BLUE STANDS OUT AMONG RED, WHITE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Three weeks do not a championship make. But these Dodgers have won something already. They've won the National League's respect, which was as elusive as playoff victories.

Back when the club was changing managers and general managers every year, going through a succession of soulless superstars who folded up when it counted, a San Francisco columnist called the Dodgers ``the kind of team you fear but don't respect.'' A stinging line. And deadly accurate.

It wasn't long ago that the Dodgers were everybody's idea of gutless, heartless and character-challenged.

Fifty-three come-from-behind wins in 2004 went a long way toward changing that, and now there are six come-from-behind wins in the first month of 2005.

``... So far,'' the Boston Globe's Gordon Edes wrote in Sunday's paper, ``this team has meshed into a tough, competitive unit much quicker than anyone (outside the organization) anticipated.''

Tough? Competitive? Those words didn't used to be connected to the Dodgers.

But that was before the Dodgers, while winning 13 of their first 18 games, tagged one of those come-from-behind jobs on every one of their division rivals.

``Who knew the Dodgers could play so big, let alone so well, considering their losses to free agency and the disabled list?'' the San Diego Union-Tribune's Chris Jenkins wrote.

For what it's worth, that's the sort of thing the rest of the country is reading about the Dodgers these days.

``Maybe I was wrong about the Los Angeles Dodgers,'' The Denver Post's Mike Klis wrote. ``I should have put more stock into (Jeff) Kent's decision to sign with the Dodgers. Wherever he goes, winning teams follow.''

Here's what another Denver reporter had to say as the Dodgers headed to Coors Field last Friday.

``(The Colorado Rockies) have seen the rest of the division,'' the Rocky Mountain News' Jack Etkin wrote. ``Now they will see its best team.''

Remember the San Francisco columnist who gave them no respect?

On Saturday, that columnist, the Chronicle's Bruce Jenkins, broke the bad news to Giants fans.

``Basically,'' Jenkins wrote, ``the Dodgers are laughing at everyone while enjoying a brand of chemistry no one thought possible.''

He went on: ``Based on career records, there would be nothing surprising about (Milton) Bradley, (Jose) Valentin, Kent and J.D. Drew staying hot, as a unit, over a long period of time. Cesar Izturis has developed into a dangerous leadoff man, and embattled manager Jim Tracy should finally be recognized as one of the National League's best.''

And what about the impression here that owner Frank McCourt and general manager Paul DePodesta are too penny-pinching to field a winner?

``... Their deep farm system and spending power,'' the Union-Tribune's Tom Krasovic wrote, ``will make summer trade upgrades easier for the Dodgers than the Padres.''

The funny thing is that newspaper buyers in San Diego, San Francisco, Colorado and Arizona probably have a better impression of the Dodgers these days than newspaper buyers in Los Angeles.

With a batting order that's three-quarters different from a year ago, and without the injured Eric Gagne to anchor the bullpen, the Dodgers keep pulling games out of the fire.

Three times in the first 13 games this season, they trailed with two out in the ninth and fought back, beating Arizona on Valentin's two-out homer April 8, completing a four-run rally against San Francisco on Bradley's two-out single and an error April 12, catching Milwaukee with two outs and going on to win in extra innings April 19. Three other times they won after being behind in the sixth inning or later.

``If (opponents) were reading about it and thinking, 'Everybody has a couple of those (comebacks),' well, they're experiencing it,'' Tracy said Monday before the Dodgers opened a homestand against the Diamondbacks.

Said Shawn Green, who was part of that die-hard Dodgers spirit last year and been twice jolted by it as a Diamondback this year: ``Our goal is to knock that out of them. It's nothing you can put your finger on. You either have it or you don't.''

An intangible, in other words. Just what you didn't used to expect out of the Dodgers. Just what was feared lost with the winter departure of Adrian Beltre, the injury to Gagne, the spilling of all that chemistry.

Nineteen games have left a lot of questions open. After all, we're in the Jason Phillips-hitting-.333 stage of the season. The defense, the rotation's health, the bottom of the batting order, they're all worries for the Dodgers.

After losing to Arizona 4-2 Monday night, the Dodgers have lost four of five games. Maybe they're heading for a fall instead of October. If they go quietly, a newly respectful nation will be surprised.