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| Chad Billingsley, having a catch with a fan in the middle of the sixth inning. |
Pros: Matt Kemp makes baseball look easy. He had a little help from the offense, as well- Tony Gwynn Jr. had a couple of hits, including a triple, and Jamey Carroll reached base twice as well. Casey Blake, back from the DL, went 0 for 3, but had a sacrifice fly and made the D'backs pitchers work, which was a pleasant change of pace from Uribe. On the pitching side, Scott Elbert went two scoreless and Josh Lindblom, called up when Kenley Jansen went on the DL for heart arrythmia, pitched a scoreless ninth.
Cons: Don Mattingly. I'm usually a Donnie Baseball supporter- aside from his weird fascination with Dioner Navarro, that is. But leaving Billingsley out to die on the vine in the sixth inning was inexcusable. Bills started the game pretty shaky, allowing two hits in the first and then loading the bases with no outs in the second. After that, though, he buckled down, allowing only a sac fly in that frame and then getting through the fifth with only two more singles. As soon as he took the mound in the sixth, though, it was obvious he was done. Something happened mechanically, to the point that Chad was literally falling over after every pitch, and he just couldn't find the strike zone at all. So what did Mattingly do? He left him in to face the next seven batters. Bills got two outs, walked four and gave up a RBI single, finally (but not mercifully) being pulled after walking Kelly Johnson to load the bases for a second time. In came Matt Guerrier to face Justin Upton, and if you think Guerrier mowed him down to end the threat, you haven't been watching the Dodgers in 2011. One bases clearing double later, the D'backs had all the offense they'd need, and that was it.
What we learned: That Billingsley should not have been left in to face seven guys in the sixth. Seriously. Everyone- even Vin Scully- knew there was something wrong immediately in the inning, yet Mattingly and Honeycutt didn't make a move until far too late. It was near heartbreaking watching Billingsley implode on the mound, as he obviously knew he had lost his rhythm and couldn't get it back. Also, we learned that Mike McDougal and Matt Guerrier have some sort of perverse game going on to see who can allow more inherited runners to score.
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In other news, Ned Colletti said yesterday that he isn't planning on making any more deadline deals, so this might be a quiet few hours leading to the deadline. We're still waiting to hear what the return is in the Furcal to STL deal, but Octavio Dotel hasn't checked out of his hotel yet, so it doesn't look like Ned got his guy.
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