Poor pitching dooms the Dodgers

Chad Billingsley was cruising through the first three innings of Wednesday night's game. He gave up one hit, no runs, and struck out four. His offense spotted him a 3-0 lead. All was looking good in Dodger Stadium.

Then the fourth inning came, and like so many games last year, Billingsley hit a wall. Hard.

The lead was quickly gone, and despite the Dodgers tying the game in the ninth off of Chad Qualls, the Diamondbacks were the victors in 11 innings, 9-7. The Dodgers are now 3-5, and they can thank their sketchy pitching for that.

All in all, it was a pretty frustrating experience, as Billingsley just can't seem to shake the bad innings out of his system. You would think he was back on track after three, but then got chased in the sixth. In total, he went 5 2/3 innings, eight hits, six runs, three walks, and five strikeouts.

The offense did their part, scoring seven runs on 19 hits. But, they once again left way too many men on base, with 13 this time. That includes seven left on with two outs and in scoring position.

Manny Ramirez accounted for two of the first three runs scored with a sac-fly and single. After the Diamondbacks tied it up at three, Matt Kemp's two-run bomb gave the Dodgers the lead back at 5-3 in the fourth.

A two-run single by Adam LaRoche erased that lead, as it was now 5-5. Single runs were exchanged in the sixth on a Connor Jackson double and sac-fly from Kemp.

Justin Upton put the Diamondbacks back up with a solo homer in the seventh off of Carlos Monasterios, making it 7-6. With Qualls in to get the save in the ninth, Manny doubled to lead off. Casey Blake continued his hot hitting one out later with an RBI double, scoring Jamey Carroll, who was pinch-running.

Extra innings would not be kind, as Joe Torre had no choice but to give the ball to Russ Ortiz. And, once again, he was atrocious. An RBI single by Chris Young and sac-fly by Augie Ojeda put them up 9-7. James Loney singled off of Leo Rosales to lead off the bottom of the 11th, but nothing came of it.

Games like this make Hong-Chih Kuo and Ronald Belisario look better and better by the minute. But, it also makes guys like Randy Wolf look better as well. This is not a game the Dodgers would have lost last year with so much run support. It would have been a slam dunk.

Instead, the problem is how to get the ball to Jonathan Broxton, because it's just not happening right now. Getting Kuo and Belisario healthy is more important by the day. But, Billingsley and the rest of the starters need to pitch deeper into games. And it's as simple as that.

Hiroki Kuroda is coming off an excellent start in Florida, and with the rest of the staff getting eaten alive, the Dodgers need another big effort from him tonight against Dan Haren. A win over Haren would be a step in the right direction.