Harang has his way

One night after the Dodgers shutout the Padres in Petco Park, the Padres flipped the script, as Aaron Harang's eight masterful innings gave the Padres a win, 3-0. The loss sends the Dodgers back to one game over .500 with four games left in the season.

Harang may have also derailed Matt Kemp's chances at the Triple Crown. After singling in his first at-bat, Kemp went hitless over his next three, dropping his average to .325. Ryan Braun was 2-for-3, so he's at .331, and Jose Reyes's 1-for-3 day put him at .330. Needless to say, Kemp's going to have to get hot again to have a crack at this.

The Padres did all of their scoring, and the game's scoring for that matter, in the fifth. With Chad Billingsley on the mound, Anthony Rizzo singled with one out. Andy Parrino then walked for two on. Harang struck out to make it two down, and Billingsley had a great chance to escape the inning unharmed.

But, as has been the case far too often this season, Billingsley couldn't make the big pitches when he needed to. Will Venable drove in a run with a single, and it was 1-0. Orlando Hudson did the same on an RBI single, and it was 2-0. Then young Tim Federowicz made a bad throw, allowing Venable to score for the 3-0 lead.

The Dodgers never got anything going after that. Kemp did send a long fly ball to deep center in the sixth, but it came up just short. A leadoff single by Dee Gordon in the ninth off of Heath Bell gave a glimmer of hope, but Kemp grounded into a double play to put this one in the books. It was that kind of night for the boys in blue.

Billingsley sailed threw the first four innings, giving up only a couple of walks, and one hit (in which Jeremy Hermida was gunned out by Jerry Sands at third trying to stretch a double). Then the fifth inning came, and it was time for his annual "hit a wall" inning. Three singles, one walk, and one hit batsmen gave the Padres three runs. True, the last run wasn't his fault, but he still unraveled with two outs.

Overall, Billingsley went five innings for four hits, three runs (two earned), three walks, and three strikeouts. He dropped his record to 11-11 in his final start of the season. He also set a career-high for ERA at 4.21, and his WHIP jumped from a solid 1.28 last year to a sky high 1.45 this year.

Needless to say, it was a disappointing year for him. He ended last year on such a high note, posting a 3.52 ERA in August and 3.06 in September. But after ending the month of May with a 3.46 ERA, he seemed to fall apart. One start he'd show some promise, then he'd follow that up with stinkers.

We hear all the time about how good he could be, but maybe it's time we face reality that he's just an average starting pitcher. He's just way too inconsistent to be counted on anything more than that. Yes, I realize he was an All-Star in 2009, but he even stunk at the end of that year. He is what he is, and that's a low-end rotation guy and nothing more.

As for Kemp, he'll have to really turn it on the last five games to win the batting title. The problem isn't so much that he only had one hit, it's more that he has to count on great hitters like Braun and Reyes to go o'fer, and that's just so hard to fathom. Those guys are just too good. But Kemp has already proven how hot he can get, so there's still a chance the Triple Crown could happen. Just keep the faith.

With the Diamondbacks having already wrapped up the NL West (and congratulations to them for doing so), Don Mattingly will keep Clayton Kershaw on schedule and have him start on his regular rest Sunday. You see, had the Giants still been alive, Mattingly would've saved Kershaw until Monday against the Diamondbacks in the interest of competition. And rightfully so.

Much like Kemp is chasing the offensive Triple Crown, Kershaw has a great chance at winning the pitching version's. He leads in ERA at 2.27 and strikeouts at 242. The next closest in those categories is Cliff Lee at 2.38 and 232, and he'll make his final start of the season on Monday in preparation for the NLDS. Ian Kennedy has 21 wins after winning on Saturday, and Kershaw is at 20 with one start to go.

So, Kershaw can put the finishing touches on his Cy Young push with another good start on Sunday. He definitely has momentum on his side, as he's 7-0 in his last eight starts, with his last "bad" start on August 7 in Arizona (4 runs in 6 1/3 innings). He'll be matched up against Cory Luebke.