CRACK OPEN A BEER AND ENJOY THE RIDE.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

SAN FRANCISCO - The Dodgers completed their return to the playoffs late Saturday afternoon the way they began it last winter. In utter chaos.

Greg Maddux, a bottle in hand during his 12th playoff-clinching party, stood with a couple of rookies enjoying their first and looked out from one end of the visitors' clubhouse at AT&T Park at the wild champagne- spraying celebration that exploded after the Dodgers' 4-2 victory over the Giants.

``This place,'' Maddux said, ``is destroyed.''

Considering what they've built on the wreckage of a now long-ago offseason, there's no telling what might grow in the next few weeks out of this alcohol-wrecked room under the first-base stands.

Who could have set a goal even as modest as the National League wild- card in November, when the Dodgers were a fourth-place team without a general manager and manager after the firings of Paul DePodesta and Jim Tracy?

But there they were on the second-to-last day of the season, bouncing on each other between the pitcher's mound and third base on enemy grass after Maddux pitched them to the win that, coupled with the Padres' victory over the Diamondbacks, knocked the Phillies from the wild-card race.

Even though new GM Ned Colletti and new manager Grady Little were well-received, who could have predicted the Dodgers would go into today's 162nd game with a shot at the division title as well when their best-laid plans blew up with Eric Gagne following Nomar Garciaparra and Kenny Lofton to the disabled list?

But there they are today, hoping they can beat the Giants while resting Derek Lowe and other veterans and hoping the Padres will lose at Arizona.

And even though they looked good early, who saw the Dodgers hanging together after the post-All-Star break losing streak dropped them to last place and constant roster changes made them a club of strangers?

But here they've been the past couple of weeks, reeling off sensational rallies, such as the one last Sunday when Garciaparra won a vital game with a ninth-inning grand slam. It was only the second-most dramatic moment of the week at Dodger Stadium.

Colletti, standing in a sopping wet gray Dodgers T-shirt, thought back on two decades as a baseball executive and said he couldn't think of a successful club for which less went according to plan.

``It started on Opening Day when I found out Nomar and Lofton were going to go on the DL,'' Colletti said. ``I learned long ago you can't predict the course of a season. We were always adjusting. A lot of deals, a lot of free agents, a lot of adjustments. We didn't have a lot of time to sit around.''

Frank McCourt, speaking between soakings by players who turned champagne and beer bottles upside-down on his head, sounded remarkably certain of the franchise's turnaround for an owner whose first playoff celebration in 2004 turned out to signal a false start.

``A baseball season is too long for anybody to say, `Here's the plan and here's now it's going to go,' '' McCourt said. ``Baseball is trials and tribulations.

``It's a process of veterans and young players learning to play together. And now, this is a team. These magic moments have come about because of this team's resilience. This team is starting to establish an identity again.''

As for the difference between the 2004 division title and this playoff berth: ``I think,'' said the Boston real-estate developer, ``it underscores how important it is to have a foundation in place before you build.''

The foundation he refers to, apparently, is Colletti and Little.

Because of them, McCourt finds himself perhaps the most maligned owner to make two playoff trips in three years.

``Keep in mind, this team's closer (Gagne) and setup man (Yhency Brazoban) were down almost from the start,'' McCourt said. ``Ned and Grady repaired that situation on the fly. It's analogous to doing open-heart surgery on a guy in the middle of running a marathon.''

The Dodgers sport all kinds of unstitched holes as they hit the 26th mile going full-steam, winners of sixgames in a row who, a week ago, trailed in both the division and wild-card races.

They're the team that went 1-13 after the All-Star break, that was throttled by the Pirates on the two nights after their supposedly momentum-building four-homer ninth inning against the Padres, that blew a 5-0 lead on a six-error night by the Cubs.

Their pitching ace, Derek Lowe, is the stud who lost that 5-0 lead to the Cubs. Their would-be ace, Brad Penny, has been a disaster since mid-August.

People thought Maddux's acquisition would improve the whole staff, yet the team's quality-starts percentage is virtually identical, 50.5 percent before Maddux and 50.0 with him.

Jeff Kent keeps looking old at the plate -- and keeps raising his average.

J.D. Drew rhymes with boo -- but with a fifth-inning double that scored Kent, he just became a 100-RBI man. < Garciaparra is beaten down by injuries -- and has two game-ending home runs in two weeks.

With Garciaparra out Saturday, .219-hitting Julio Lugo batted third -- and drove in runs his first two times up.

It goes that way for the Dodgers these days. They play as if they think everything will work out.

Kent ran through third-base coach Rich Donnelly's stop sign to score the run that made it 4-2. Maddux stole second base while Giants pitcher Matt Cain wasn't paying attention. They see every blooper fall in Friday and Saturday and know they've got something good going.

It's depth and the ability to put runners on base that makes this the highest-scoring offense in the division -- and imagine that, the Dodgers get rid of an on-base-percentage-obsessed GM and lead the league in on-base percentage.

Credit it all to a weak division, except the NL West is at .500 right now and will have two playoff teams.

The explanations for these Dodgers going to the playoffs, to face either the Mets or the Cardinals in the first round, are either too few or too many or too general to satisfy.

``It's a mixture of the confidence and experience of veteran players with the excitement and enthusiasm of young players,'' Kent said of his sixth playoff team. ``It's been a good combination.''

The Dodgers' riotous run, from first place in June to last place in July and back to the top in August and now this, is one of those things best left unexplained. Just watch it and enjoy the ride as long as it goes.

Welcome to the winning clubhouse, and here's a beer on you.

heymodesti(AT_SIGN)aol.com

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Acquiring pitcher Greg Maddux in midseason was one of the reasons the Dodgers have reached the NL playoffs.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer