Dodgers 5, Brewers 3

The Dodgers continue their winning ways, and collect their fifth win in a row to take the first game of this weekend series.

Chad Billingsley picked up the win, he's 12-9. Manny Parra took the loss, he's 9-6. Jonathan Broxton picked up his 9th save.

Chad Billingsley pitched a solid game, going seven innings, giving up three runs on five hits and two walks, while striking out five. A combination of relievers Ramon Troncoso, Joe Beimel, and Jonathan Broxton kept the final two innings scoreless.

The Dodgers had a good day offensively. Each position player in the starting lineup collected a hit. Casey Blake went 3-4 with a double, a homerun (his 4th as a Dodger), two RBIs, and a run scored. Jeff Kent went 3-4 with an RBI. Russell Martin went 1-4, scoring twice, and collecting a RBI on a solo homerun in the 8th inning, his 11th on the year.

The Arizona Diamondbacks also won today, so the Dodgers will hold on to the tie with them for first in the NL West race. The Dodgers also moved to 63-59, four games over .500. They'll try to keep up their winning ways tomorrow at 7:10 L.A. time.

Also: Chad Billingsley's win today was his 12th on the season, good for first place on the team... Jonathan Broxton had an at-bat in the 9th inning (his third of the year) and drew a walk.

Opinion: It was a good game for the Dodgers, but I'm not going to talk about that. Rather, I'd like to talk a little bit about my experience at the game. Through some connections, I was able to sit in the Dugout Club seats behind homeplate. My seat was three rows behind the big screen that blocks foul balls on the right. It was a lot of fun, and something I'll have to post about later. I took a bunch of pictures, as well, so those'll be in there once I can upload the pictures to my computer... Also, a couple of pretty cool moments in the game that the crowd got into both before the beginning of the 9th inning. Some guy asked some girl to marry him, she said yes, kisses and hugs, all that good love stuff, set to the applause of 44,000 Dodger fans. Then, the JumboTron showed the highlight of Michael Phelps representing our country, chasing history, and winning a very close race to collect his 7th gold medal. Lots of cheering and a big "U.S.A.!" chant. It was a pretty cool atmosphere that carried into the 9th, seeing Jonathan Broxton strike out two and get Jason Kendall to fly out and end the game. Cue the music: "I Love L.A."...

Dodgers 6, Angels 0

Chan Ho Park made an excellent start for the Dodgers and the offense had some good hitting to get the win, tying the season series with the Angels at 2-2.

Chan Ho Park got the win, he's 3-2. Joe Saunders took the loss, he's 11-4.

Park went six strong innings, giving up just four hits while striking out seven. He also did not walk anyone. In fact, the Dodgers had good command throughout the game: they issued no walks over the whole nine innings. The bullpen shut down the Angels the rest of the way. Brian Falkenborg pitched a perfect 7th, Jonathan Broxton struck out all three batters he faced in the 8th, and Takashi Saito did the same in the 9th.

The Dodgers were able to score in more than one way in the game. Russell Martin destroyed a Joe Saunders pitch in the first inning to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers strung together a few hits to add two more runs in the 5th inning to make the lead 3-0. Then, Andre Ethier hit a big three-run homerun halfway up the right field bleachers in the 7th to give the Dodgers their 6-0 lead.

With the win yesterday against lefty Joe Saunders, the Dodgers get their first win in a game started by a left handed pitcher since May 14th when the Dodgers won 6-4 over the Brewers in a game started by Manny Parra, although the win came against the Brewer bullpen in the 9th. The last time the Dodgers actually gave the left handed starter the loss was May 3rd when beat Jorge De La Rosa and the Colorado Rockies 12-7.

Overall, this was a good win for the Dodgers. They'll try to keep some momentum as they take on Jered Weaver in game two of the series at 7:10 L.A. time. Weaver, in three career starts against us is 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA.