"The Dodgers reintroduced themselves to an old friend on Saturday, one they hadn't seen in more than four months, one they hadn't spent any quality time with in more than a year and, if you go back about three decades, one from which they were once virtually inseparable.

After all this time, first place still looks pretty good on them.

The only question now, after the Dodgers vaulted over the shellshocked Arizona Diamondbacks and into the National League West lead by shellacking them for the second day in a row, this time 7-2 in front of 47,543 at Dodger Stadium, is how long the Dodgers can stay there.

Because while both the momentum and the odds now appear to be in their favor, that could all change in the course of an afternoon.

Specifically, this afternoon.

For all the euphoria of a seven- games-and-counting winning streak that has put them firmly in control of their own destiny, for all the excitement of having watched Manny Ramirez drive in five runs and tie Willie McCovey, Frank Thomas and Ted Williams for 17 th place on the all-time home run list with 521, and for the all visible looseness and confidence with which this club is now playing, the Dodgers also are in the rather odd position of needing, as opposed to hoping, to complete a three-game sweep in today's series finale.

"These two games don't mean nothing if we don't win (today)," Dodgers catcher Russell Martin said, accurately if not eloquently. "(Today's) game is the

most important."

A failure to win it wouldthe Dodgers back into second place, push the Diamondbacks back into the lead and leave the Dodgers to face their final 19 games - 13 of which are on the road, where the Dodgers are a putrid 28-40 this year - without another chance to face the Diamondbacks head-on."