Three odd things occurred at Dodger Stadium on Memorial Day. One, Billingsley gave up a whole bunch of hits, but only one run. Two, the offense actually hit the ball for the second straight game.
The third? There weren't any fires!
Despite giving up a career-high 11 hits spread out over seven innings, Billingsley only allowed one run to score. The offense once again came through by pounding on Jason Hammel, and the Dodgers rolled over the Rockies, 7-1. The Dodgers are still in fourth place in the NL West, but are 5 1/2 games in back of division-leading Arizona.
The first inning showcased a great defensive play by Matt Kemp and Rod Barajas. With two outs an Carlos Gonzalez on second from a single and stolen base, Troy Tulowitzki singled to center. Gonzalez tried to score, but Kemp came up gunning, and Barajas made a nice catch and tag to keep the game scoreless.
The Rockies would go on to threaten in the following two innings, but couldn't get a run pushed across the board. Two singles opened the second inning, then three strikeouts followed. Eric Young led off the third with a single and stolen base, but was also stranded.
The Dodgers jumped on Hammel in the third. Much like Clayton Kershaw on Sunday, Billingsley singled leading off to start a rally. Next came two straight singles by Rafael Furcal and Jamey Carroll to load the bases. Andre Ethier was able to sneak one into center for a two-run single and 2-0 lead. Two more runs were collected on a groundout by Kemp and RBI single from James Loney.
In the fourth, the Rockies got their only run of the night on a solo homer by Ty Wiggington. Of course, the key word here is "solo," meaning that of all of those times they had runners on base, they flushed it down the toilet. As fellow Dodger fans, we know the feeling!
The fifth inning brought some more runs. Carroll led off with triple down the right field line. Ethier came through again with an RBI single to go up 5-1. The Dodgers then played longball, and it came from an usual source. Loney connected on a big fly to left, scoring two and going up 7-1. It was Loney's second homer in his last four games.
To show you just how frustrating of a night it was for the Rocks, in both the seventh and eighth, they put three runners on a different points, and still couldn't score. Tulo grounded into an inning ending double play to finish the seventh, and a double play ball from Ryan Spilborghs helped the Dodgers escape the eighth unscathed.
Oh, just for good measure, they also singled twice in the ninth off of Javy Guerra, and still couldn't score. It was a crazy night indeed.
Usually it's the Dodgers who are the ones that can't come through in the clutch, but not in this one. The Rockies left an incredible 13 men on base, including six with runners in scoring position and two outs. For each individual batter, they totalled 26 men left on. I'd say grounding into three double plays and getting thrown out at home were reasons why they struggled to score.
The Dodgers now have 15 runs scored in the last two games. Yes, those words are actually true. During the week of May 22-28, they scored 16 runs in six games. The week before? 19 runs in seven games. It really couldn't get a whole lot worse than that.
It was good to see Loney hit so well, as he has spent all season looking like an occasional singles hitter and nothing more. He was 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs. To his credit, he entered the month of May hitting .210, and it's now up to .249. Good for him, because I'm not sure the Dodgers could've shown any more patience with him. Let's hope he continues this streak.
Billingsley was living dangerously all night, but made big pitches when he needed them the most. He ended up throwing seven innings for 11 hits, one run, two walks, and eight strikeouts. Plus he went 1-for-3 with a run scored. The win evens his record at 4-4 with a 3.46 ERA.
The three-game set continues Tuesday night. Ted Lilly will go for his fourth win.
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