The Dodgers got all the right hits at all the right times as they continued to roll by beating the Colorado Rockies, 7-2. The Arizona Diamondbacks survived a rocky 9th inning by barely beating the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2. At the end of the night, we're all back to where we started with the Dodgers up 3.5 games in the NL West.
Matt Holliday hit his first homer in 79 AB's in the 1st inning to give the Rockies an early lead. The Dodgers bounced right back in the 2nd when Nomar Garciaparra, getting the start at 1st base in place of James Loney with a lefty on the mound, took a walk with 1 down. Matt Kemp then cracked a double that scored Nomar, and let Kemp go to 3rd on an error from Brad Hawpe. Blake DeWitt hit a sac-fly RBI to make it 2-1.
The bottom of the 2nd saw Clint Barmes single home Troy Tulowitzki to tie the game at 2. At the time, it looked like a big scoring night from both teams. But that would be it for the Rockies on this night, as they would leave 9 on base. Other than Holliday and Brad Hawpe, nobody else would do much of anything.
Nomar got the scoring going again in the 4th with a leadoff double, and then scored on a single from Kemp to take the lead for good. Later on in the game in the 7th, a long single off of the right field wall by Manny Ramirez would score Angel Berroa, and the lead went up to 4-2.
Entering the 9th up 4-2, it wasn't a bad idea to tack on some insurance runs considering that this is Coors Field, where simple fly balls can leave the yard. Chin-lung Hu started it with a walk (why they didn't just attack him is beyond me). With 1 out, Andre Ethier and Manny hit consecutive singles to load the bases. Juan Pierre pinch-hit, and of course popped up to 3rd, because he sucks. Loney pinch-hit for Nomar and came through big-time with a bases clearing double, blowing the game way open.
While the hitting came through, it was the pitching that yet again paced the victory. Chad Billingsley was a little shaky for himself, but still posted a great start at 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K. After the first couple of innings, it looked like a rough night, but he settled down very effectively after that. Teams facing Derek Lowe and Billingsley in consecutive games basically stand no chance these days.
The Dodgers will look to pad their lead in the West even more by sending Clayton Kershaw to the mound today. His last start in Coors was his first start from being recalled for good on July 22, and he was pounded for 5 runs on 10 hits in 3 innings. He went on a great roll in his 6 starts after that, giving up only 5 runs in the process, but has been up and down in his last 4. It's typical for a young pitcher, so I'm not surprised.
This start kind of scares me, but I hope Kershaw can at least keep the Dodgers in the game and maybe give them around 5 innings. With Hong-Chih Kuo and Brad Penny available, they can give them a couple of innings if need be.
Over in Arizona, it's a good matchup of Edinson Volquez and Randy Johnson. Johnson hasn't started since September 1 because of a sore shoulder, so who knows what to expect from him. With Brandon Lyon in a complete mess, they're anything but a sure bet to beat even a bad team like the Reds.
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