DON'T SAY COCKY, JUST CONFIDENT.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

The Dodgers did not sound cocky. (They'd tried that before and it didn't work.)

The Dodgers were not arrogant. The Dodgers were not swaggering. (Don't dress them up in those worn-out adjectives.)

They did sound more than a little confident, though, as they closed out the homestand Tuesday with a 3-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, kept pressing the Giants and closed in on the Thursday-night trading deadline.

``No! No! Ssshhh!'' Brett Butler said when somebody asked if the men in the front office should be thinking about a trade.

``If they are,'' Butler said, ``they ought to be shot.''

That's a joke, he said, the part about shooting somebody.

``Things are going too well (to change anything),'' said the 40-year-old left fielder and leadoff hitter who had just gone 3 for 3 with a walk, raising his batting average to .323 and his on-base percentage to .404.

Things are going too well.

The Dodgers, who began July eight games behind the San Francisco Giants, feel they have the National League West leaders measured. It's nothing they said, understand, just an observation.

The Dodgers are one game back of the Giants and have 55 games remaining to exert their superiority.

This was no time to get caught looking ahead to the playoffs. But it was time, as Dodgers Executive Vice President Fred Claire considered his options, to ask if this is the roster that can take the pennant from the Atlanta Braves.

``Absolutely,'' Butler answered after the Dodgers' fifth straight victory. ``Our pitching staff - obviously we need (injured Ramon Martinez) back - is better than the Braves''

Confidence.

When management expresses it, you can't be sure if it's genuine or if it's designed to soften the blow if attempted trades fall through. But when the same language comes from the clubhouse and the manager's office, it sounds sincere.

``We feel we can win the Western Division and go to the World Series (with this roster),'' manager Bill Russell said after the Dodgers' 19th victory in 26 games in July.

Can they go to the World Series through Atlanta?

``We can,'' Russell said. ``Our pitching matches up very well. That right there makes it pretty much equal. We split (the teams' recent four-game series) in Atlanta.

``We're probably one of the teams the Braves fear.''

One of. That will save Russell from a spot on the Braves' bulletin board. But you get his meaning.

``As a coach and now as a manager, you have to go with your players and live and die with them,'' said Russell, who is prepared to do that for the next two months, and, he hopes, a few weeks after that.

That's good, because if Claire makes a deal now, it will be a small one. It will be a trade for a star of such low magnitude that it could be completed after Thursday, which is the deadline only for making trades without risking players to the waiver wire.

If that deadline had been the end of June, instead of the end of July, the feeling would have been different. The Dodgers were three games under .500 then. Their hitting was coming around, but the way their pitching was faltering, it often wasn't enough.

If Claire had made big changes then, he might regret it today.

``One big guy doesn't necessarily put a team over the top,'' he said. ``Our success is going to be based on the players on the roster today.

``There isn't a player who we could bring in who would have a presence that would surpass the presence of the players we already have on the team. You can't have someone come in on Aug. 1, two-thirds of the way through the season, after you've already established leadership roles, and have that player know what came before.''

Claire doesn't want to acquire or give up a front-line pitcher. A left-handed home-run hitter would be nice, but the team has right-handed power at the usual power positions already, so the improvement would be marginal. Hanging over any potential major trade is the issue of money.

A deal for a veteran second baseman can't be ruled out - ``experience that can help a young player,'' as Claire puts it, not wanting Dodgers rookie Wilton Guerrero to think he's about to be replaced.

But Brett Boone of the Cincinnati Reds might be too expensive and former Dodger Mariano Duncan of the New York Yankees was shipped to the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday.

If nothing happens, Claire implied, he will feel more than confident. He will feel his patience with slow-starting talent has been vindicated. The talent feels the same way.

``A month, month and a half ago, we needed a leadoff hitter, a center fielder, a first baseman,'' said first baseman Eric Karros, remembering what the critics said back then. ``Now it's down to: We need a bench guy.''

``We could use Ken Griffey Jr., maybe Barry Bonds,'' Mike Piazza said with a smile. ``But I don't think we're going to get them.

``It's up to Fred. If he goes out and gets somebody, fine. If not, I think we have the talent to do the job.''

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PHOTO (color) The resurgence of Brett Butler has helped the Dodgers soar in the Western Division.

Gus Ruelas / Daily News