First Things First as Dodgers Jump Back to Top Spot : Baseball: Daniels hits a three-run homer in the first inning, Murray adds a solo shot and an RBI double. Wilson saves the game for Ojeda, 5-3.

Low clouds hung over Dodger Stadium for the first six innings Tuesday, making the sky above the field seem as muddled as the National League West race.

“For a while out there, I was kind of wondering where I was at,” Brett Butler said.

But line drives by Kal Daniels and Eddie Murray cut through the mist, by the seventh inning the sky was clear and two innings later Butler and the Dodgers knew exactly where they were.

First place.

They reclaimed that position from the Atlanta Braves for the second time in the past week with a 5-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds before 33,114.

Two days after leaving Atlanta with long faces and a 1 1/2-game deficit, the Dodgers have combined two home victories with two Brave losses at San Francisco to gain control of their fate with 16 games remaining.

And it happened just as they thought it could happen.

“On the plane home from Atlanta, we were talking, and were saying that just like that, this thing could change,” winning pitcher Bob Ojeda said, snapping his fingers. “We knew we needed just two days. Just two days.

“And so we did it. Now it’s all in our hands.”

Well, not exactly. Because the teams are tied in the loss column, the Dodgers could win their remaining games and still end up tied with the Braves, who have 17 games left.

Not that it will come down to that, particularly since the two teams meet at Dodger Stadium this weekend in a three-game showdown before playing elsewhere during the final two weeks of the season.

“Like everybody has been saying before, it’s now ours to win or lose,” Butler said.

Added Ojeda: “The veteran capabilities on this team are really coming out now. Guys know what it takes. Guys know how to reach back.”

Staked to a 3-0 lead by Daniels’ first-inning, three-run homer against Red starter and loser Tom Browning, Ojeda (11-8) gave up three runs and eight hits in 7 2/3 innings. He has a 2.45 earned-run average since Aug. 7.

Murray helped him out with a home run, double and single, all coming in the third inning or later.

Of course, no Dodger game would be complete without a late-inning scare involving the bullpen.

After the Reds had closed the gap to 5-3 with a two-run home run by Eric Davis in the eighth, his 11th, Ojeda gave up a two-out single to Carmelo Martinez.

In came reliever Steve Wilson, who promptly walked Paul O’Neill to bring the go-ahead run to the plate in Luis Quinones, who had earlier hit his third home run against Ojeda.

But Quinones flied to center to end the inning and Wilson finished the game and earned his first major league save in more than a year by retiring the side in the ninth. After striking out Chris Jones on three pitches to end the game, he hopped into the arms of catcher Gary Carter, almost as if the Dodgers had won the championship on that pitch.

“You know me, I get into that,” Carter said. “I love that rah-rah stuff.”

Since joining the Dodgers on Sept. 6, Wilson, who will not be eligible for the playoffs, has given up no runs and only one hit in four innings spanning five appearances.

“The kid has gone from Iowa (the double-A farm team of the Chicago Cubs) right into a pennant race,” Ojeda said with a smile. “The kid, although I guess he’s not really a kid, is really something.”

In the first inning, Ojeda was most impressed with Daniels, who hit his first home run since Sept. 1 and 16th overall. He followed a single to left by Mike Sharperson and a walk to Darryl Strawberry, who is hitless in his past 14 at-bats.

Murray gave Ojeda a bigger cushion with a two-out, run-scoring double to left field in the fifth. Then in the seventh, with two out against rookie pitcher Chris Foster, Murray hit his 18th homer of the season, a long drive over the right-field fence.

Murray is three homers short of 400 in his career. He is 10 RBIs short of 100 for the season, a mark he he hasn’t reached since 1985.

But more important to the Dodgers is that he continues to play well when it matters. Murray is batting .382 in September with five home runs and 18 RBIs.

“And September is the toughest month to play in, so I can’t tell you why,” Murray said of his pressure hitting. “With all the new pitchers you face, guys trying to make the team for next year, guys you don’t know, it’s just hard. But this month, with the exception of a couple of raggedy days, I have felt good.”

The other Dodger highlight belonged to Butler with a walk in the eighth inning. It was his 100th walk of the season, making him the first Dodger to reach that figure since Jim Wynn in 1975, and only the second Los Angeles Dodger to walk 100 or more times.

MONDAY’S GAME: The Dodgers’ 6-5 victory in the 12th was one of their most exhilarating of the season. C4