DODGERS STILL ARE UNPREDICTABLE.

Byline: SETH AMITIN DODGERS

Is contradicting predictions the Dodgers priority?

That's it. No one, after lats Sunday's win, is allowed to make any prediction of the Dodgers for the rest of the season.

It's not because of how they won in that particular game, but every time it becomes common belief that they're circling the drain, they play a game like Sunday's.

And what a game! What the heck happened? In the first inning, Rafael Furcal walks and no one can advance him past first, a sign of a team that probably isn't going to win. And the night before, Miguel Batista, a pitcher with a 1.51 ERA, pitched 101 pitches in 8 innings? That's a sign of a team that just isn't hitting. So it only made sense to put two and two together: They were going to lose.

Then they won. On a walk-off grand slam. By the guy who accomplished that same feat only a week ago.

Unbelievable.

If you think about it (which I hope you don't, because the second you do the inverse will happen), this is just what the Dodgers have been doing all season, pulling these slight-of-hand moves, feigning their own burial just before coming back. Before the long win streak was a long losing streak. In both of Nomar Garciaparra's walk-off home runs, the Dodgers didn't lead for a single out.

However, there's no stopping the Padres. Former Pirates pitcher Bob Veale once said, ``Good pitching beats good hitting and vice versa.''

But good, young, healthy pitching beats good, old, tired, injured hitting every time. While the Dodgers pitching seems to be hurting the most, the hitting has been what's pulled the team through the wins. Nomar is so injured, he shouldn't be playing right now.

``He could barely run,'' Dodgers manager Grady Little said. ``With what he's giving us out there in his condition is just outstanding.''

For a team that has a 32-42 record on the road (49-32 at home), the Dodgers barely broke even, needing two walk-off home runs for two of their five wins on this ten-game home stretch.

Jeff Kent, who's been having a tough season since taking a pitch on the noggin April 16, has finally gotten on the right track.

Still, he's currently playing injured and has had one hit in his past 18 at-bats, including a strikeout with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and two outs. And as for J.D. Drew, someone asked Little if Drew could have been the batter to get the fourth consecutive home run on that fateful September 18 game, to which Grady never gave a straight answer. There is very little reliability in this lineup.

How many more times can Nomar step to the plate in a game-deciding at-bat?

Or rather, how many games will the Padres and Phillies, neither of whom have shown major weakness in the past six games, lose in their respective final seven games of the season to give the Dodgers a window back into the playoffs?

The hallmark of this team is unpredictability and they, better than the Phillies and Padres, have perfected it.

So the question becomes, if this columnist predicts they won't make the playoffs, does that mean they will?

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 7 boxes

Photo:

(1) The Dodgers' Nomar Garciaparra pumps his fist last Sunday after hitting a walkoff grandslam in a 5-1 victory against visiting Arizona.

Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press

(2) no caption (Matt Cain)

Box:

(1) THEY SAID IT

(2) WHO'S HOT

(3) WHO'S COLD

(4) ROOKIE WATCH

(5) NOTES

(6) SERIES OF THE WEEK

(7) DAILY NEWS/CBS 2/KCAL 9 SPORTS CENTRAL POWER

- Matt McHale