The San Diego Padres thought they were going to be facing sinkerballer Derek Lowe last night at Dodger Stadium, however, an injury to Lowe forced the Blue Crew to press Chad Billingsley into service for an emergency start. Several times, the Padres got baserunners on against Billingsley, but only a Termel Sledge double-play grounder in the fourth (which scored Khalil Greene) would do any damage. In six innings, Billingsley gave up five hits and four walks while striking out five. Padre starter Justin Germano also allowed nine baserunners in his five innings, but he didn't do quite the same job as Billingsley in stranding them. James Loney was public enemy number one for Germano, hitting a double and a home run before knocking him out of the game with a single in the bottom of the sixth. Prior to Loney's single, Jeff Kent hit his 20th homer of the year. On the night, Germano gave up five earned runs along with an unearned run on eight hits and a walk, striking out two. From there, the bullpens took over and neither offense was heard from again. The Dodgers cruised to a 6-1 victory, the 11th win of the year for Billingsley. The win pulls the Dodgers into a 3-way tie with the Philadelphia Phillies and Colorado Rockies 2 1/2 games back of the Padres for the N.L. Wild Card.
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Apparently the cross-town Angels not only can't be stopped, they can't even be contained! Yes, they're even hotter than that guy that used to don #23 for the Chicago Bulls at the moment... specifically, it's Garret Anderson who is putting up Jordan-like numbers of late. Last night, G.A. went 3-for-6, bashing his 16th homer of the year, while driving in five runs as the Angels destroyed the Baltimore Orioles by an 18-6 score. Vladimir Guerrero drove in four more runs with two singles, while Chone Figgins went 2-for-4, scoring three times, and stealing two more bases as he lifted his batting average to .347. Kelvim Escobar had a rare sub-par outing for the Angels, giving up six earned runs in his 5 1/3 innings of work, but it was good enough to give the Cy Young Award candidate his 17th win of the year. With the win, the Angels remained 9 1/2 games of the Seattle Mariners in the A.L. West race, lowering their magic number to clinch to just nine.
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Out in Boston, where the New England Patriots "camera-gate" scandal has been grabbing all of the headlines, it was nice to see their clutch guy work his magic again and steal the headlines at least for a night. David Ortiz - "Big Papi" to you and me - single-handedly beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night, hitting a three-run home run to erase most of a 4-0 deficit in the third inning, and then lofting a long fly ball barely into the seats in right field with one out in the ninth for a dramatic walk-off two-run homer to give the Red Sox a 5-4 victory. For Big Papi, it was his ninth career walk-off hit, and first of the year. With the win, the Red Sox remain five games up on the New York Yankees in the A.L. East race.
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