After 10 long days, the Dodgers are finally back on the winning side. They can thank Chad Billingsley and Casey Blake for that.
Billingsley was simply awesome, as he pitched his second career complete game shutout as the Dodgers beat the Giants, 2-0. The win snaps a horrible six game losing streak that saw the Dodgers lose pretty much every way imaginable.
The Giants' starter was Barry Zito, and he was nearly just as good as Bills. In fact, he looked like he was well on his way to a complete game (the eight inning version since he was the away team on the losing end), but was replaced with one out in the eighth. Still, he gave up only six hits, two runs, three walks, and four strikeouts.
The first run came in the second, and it held up for a long time. Leading off, Blake took a breaking ball out to left for a solo shot, his 10th of the season. He's only hitting .254 on the season, and was really struggling through July. But, he's collected four hits the last two games, so it's at least a positive sign.
For the next five innings, Bills and Zito may have bent a little, but certainly didn't break. The Giants took two walks in the third, but got nothing. They also singled twice in the sixth, but again came up empty. The Dodgers didn't put together any serious threats during that time.
With the game flying by, the Dodgers chased Zito in the eighth. It started with a single by Rafael Furcal, who is now tops in the National League with a .337 average. Jamey Carroll laid down a great sacrifice bunt to get Raffy to second. Zito stayed on to face Andre Ethier, but walked him.
A frustrated Zito exited for Sergio Romo. Matt Kemp struck out on some nasty sliders for two outs. Blake came through again with an RBI single for the 2-0 lead.
Hong-Chih Kuo was warming up during the eighth, which was a surprise given that he pitched two innings the night before. It would have been unexpected if he came in, but that certainly looked like the backup plan if Bills faltered.
Fortunately for the Dodgers, that didn't happen. A stikeout to Pablo Sandoval, and two groundouts to Juan Uribe and Travis Ishikawa ended the game. Overall, Bills went nine innings for five hits, no runs, two walks, and three strikeouts. It was by far his best effort of the year.
What was the best thing about this game? Not seeing George Sherrill or Jonathan Broxton come in to screw things up.
Billingsley has certainly suffered his fair share of poundings for about a year now. This season alone, he's had three starts of six-plus runs. But quietly, he's also put together some good outings. Tonight marked his eighth quality start, which is no easy task.
Clayton Kershaw has taken over as the team's ace, and Vicente Padilla has certainly looked really good when healthy. But Billingsley still has all the talent to be a top-tier starter. He's often his own worst enemy with control issues. That didn't happen tonight, and he showed how well he can do when he's on the mark.
At this point, the Dodgers didn't really care how they won, they just needed to mercifully get it done. The losing streak they just suffered was one of the more frustrating ones they've gone through lately. That's now history, so they need to make sure it stays that way.
There's no rest for the Dodgers as they welcome the Mets for four starting Thursday. The Mets have also played pretty poorly recently. Hiroki Kuroda will get the call in the first game.
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