DODGERS NOTEBOOK : IT COULD BE A ROCKY RIDE TO THE FINISH.

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

The Rocky Mountains are a nice place to visit, but they're a bad setting in which to decide a division. Oh well.

It has occurred to the Dodgers there is a good chance that if they are to win the NL West, they will have to do it while playing the Rockies in Denver. That's the who and where of the Dodgers' final four regular-season games.

``Colorado is as tough a place to play on the road as there is,'' Eric Karros said.

The mile-high altitude often makes games unpredictable. It negates the Dodgers' pitching advantage. No lead is safe. The games are high-scoring and exhausting.

The Dodgers swept two at Coors Field in July - 14-12 in 10 innings and 6-5. The Dodgers were 3-4 at Coors Field last season, losing 13-1, 13-4, 16-15 and 6-4.

``Anything can happen,'' manager Bill Russell said. ``Too much can go on there. They have the advantage. They have the last at-bat. You don't want it to happen. But it looks like it's going down to that.''

Right on: He didn't know how true it was when he said it.

``It's not a coincidence Mike has been so hot the past month,'' Karros said recently, alluding to the fact Piazza (among others) has benefited from having Eric Young and Otis Nixon batting in front of him since the two were acquired in separate August trades.

Piazza's two-run homer Friday gave him 28 RBI in the 28 games since Nixon has been here and 27 in the 22 games Young has been a Dodger. He has driven in Nixon 11 times and Young nine times.

The other race: Among those considered a challenge to Mike Piazza's bid for the National League MVP award are Astros second baseman Craig Biggio, who entered Friday's game batting .311 with 21 home runs and 77 RBI, and first baseman Jeff Bagwell, who was batting .282 with 38 homers and 120 RBI.

Biggio was 1 for 3 and scored three times on Friday. Bagwell was 1 for 3 and scored once.

Piazza, who entered the game batting .355 with 34 homers and 105 RBI, was 2 for 4. He hit a two-run homer in the fourth and scored after hitting a double in the eighth inning.

Also: Infielder Paul Konerko on Friday was named Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America and Howe Sportsdata. The 21-year-old Konerko, 1 for 2 as a pinch hitter since being recalled by the Dodgers on Sept. 2, batted .323 with 37 home runs and 127 RBI in 130 games for Triple-A Albuquerque. . . . The Dodgers are expecting to face Danny Darwin and Kirk Rueter in the big two-game series at San Francisco next week. The 41-year-old Darwin, the oldest starting pitcher in the majors, is 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA in five starts since being acquired in a trade from the White Sox. Reuter has won three straight starts, including Friday at Florida.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza gets roughed up by an errant pitch in the third inning.

Associated Press