WHAT, DODGERS WORRY? MLB: GARCIAPARRA INJURY LATEST WOE FOR L.A., WHICH, DESPITE FACING PLETHORA OF OBSTACLES THIS SEASON, GETS BACK TO .500 AFTER VICTORY. DODGERS 2, WASHINGTON 0.

Byline: Tony Jackson 

Staff Writer

Leaning against a cabinet at the end of the Dodgers' clubhouse late Sunday afternoon, Ned Colletti was as much the picture of contentment as a major-league general manager gets.

It isn't a suitable profession for those who crave a Zen- like serenity, but it is perfect for those Type-A guys who always feel like whatever they did that day, they should have done it better and they should have done it longer.

If Colletti was feeling that way immediately after the Dodgers completed their three-game sweep of the hapless Washington Nationals with a 2-0 victory in front of 38,660 at Dodger Stadium, a win that finally completed their eight-week crawl back to the .500 mark, he was doing a good job of hiding it.

But if he was feeling anything close to giddiness at a time when his club finally seems to be getting good hitting and good pitching all at the same time, the Dodgers' third-year GM was hiding that pretty well, too.

"We're playing better," said Colletti, who made what might be his only significant move in advance of Thursday's trading deadline when he acquired veteran third baseman Casey Blake from Cleveland on Saturday.

"We're back to .500. It's not like we have climbed Mount Everest, but we have been through a lot. A lot of injuries. And our injuries haven't been 15 days. Our injuries have been weeks and months. It's tough to win (that way). I give the players credit, and I give (manager) Joe (Torre) and his staff credit for hanging in there."

That long list of injuries had just grown by one, when notoriously fragile infielder Nomar Garciaparra left the game shortly after the Nationals' Lastings Milledge slid into Garciaparra's left knee on a fifth- inning tag play at third base. Garciaparra will be re-examined today and might undergo a test, presumably an MRI, if it isn't any better. But he already has done two extended stints on the disabled list this season, and his original prognoses almost always turn out to be overly optimistic.

But the Dodgers have overcome Garciaparra's absence before. And they have overcome an unproductive Andruw Jones. And they have overcome the extended loss of alleged staff ace Brad Penny, due back in the next week or so. And they have overcome the devastating loss of shortstop Rafael Furcal, who was a late scratch from the lineup one day in early May with what was thought to be nothing more than lower-back tightness and hasn't been heard from since.

They have overcome losing their closer, Takashi Saito. They have overcome offensive ineptitude. They have overcome a brief bout of bad starting pitching coming out of the All-Star break, although that went away when Chad Billingsley, Derek Lowe and rookie Clayton Kershaw (1-3), who finally got his first major-league victory with six shutout innings in the finale, turned in consecutive gems against the Nationals.

And after overcoming all that, the Dodgers (52-52) could hardly be blamed for celebrating having reached the .500 mark for the first time since May 30, this after falling as many as seven games below (31-38) June 15.

It might be baseball's truest form of mediocrity, but for now, the Dodgers will take it. Even if it isn't exactly where the Dodgers, when they hosted San Francisco on Opening Day, would have pictured themselves going into their next home series with the Giants, a three-gamer beginning tonight.

"I would have said, 'Where will the rest of the division be?'" Colletti said. "It has been that kind of year, not only for us, but for everybody in the (National League) West."

That is why the second-place Dodgers, for all the hurdles they have had to clear this season, still find themselves just a game behind frontrunning Arizona and a seemingly safe five ahead of hard-charging Colorado. The Dodgers have won six of nine since the All-Star break, and they have done it while averaging more than five runs a game.

"We're putting better at-bats together, and our pitching is back to what it was the first half of the season," Dodgers catcher Russell Martin said.

"We're not really too concerned about what our record is or what the standings are. We want to keep taking it day by day, play like we're playing right now and not worry about anything else."

Colletti will do all the worrying for them. That, after all, is what a general manager does.

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DODGERS

TODAY vs. San Francisco, 7 p.m., Dodger Stadium.

TV: FSN Prime.

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Photo:

Russell Martin, left, and Casey Blake, right, congratulate reliever Jonathan Broxton after Sunday's win.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer