DODGERS STREAK INTO SERIES WITH NEW YORK BACKUPS BEAT GIANTS IN FINALE FOR SEVENTH STRAIGHT VICTORY DODGERS 4, SAN FRANCISCO 3.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO -- With a division title and home-field advantage in the first two games of the playoffs on the line, Dodgers manager Grady Little wrote what looked like a playing-out- the-string kind of lineup Sunday.

But against a San Francisco club that played like it couldn't wait for the offseason to begin, Little's band of second-stringers came tantalizingly close to saving the Dodgers from a cross-country flight.

Although it ultimately wasn't close enough, they did manage to save the team's season-ending winning streak, running it to seven games with a 4-3 victory over the Giants in front of a sellout crowd of 42,831 at AT&T Park.

Meanwhile, San Diego blew almost all of a seven-run lead in its own season finale at Arizona, but the operative word there was almost. After a near-implosion in the ninth inning by possible Cy Young Award-winning closer Trevor Hoffman, the Padres held on for a 7-6 victory.

That left the Dodgers and Padres tied atop the National League West, with the title going to San Diego based on its 13-5 head-to-head record against the Dodgers. The Dodgers, who were given permission by a league official to call themselves ``co-champions,'' technically were left with the wild card.

What all of that means is that the Padres, winners of nine of their past 11, flew home to play wounded St. Louis beginning Tuesday. The Dodgers, winners of nine of their past 10, flew home to unpack, repack and fly out again sometime this afternoon on a charter to New York, where they will play the Mets beginning Wednesday.

Both series are best-of-five.

Of baseball's eight playoff-bound teams, the Dodgers and Padres are by far the hottest, leaving open the reasonable possibility that next week's National League Championship Series could be contested within a 140-mile stretch of I-5.

The Dodgers completed their second 6-0 road trip in the past two months with a lineup that included three rookies, a backup infielder, a backup outfielder, a catcher who hadn't started a game in more than three weeks and a pitcher with one previous big-league start who didn't make the playoff roster.

It seems that these days, the Dodgers, who finished the regular season at 88-74, are tough to beat, no matter who they throw out there.

``We have a good team,'' said shortstop Rafael Furcal, who didn't play in the finale. ``We have been playing some good defense, and our pitching has been doing a great job. I think we have a good chance to play (beyond the division series).''

The question now is, who will be doing that playing? Manager Grady Little and general manager Ned Colletti had whittled the roster down to 28 players by the game's end, and all of them will make the trip. Pitchers Eric Stults, Giovanni Carrara and Tim Hamulack, infielder Oscar Robles and outfielders Matt Kemp and Delwyn Young were sent on their not-so-merry way.

With Game 1 scheduled for 1:09 p.m. PDT Wednesday, the Dodgers don't have to settle on a 25-man roster until sometime that morning, so don't expect them to. There still are questions surrounding the health of first baseman Nomar Garciaparra, who left Friday's game in considerable pain after aggravating his strained right oblique, and pitcher Brad Penny, who had a good throwing session on the side Saturday but has suffered back stiffness in his past twostarts.

Injuries aside, the Dodgers are going into the playoffs on a high -- a striking contrast to two years ago, when they appeared to run out of fuel down the stretch, barely won the NL West, then went down without much of a fight against St. Louis.

``I don't see how you could go into it any better than we are,'' Little said. ``We're playing very good right now, and we're looking forward to getting this thing started. Right now, if I was anybody else, I wouldn't want to play the Dodgers.''

Stults, who started this game so none of the playoff-bound starters would have to, held the Giants to three runs (twoearned) over five innings and was saved from the loss when Ramon Martinez tied the score with a two- run double in the sixth. Rookie Chad Billingsley (7-4), who will work out of the bullpen in the playoffs, pitched a scoreless sixth before Julio Lugo's RBI single in the seventh off Brad Hennessey (5-6) put the Dodgers ahead to stay.

While closer Takashi Saito rested, Joe Beimel pitched a perfect ninth for his second save.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- cover) The wild bunch

(2) The Giants' Kevin Frandsen, left, can't apply the tag in time as the Dodgers' Kenny Lofton steals second base in the eighth.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

(3) The Dodgers' James Loney, right, is congratulated by third-base coach Rick Donnelly after hitting a second-inning homer.

Keith Birmingham/Staff Photographer