LOS ANGELES -- The nightmare of a historic tailspin behind them, the Dodgers spent the weekend flashing back to the glory days of four weeks ago, when they were in first place instead of last.

They completed a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals on Sunday with a 4-3 victory that included solo home runs by J.D. Drew, Andre Ethier and Jose Cruz Jr.; a tie-breaking topspin RBI double in the eighth inning by new second baseman Cesar Izturis; and a full day's worth of defensive gems.

Izturis is the former Gold Glove shortstop-turned-third baseman who made his first start at second base in five years to make room for Wilson Betemit, who had three hits (two doubles) in his debut as a Dodger.

Change has been the theme of this organization for about a decade now, and there's probably more to come by Monday's 1 p.m. PT trade deadline (although Cubs pitcher Greg Maddux told reporters "Ain't nothing up" Sunday).

Since Opening Day, the Dodgers have completely rebuilt the bullpen, have only two of their original five starters in the rotation and only a pair of eight Opening Day position players still in the lineup.

"When the team is not playing good, you have to make them," said shortstop Rafael Furcal, a former Atlanta Brave who has never finished anywhere but first in the Major Leagues. "We lost a lot of games this month, and now we need to win a lot of games the last two months."

The Dodgers finished July with a 9-17 record, and despite a three-game win streak, remain in last place, an indicator of how difficult it will be to reverse fortunes since they must jump past every other team in the division.

Whether or not there's a cause-and-effect relationship between the recent roster moves and the three-game sweep of a last-place Nationals team, at least the mood of a club about to embark on a trip through Cincinnati and Florida has improved.

"There's a lot of confidence on this club now," said manager Grady Little. "The changes have all been positive for the club."

While newcomers Betemit and Elmer Dessens have already contributed to victories, the Dodgers also dispatched a handful of players whose roles had become reduced, such as Odalis Perez, Danys Baez and Sandy Alomar Jr.

"We have some new life," said Brett Tomko, who represents another change after having been transformed into a reliever and checking in with his second scoreless inning Sunday.

"We got a guy back like Jason Repko," Tomko continued. "He's one of the players who's always busting his butt. That stuff is contagious. You can't help but feed off of it. When we were losing, there just wasn't that spark, that life, that buzz in the dugout. It was lacking. There was no energy. And it's tough to manufacture that when you're losing. Now maybe we're getting on a roll. We'd better. It's do-or-die time."

"Any time you have people of quality that we have behind us, as a pitcher, you love it when they want to make plays behind you. We've got just as good an infield now as anybody."

-- Mark Hendrickson

If general manager Ned Colletti does not add a bat Monday, a lineup already lacking Jeff Kent must also overcome the additional loss of Nomar Garciaparra, who was disabled Sunday. Both are expected to be out another 10 days.

The Dodgers stayed in Sunday's game because they hit three home runs (eight in the series) to offset the three runs allowed by Mark Hendrickson, who was all over the place, figuratively and literally. Still winless as a Dodger, Hendrickson walked seven in six innings and was charged with an embarrassing balk when his spikes caught during his windup and he fell off the mound, all 6-foot-9 of him, landing on his face.

"If a run doesn't score [on the balk]," said Hendrickson, "I'd be laughing with everybody. But it wasn't as funny."

It would have been an entirely fitting example of everything wrong with the team during its 1-13 collapse, as would the inability to cash in any of four leadoff doubles. But the Dodgers won, anyway.

Izturis got the game-winning hit with his second double of the game, a spinning bouncer that went through the outstretched glove of first baseman Nick Johnson and scored James Loney, who had preceded it with a double. Izturis said he was surprised the ball stayed fair, which is the way players start thinking when they've lost 13 of 14.

While the rebuilt bullpen followed Hendrickson with three scoreless innings that included Takashi Saito's ninth save, this game was as much a story about Dodgers defense as anything.

With Furcal and Izturis ranging all over the middle infield, the Dodgers turned a pair of double plays to short-circuit Washington rallies. Center fielder Kenny Lofton threw out Johnson trying to go from first to third on Austin Kearns' fifth-inning single, and catcher Toby Hall threw out Alfonso Soriano trying to steal second base in the sixth inning.

"That is going to be huge for us," an appreciative Hendrickson said of the defense. "Any time you have people of quality that we have behind us, as a pitcher, you love it when they want to make plays behind you. We've got just as good an infield now as anybody. As a ground-ball pitcher, that should give me the confidence to let them put the ball in play."