ALL'S WELL WITH WELLS, DODGERS VETERAN KEEPS PADRES AT BAY, L.A. IN PLAYOFF HUNT DODGERS 6, SAN DIEGO 3.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

The old man arrived as something of a shadow of his former self, and a fairly large shadow at that. He hadn't performed well in his previous stop, and by his own admission, he was less surprised by the fact he wasn't there anymore than he was by the fact that someone else -- specifically, the Dodgers -- actually wanted him.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate their interest. It was just that he wasn't sure what he had left to offer them.

"Not at all," David Wells said Thursday night, just after pitching the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory against San Diego -- their biggest win of the season, at least until the next one. "When you haven't picked up a ball for three weeks, a lot of stuff goes through your mind. I never doubted my ability to go out and pitch. But it was a matter of whether I could still be sharp with my pitches."

In his fourth start since the Dodgers signed him without much in the way of expectations, Wells was sharp enough for sixinnings -- and the bullpen was lights-out enough for three more -- in front of 44,496 at Dodger Stadium.

The result was the Dodgers, once written off as dead in the hunt for a playoff spot, moving within 11/2 games of the National League wild- card-leading Padres with 16to go.

Wells might be something of a broken-down jalopy, as evidenced when he got thrown out trying to advance from second to third in the third inning on a grounder to the right side. But as broken-down jalopies go, this guy makes a pretty good big-game pitcher.

"He has pitched in so many of them, and you know he isn't going to get rattled," Dodgers center fielder Juan Pierre said. "The most important thing is that he never loses his composure. He might give up some hits or whatever, but he always keeps his composure. It's great to have a guy like that out there, because he has been to the heights. There isn't too much that he hasn't seen.

"He gave us the lift we needed to win this series."

Wells didn't come close to a complete game, nor did he approach 100 pitches.

For him, at 44, those days are buried in the distant past. What he did, though, was give the Dodgers five innings of one-hit domination, and by the time he ran out of gas and gave up three runs in the sixth, he had given the offensively resurgent Dodgers enough time to have the game well in hand after they exploded for six runs off the equally legendary Greg Maddux.

Wells improved to 3-0 with a 3.91 ERA since Aug. 24, the day the Dodgers woke him up from his assumed retirement with a contract offer. That came exactly 15 days after the Padres -- whose starting rotation appears to have fallen into disarray down the stretch -- understandably designated him for assignment.

"It was nice to do it against them," Wells said.

While it may be true that Wells (8-8) no longer has the overpowering stuff of younger hot shots such as Brad Penny and Chad Billingsley, what he has is more than two decades of experience, of knowing exactly how to maximize the results of whatever stuff he does have left.

"He is a strike-thrower, and he changes speeds," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "His general game is giving up hits, but when he has runners on base, he makes the big pitches to get out of jams. He knows how to make big pitches when he needs to, and he has done that his whole career. It gives the whole team a little more confidence when you have a guy with that kind of credentials out there."

That confidence will come in handy for the Dodgers this weekend, when they host division-leading Arizona for three games. Although winning the National League West now seems like something of a fantasy for the third-place Dodgers -- who trail the Diamondbacks by 51/2 -- the two teams will play each other sixmore times beginning tonight, so anything can still happen.

Still, although no one in the Dodgers clubhouse will come close to admitting it, the team's quickest route to the playoffs is the wild card. The Dodgers are now tied with Philadelphia and a game ahead of Colorado, with seven more games against the Rockies.

Wells left for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the sixth. Scott Proctor, Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito, who earned his 38th save, combined to retire the final nine Padres batters.

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DODGERS

TODAY

Dodgers ('Penny 15-4) vs. Arizona ('Owings 6-8), '7:40 p.m., 'Dodger Stadium.

TV: 'Ch. 9.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Dodgers starter David Wells gave up three runs and fourhits in six innings Thursday against San Diego, as well as contributing a single and double at the plate.

David Crane/Staff Photographer

(2) The Dodgers' James Loney drove in four runs with three hits Thursday, raising his average to .329.

David Crane/Staff Photographer