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Dodgers Even Series with Cubs
The 20-minute blackout wasn’t enough to shake Chad Billingsley’s confidence as the right-hander earned his sixth win of the season over the Chicago Cubs, 8-5.
He wasn’t dominant last night, but Billingsley (6-2) still managed to walk away with a his fourth-consecutive W. After allowing only one run in his last two starts, Billingsley (6-2) gave up three runs and a season-high 10 hits, striking out six and walking one for a total of 100 pitches.
Not too bad of a performance, though, considering the distractions. The game was delayed for nearly 20 minutes in top of the fourth inning after a nearby fire caused the lights to go out at Wrigley Field.
An Ethier-less offense gave Billingsley all the support he needed, even despite a near bullpen collapse. James Loney finished a home run short of the cycle, and the Dodgers rebounded from last night’s goose-egg performance plating three runs in the top of the first and two more in the second.
Furcal, who’s struggled with his glove of late, led-off the game with a single, followed by a Russell Martin walk, and then Furcal scored on Manny Ramirez’s hard grounder to third. Casey Blake continued with an RBI double to left and then scored on Loney’s single.
With a 7-3 lead in the sixth, the Cubs threatened to come back thanks to a sub-par bullpen performance and Manny’s inability to field a ball.
After Xavier Nady hit a solo home-run off Billingsley in the sixth, Derek Lee singled off reliever Ronald Belisario in the seventh and Alfonso Soriano hit what seemed to be a routine fly ball to left, but Ramirez nonchalantly jogged in and was unable to come up with the ball, allowing the runners to advance in scoring position. Then one out later, pinch-hitter Jeff Baker hit a deep fly ball to left-field, and again, Ramirez couldn’t come up with it resulting in a two-run triple.
That’s just Manny being Manny.
Manager Joe Torre said Manny’s been bothered by a foot injury that kept him out of the line-up last week.
“He’s had these leg issues. He’s not moving as he had before. He said it was his fault on that ball that hit the wall. He thought it was going out of the ballpark and he stopped running after it,” Torre said.
The Dodgers were bailed out by closer Jonathon Broxton who came on for the five-out save, his 11th of the season. Third baseman Casey Blake (2-for-5, 2 RBI) added insurance with his seventh home-run of the season as the Dodgers won their 15th of the last 21 games.
The rubber-match of the series will be today at 2:20 ET, as rookie Jon Ely (3-1, 3.41) takes on Ted Lilly (1-4, 4.40).
Dodgers Place Manny/Weaver on DL
After Manny left last night’s game @ Cincinnati with a calf injury, the Dodgers decided to place him on the 15-day DL effective today. The news couldn’t come at a worse time. Manny has been swinging a hot bat as of late batting .415 with 12 RBI and two home-run (including a two-run go-ahead shot in last week’s series finale over the Giants).
The move means Los Angeles will bring up outfielder Xaxier Paul from Triple-A Albuquerque for tonight’s game against the Washington Nationals. Paul has also been putting up McDonald’s numbers in the Pacific Coast League this season, hitting .361/.409/.574 with 18 runs scored in 15 games.
The Dodgers will also activate left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo after placing reliever Jeff Weaver on the 15-day DL. Weaver left the Dodgers’ 14-6 victory over the Reds on Wednesday night because of back spasms; the 33-year-old has received the brunt of the action in the Dodger bullpen this year going 0-1 with a 5.06 ERA in nine appearances. There was a stretch of games where he pitched in six out of seven straight contests.
The 27-year-old Kuo has been on the disabled list since the start of the season because of soreness in his left elbow. Kuo can be pretty nasty when he’s healthy, but his appearances are rather infrequent. He was 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA in 35 games for the Dodgers in ’09.
Dodgers Feeling Hangover Blues
I certainly can attest to the fact that getting black-out drunk two times in a weekend inevitably results in a long, sluggish Monday morning.
I think the same may hold true for the sleepwalking L.A. Dodgers.
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Belliard leads L.A. over Pirates, avoid sweep
The Pittsburgh Pirates are the toughest team to beat the first week of the season. They certainly gave the Dodgers fits.
It’s not until about, oh, the third or fourth game, when the Pirates come back down to reality and lose the rest of their games–as has been the tradition for the last 17 years (1992 was the last year Pittsburgh had a record above .500).
But with the heart of the Dodgers line-up taking the day off and Chad Billingsley on the hill, Joe Torre’s crew managed to hold off the invincible Garrett Jones and Ronnie Belliard led the Dodgers with three extra base hits (a single shy of the cycle) as L.A. avoided an embarrassing opening-series sweep from the Bucs, 10-2.
Today the Dodgers sat out five regular starters including Andre Ethier (sore ankle), Manny Ramirez, and Casey Blake, but the Blue Crew still managed to rack up 16 hits and sent four different Pirate pitchers to the showers. The Dodgers strung together base hits like they did most of last season when they actually led the NL in hits (fourth in the NL in runs scored).
Phew….nostalgia.
Speaking of nostalgia, Ronnie “Big Belly” Belliard, after having lost his second base job to Blake DeWitt, moved into third base to replace the usual starter Blake and made an impressive argument for a starting spot going 3-for-5 with two runs, four RBI, and a two-run shot in the fifth to help the Dodgers pull away 4-0.
Much has been said about Belliard’s weight in the off-season (hence the move to DeWitt), but love handles or no love handles, the guy hits the ball with the same kind of zeal as a chubby fourth-grader in the cafeteria line. He really gave us a boost in the latter part of last season when Blake’s bat went into an August-September slumber. Over a span of 24 games, Belliard hit a belly-busting .351 with five homers and 17 RBI. Give the man some credit and a Little Debbie snack or two. I believe he’s earned it.
Aside from Ronnie, the middle part of the order hit the face off the ball. Batters 1-4 (1. Raffie, 2. Reed Johnson, 3. Matty K., and 4. Loney) batted an unconscionable 10-for-18! with three extra-base hits and four runs batted in. I’m not sure what kind of slugging percentage that is, but I do know this: it’s going to win you ball games.
My personal favorite, Matt Kemp, is always Mr. Consistent at the plate proving that he can hit from anywhere in the line-up. I really like Kemp at the three-spot, though, because he hits well with runners in scoring position (.280 in 2009). In fact, last season Matty hit from every position possible hitting the best in the seven-hole (.328 with eight home-runs and 30 RBI). He is prone to the strikeout (had two today), but I’ll take 2-for-4 to the bank any day of the week.
However, one of the best stories of today probably goes to Reed Johnson who went 3-for-4 in his Dodgers debut. Might I be the first to say: welcome to L.A., Mr. Johnson.
The Dodgers signed the outfielder in the off-season after he spent two years as utility-man for the Chicago Cubs. With the absence of Mark Derosa (who’s now with the Giants–ugh), Johnson was one of the scrappiest players for the Cubs and could always find ways to manufacture runs. Today he scored a couple of runs including the first of the ball game on Loney’s single to center.
The other best-story nominee definitely goes to Chad Billingsley who got his first win today–hopefully there’s more where that came from. Today he threw a solid five and a third innings and served up 7 sweet-baby-K’s. I know as well as you know he struggled late last season. He knows struggled late season. And I know that you know that the Philadelphia Phillies know he struggled late last season.
But the 25-year-old hurler IS our ace, and it was Chad who should have started Opening Day (I’m not sayin’….I’m just sayin’). I think after having some time to adjust to the role, Bills will be more comfortable as our go-to-guy. And I’m more than willing to give him another chance. The only negative is that he did have four walks, but when you can keep serving up wiffle balls, all is forgiven.
And man it feels good to get the first win off our backs. I thought the world was coming to an end after we dropped two in a row to open the season to the Pirates. Kind of like last year when they dropped three-of-four to the Buccos in the last week of the season. Is it just me, or do we have a really difficult time beating teams from Pennsylvania?
The Dodgers hadn’t been swept in a three-game series by Pittsburgh since Sept. 4-6, 2000, in Los Angeles. The last time it happened in Pittsburgh was May 31-June 2, 1999, when the Pirates still played in Three Rivers Stadium.
