Thursday night belonged to the Dodgers 2 top pitchers. Chad Billingsley pitched into the 8th inning, and Jonathan Broxton picked up a 5-out save to help the Dodgers avoid the sweep in Houston, 2-0.
Billingsley gave the Dodgers exactly what they needed - a strong performance against a lineup that had been hitting really well lately. After the first 2 games, I didn't think I'd see a shutout, so that made it even sweeter that it happened. On the night, he finished at 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. He's now 4-0, the first LA pitcher to win his first 4 starts since Kaz Ishii in 2002 (bet you wouldn't have guessed that).
The Dodgers got on the board in the 1st yet again. Rafael Furcal walked and Orlando Hudson singled. Manny Ramirez continued his hot streak by singling up the middle for the 1-0 lead.
That was it for scoring for quite awhile. While Bills was awesome, Wandy Rodriguez was right behind him. He had some great breaking balls that really kept the Dodgers off balance. About the only real threat against him was in the 5th when O-Dog doubled with 1 down, but was just gunned out trying to stretch it into a triple. Probably not the smartest baserunning decision since Manny was on deck.
With Rodriguez out of the game in the 7th, the Dodgers got another run faster than a blink of the eye. Matt Kemp singled off of Geoff Geary to start. With Kemp stealing, Casey Blake doubled down the right field line to tack on the 2nd run.
Bills went into the 8th and got Pudge Rodriguez to ground out, but speedy Michael Bourne reached on an infield single. That's when Broxton came on and got Hunter Pence and Kaz Matsui retired.
The 9th got interesting when Tejada lead off with a single. Geoff Blum was hit by a pitch, and they both advanced to scoring position with 2 down. Thankfully, Darren Erstad grounded to James Loney to end it all. That's 5-5 in save opportunities for Broxton.
I talked about this last game, but the problem of who to give the ball to in the 8th came up again. It sure seemed like Joe Torre had no trust in Hong-Chih Kuo, who is rested and supposedly ready to go. I'm not sure how many 5-out saves we can expect to see from Broxton, but if the rest of the bullpen doesn't step out, it could be more.
The Dodgers now travel into Colorado for 3, and the Rockies were swept in Dodger Stadium last week, losing the last game by an embarrassing 14-2. Eric Stults gets another start, and with news that Hiroki Kuroda is throwing again, who knows how many more starts he'll get. A solid start in Coors Field will help his cause drastically.
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