Saturday, September 4, 2010

The battery leads the way

The combination of Chad Billingsley and Rod Barajas held the Giants to two unearned runs through eight innings on Friday night.

More importantly, they also drove in all four runs.

A two-run homer by Barajas and two-run single by Billingsley was enough to get a win over the Giants, 4-2. The Dodgers are still eight in back of the Padres in the NL West, but the Giants failed to gain another game on the Padres, who have lost eight straight.

The Dodgers got on the board first in the second. Casey Blake led off and singled into right. Ronnie Belliard and Reed Johnson then struck out for two down. Barajas has really enjoyed his time in Dodger blue, and it got even better with his two-run shot to left, putting the Dodgers ahead 2-0.

In the fourth, the Giants were able to tie it up. It started on an error by Rafael Furcal, who was activated for his first game since August 2. With Freddie Sanchez on first, Aubrey Huff reached on an infield single. Pat Burrell popped up, and Jose Guillen grounded both men into scoring position. Buster Posey came through with two outs by stroking a two-run single, making it 2-2.

Right away, the Dodgers responded. Two straight walks opened the bottom of the fourth, as Matt Kemp and Blake drew them off of Barry Zito. Belliard sacrificed them both into scoring position. Johnson didn't have a productive at-bat again, as he popped up for two down. Barajas, who is now one of the more dangerous hitters in the lineup, was given the intentional pass.

Billingsley is a career .126 hitter, so it made perfect sense to pitch to him. Zito, on the other hand, has struggled mightily after a solid start to the season. That continued, as Billingsley lined one just in front of Guillen in left to score two and go up 4-2.

From there, it was all about the pitching, as Billingsley refused to let the slim lead disappear. From innings 5-8, he allowed one one baserunner on a walk to Burrell. Overall, he went eight innings for two hits, two runs (none earned), two walks, and seven strikeouts. Quietly, he's really turned in a good season, as he's now 11-8 with a 3.54 ERA. Keep in mind, his ERA stood as high as 4.61 in mid-July.

The ball was turned over to Hong-Chih Kuo in the ninth, who easily mowed through three straight hitters to earn his eighth save. He has yet to blow a save since taking over for Jonathan Broxton in August.

Even though he had an error and only went 1-for-4, it was good to see Raffy back in the leadoff spot. You never quite know when he'll play and when he won't, but when he is in the game, he is still a sparkplug. He still has one year left on his contract with an option for 2012. He's not getting any younger, so the Dodgers can only hope he avoids the injury bug next season and provides that leadership at the top of the order.

Another thing the Dodgers can hope for is that they resign Barajas. The Dodgers haven't seen this type of production at catcher since Russell Martin was an All-Star in 2008. In eight games since being traded from the Mets, he's hitting .375 with four homers and eight RBIs. He, too, has had to deal with injuries this season, but when he's been right, he's been awesome.

Looking forward, the Dodgers have to win each of their remaining series if they have any hope for the playoffs. Actually, they probably need to gets sweeps, but that's a whole lot easier said than done. But who knows, this is baseball, and crazy things can happen.

Ted Lilly suffered his first setback with the Dodgers, so he'll look to get back on track against Matt Cain on Saturday.

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