Chad Billingsley finally stepped up and pitched the kind of game people have been waiting to see. After giving up a run in the first, he shut the Nationals down for the next five innings, striking out five along the way.
Too bad the offense didn't have his back.
The Dodgers didn't capitalize at all when men would reach base, and the Nationals held on for the narrow win, 1-0. With the loss, the Dodgers dropped two of three in Washington, and are now 2-4 on the current road trip.
On paper, this looked like anything but the pitcher's duel that it turned into. Billingsley and Scott Olsen each had horrible ERA's entering Sunday afternoon's game, and one would think that the bats would make plenty of noise.
During the first inning, both teams had plenty of chances to score. Russell Martin, Matt Kemp, and James Loney all singled to center with one down. Casey Blake came up, and he was coming off a two-homer game the day before. The good vibes didn't carry over to today, as he struck out. Ronnie Belliard popped out to center, and a big scoring chance was flushed down the drain.
Nyjer Morgan began things for the Nationals with a single. Adam Kennedy then took a walk, and Christian Guzman laid down a nice bunt to get them both over. Adam Dunn ripped one to Belliard, who had to make a diving catch just to get the out and only one run.
That would be it for the scoring on this day, as both pitchers did a nice job of keeping their team in the game. The Dodgers actually put a runner on in innings 4-7, but couldn't get the big hit. Andre Ethier had the day off, but pinch-hit in the seventh and grounded into a double play to end the inning.
Matt Capps came on once again for the Nationals to try and nail down the save. Loney led off with a double, and the Dodgers were in business. But, like every other inning, they failed to get anything done. Blake, Belliard, and Garret Anderson all recorded easy outs to end the game.
I'll look at the positive here, and it was definitely Billingsley. He came into this game with a 7.07 ERA, and left with a 5.40 ERA. He took the loss, but it wasn't his fault by any means. With Vicente Padilla hurt, the Dodgers really needed Bills to get back on track, and he started to do that today.
While the offense was sizzling coming into this series, they only scored five runs in three games. Manny Ramirez did not appear in any of them, as he's on the 15-day DL. It's not hard to figure out just how valuable he is to the offense as a whole. Take his presence out of there, and opposing pitchers are more confident in getting the job done.
Next up is a three-game series in New York, rounding out the road trip. The Mets are an average team like the Dodgers are now, so it's an even matchup. Hiroki Kuroda will go in the first game against Oliver Perez.
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