Dodgers just might be fall guys

Think blue. Dream big.

The autumn leaves could be blue this year. The Dodgers could be in the World Series.

They were left for dead a week ago. They were at .500 two days ago. They have been in first place in the National League West for a few hours.

The Dodgers are a flawed team, with no business being in a pennant race, let alone in first place. But the standings are reset in October, and the Dodgers could take it from there, and into the World Series.

This is not the American League, with a Goliath in pinstripes, red socks or halos standing between the Dodgers and the World Series. This is the National League, where the team with the best record has failed to advance to the World Series in seven of the last eight years.

The Dodgers are on pace to win 82 games. In 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals won 83, backing into the playoffs by losing nine of their last 12 games.

"It was like, whew, new life," said David Eckstein, then the Cardinals' shortstop. "We had made it.

"It doesn't matter what your record is once you get in. We heard about it the whole year. The end result is, it doesn't mean a thing if you get in."

The end result for the Cardinals? They got to the World Series -- and won, with Eckstein as most valuable player.

"We heard we had no chance to win," he said. "You can say what you want, but in the playoffs, it all comes down to pitching and timely hitting."

In that case, the Dodgers could be fine, thanks to Chad Billingsley, Derek Lowe and Manny Ramirez. We would not have dared make the Dodgers' case even a week ago, but hitting might not be all that is timely in their world right now.

We've been waiting all year for the Diamondbacks to run away with the division, to follow the lead of Brandon Webb, Dan Haren and Randy Johnson.

Yet the Dodgers routed Webb and Haren in Phoenix last weekend, and again in L.A. this weekend. Johnson would have had his chance to stop the Dodgers' seven-game winning streak today, but the Diamondbacks scratched him because of a sore shoulder.

Arizona has been plagued by inconsistencies in various areas all summer, Manager Bob Melvin said, in all but the most critical area -- until now.

"This is the first time it's really cropped up with starting pitching," Melvin said.

And, should the Dodgers get to the playoffs, where a team needs that 1-2 pitching punch to last, Billingsley and Lowe could provide the Dodgers that staying power.