Sunday, April 22, 2012

Sloppy Dodgers suffer a Houston beatdown

Sunday was getaway day in Houston, as the Dodgers were finishing up their road trip before heading back to LA for a six-game homestand.

Apparently somebody forgot to tell the Dodgers they had a game to play before departing.

The Dodgers committed three errors, Chad Billingsley was awful, and Jordan Schafer's grand slam helped the Astros cream the Dodgers, 12-0.  Even with the loss, the Dodgers took two of three to win another series.

The defense let Billingsley down right away, as Juan Rivera's throwing error let Jed Lowrie reach in the first.  Sure enough, instead of getting the 'Stros in order, Carlos Lee lifted a two-run homer with two down.

The second inning put the icing on the cake already.  Chris Johnson singled leading off and Jason Castro walked.  Jose Altuve flew out, and as Wandy Rodriguez was trying to bunt, Billingsley walked him instead to load the bases.  Lowrie had an easy fly out for two out, but Schafer's granny was just out of the reach of Andre Ethier in right to make it 6-0.

The ugliness for Billingsley and the defense reached an even lower point in the fourth, as the Dodgers looked like they were mentally back in LA already.  Castro hit a liner that was completely misjudged by Matt Kemp in center for a triple, even though Kemp knows he should've made the play.  Following a walk to Altuve, Rodriguez hit a comebacker to Bills, who threw low to second and was dropped by Dee Gordon for an error.

A wild pitch let Schafer score to make it 8-0.  Jamey Wright came in and gave up an RBI fielder's choice to J.D. Martinez to close the inning at 9-0.

Wright would go on to give up another run on a single by Castro in the fifth.  The final two runs came in the eighth off of Mike MacDougal, who was terrible to say the least.  Johnson and Altuve chipped in with RBI singles to mercifully end the scoring.

There's just not a whole lot of positive to say about this game... probably because nothing good happened for the Dodgers.  The only other bad loss this year was to the Padres on Easter Sunday 8-4.  But, this was a whitewashing from start to finish.  No question about it.

Billingsley came into this game 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA and 0.69 WHIP.  After a line of 3 1/3 innings for four hits, nine runs (five earned), four walks, and two strikeouts, he's now 2-1 with a 3.04 ERA and 0.93 WHIP.  Like usual, the story with him is his control - he either has it or he doesn't.  This game he didn't have it with four walks, and he got burned.  The defense did him no favors, and that's not his fault, but he still wasn't sharp at all.

Someone else who wasn't sharp was MacDougal, who now sports a 7.71 ERA and 2.57 WHIP in six appearances.  Last year he let hitters reach, but seemed to always make big pitches when he needed to.  This year, not so much.  He likes to live dangerously, and he's paying the price for it.  The Dodgers need better middle relief, and he's playing himself right out of that role with numbers like those.  Yuck.

Kemp looked human for the first time all year, as he went 0-for-3 with a strikeout, not to mention the misplayed fly ball in the fourth.  He was lifted for Tony Gwynn in the sixth.  It was a good move by Don Mattingly, as the game was already over and Kemp can now focus on the Braves and Nationals this upcoming week.

The Dodgers will get right back to work on Monday by welcoming the Braves for three.  The Braves are playing some great ball themselves lately, as they've turned an 0-4 start into a current 10-6 mark.  Do the math, and that's 10 wins in the last 12.  Chris Capuano will look to slow them down as he takes the hill first.

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