Snyder hits two homers and Candiotti pitches well in 4-3 victory over Padres.

It was the ugliest of streaks, a seven-game expansion franchise giveaway that made losers of the Dodgers and winners of pitchers named Spradlin and Bottenfield.

Doug Brocail tried to drop the Dodgers for the eighth time Saturday night, but bad things, too, must come to an end.

Using the arm of their Tom Candiotti and the bat of Cory Snyder, who homered twice, the Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres, 4-3, before 45,812 at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers took a 4-1 lead in the fourth and then held on as others held their breath.

The Padres cut the lead to 4-2 in the seventh when shortstop Jose Offerman’s two-out error opened the door for an unearned run.

The Padres pulled to 4-3 in the eighth, when pinch-hitter Billy Bean doubled against reliever Pedro Martinez to score Derek Bell.

With two out and runners on second and third, Jim Gott relieved Martinez and got Ricky Gutierrez to fly out to right to end the inning.

Gott finished up in the ninth, striking out Bell with the potential tying run on base to end the game and earn his 21st save, preserving the victory for Candiotti (8-5).

Candiotti gave up nine hits and two runs, one earned, in seven innings, lowering his league-leading earned run average to 2.49.

“I worked out of a lot of jams,” Candiotti said.

One was caused by his own team.

What would a Dodger game be without an Offerman alert?

Breezing with a three-run lead in the seventh, Candiotti almost watched his night’s work ruined.

With two out, Offerman misplayed pinch-hitter Phil Clark’s soft grounder for an error. Gutierrez followed with a run-scoring double to right. Candiotti then walked the next two batters to load the bases, and went to a full count on Phil Plantier before he flied out to right.

“I had to make pitches a couple of times to get out of jams, especially in the seventh,” Candiotti said. “That (the pitch to Plantier) was the pitch of the game for me.”

The Dodgers scored twice in the first against Brocail (2-9) on a one-out single by Jody Reed and a run-scoring double by Offerman, who took third on Brocail’s throwing error and scored on Piazza’s groundout.

In another lineup shakeup, Offerman batted third for the first time in his career.

Then, the Snyder Show. In the second, he homered deep to left-center field to put the Dodgers ahead, 3-0.

In the fourth, he drove Brocail’s first pitch to right for home run No. 8, the first time Snyder has homered twice in the same game since June 16 of last year against Cincinnati.

Snyder said he felt a sense of relief in the dugout after his second home run.

“I could feel it after the high-fives,” he said. “The high-fives were harder. It wasn’t like, ‘We’re back to even.’ It was like, ‘We’ve got things going again.’ Hopefully, we can keep this going for a while.”

When he stepped to the plate in the sixth, Dodger fans cheered Snyder wildly, hoping to see a third homer.

He struck out.

In the dark Dodger days of late, Candiotti has been a rock, as predictable as his pitch is not.

He is taking his finest season in stride.

Some pitchers lock themselves in dark rooms to get ready for starts.

Candiotti could be found an hour before Saturday’s start enjoying the Hollywood stars game from the top step of the Dodger dugout.

“I didn’t think at all about the seven games,” Candiotti said of his team’s losing streak. “I try to keep the same philosophy every time out.”

Candiotti had his troubles, but the Padres scored only once against him, in the fourth, on consecutive doubles by Tony Gwynn and Plantier.

Gwynn, the National League batting leader, was four for four Saturday. It marked the 30th time in his career that Gwynn has had four or more hits in a game. He increased his average to .359.

“I haven’t figured out a way to get Tony Gwynn out this season, but he didn’t hurt us,” Candiotti said.