Chad Billingsley Came Through

Let’s give credit where credit is due.  Chad Billingsley stepped up big last night.  Pitching in a ballpark where he had horrible post season memories and dueling with an “ace” type pitcher that was hungry for his first win of the year.  Things didn’t look good for Chad entering into Tuesday night’s match with the Phillies.

Chad Billingsley during last night's action in the second inning (photo by Matt Slocum/AP)

Something unusual happened though.  Billingsley pitched intelligently and didn’t get rattled, even after yielding a run in the first inning.  Chad has been his worst enemy out there this year and his body language has shown a defeated pitcher many times as his nibbled and failed to challenge hitters.  With only three strikeouts on the night, he induced eleven ground outs and finished off his outing in a flourish by striking out his final two hitters in the bottom of the 7th.  With the Dodgers rally in the 8th, he emerged as the winning pitcher, and a well serving one at that.  

While the commentators at the MLB network spoke over and over about what a great outing hardluck loser Cliff Lee had.  (He struck out 12 Dodgers). There was no mention at all of Billingsley and his seven stellar innings of work.  Maybe that’s best though.  Keep Chad under that radar as he rebounds and has a great run into the second half of the season.

In the top of the eighth inning, a disaster appeared in the making with the first two Dodger outs being recorded on runners sliding into third base.  Fortunately the Dodgers took advantage of Charlie Manuel’s failure to remove starter Cliff Lee from the game.  Lee, who had already thrown 120 pitches, faced gritty Dodger rookie Elian Herrera who fouled off several pitches before lacing a hanging curveball against the left field wall for 2 run double.

Elian Herrera drills a double off of Cliff Lee in the 8th inning (photo by Scott Anderson/Reuters)

That was all that was needed as Josh Lindbloom and Kenley Jansen retired the last six outs to close out the win.

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Take a look at a nostalgic post at ThinkBlueLA.com.  It’s about the Left Field Pavilion (click here for link)

Here is my LFP story posted back on January 25, 2011.