Chad Billingsley got the win, he's 11-9. Jonathan Sánchez took the loss, he's 8-7.
Chad Billingsley had one of his best starts of the year, if not his entire young career. He went the full nine innings, giving up only five hits and no walks, while striking out eight. He shut out the Giants until getting into some trouble in the 9th.
After giving up a double off the top of the wall to José Castillo, Randy Winn hit looping base hit to left field. Andre Ethier charged the ball as Castillo rounded 3rd and fired a strike to home. Russell Martin made a good block of the plate and applied the tag to end the game and preserve the shutout.Speaking of Martin, he had a good night with the bat as well. He went 2-3 with a walk, 2 RBIs, and a run scored. Jeff Kent went 2-4 with an RBI double and Matt Kemp went 1-2 with two walks, two stolen bases, and two runs scored.
The Dodgers moved a game above .500 for the first time since May 27th. The Arizona Diamondbacks won again, and so they will remain one game up on the Dodgers going into the big four game series starting tomorrow at 7:10 L.A. time.
Also: With Matt Kemp's single in the 5th inning, he extended his hitting streak to 17 games... Chad Billingsley's complete game shutout was the first of his career... Billingsley's win today was his 11th on the season, good for first place on the team... James Loney had an RBI sac-fly today as well, that gives him 60 RBIs on the season and puts him first place on the team in that category... The Dodgers shut out their opponent for the 10th time this year, which puts the team as a whole in first place in the National League in shutouts.
P.S. I attended the Dodger game tonight, and had a good time. I tried getting into the clubhouse for some post-game interviews but apparently I didn't have the credentials, so sorry, no quotes for this story... maybe another time...
