The Dodgers took their second straight loss to Arizona last night, 5-10.
Starter Chad Billingsley took the loss and didn’t make it out of the third inning, giving up five runs (four earned), with three in the first inning. Hong-Chih Kuo had a strong relief outing, going 3 2/3 while giving up no runs on three hits with five strikeouts. Ramon Troncoso then pitched one inning, giving up four hits, followed by Jonathan Broxton who also gave up one run.
The Dodgers had trouble getting their bats going against winning pitcher Doug Davis, scoring only two runs in his six innings of work, which came off of Jeff Kent’s 2-RBI sixth inning double. DeWitt also went 2 for 4 with 2 RBI. Matt Kemp made his first start in three games and went 3 for 5 while batting in the two hole. James Loney also added two hits to extend his hit streak to eight games. Yet, the team had a total of nine strikeouts and nine runners LOB.
Though Torre said Billingsley’s troubles could be blamed on the out-of-whack rotation and his postponed start due to last week’s rain delay, he did conclude that it was a “horrible night”.
The Dodgers go for the series finale today at 12:40pm. Hiroki Kuroda will look for his second win after an impressive outing last week in his debut against the Padres.
They will face RHP Micah Owings who is 1-0 on the season. It may be another tough game at the plate, as many of the Dodgers have little or no success against Owings (Ethier and Pierre are both 0 for 5, Kemp 0 for 1, and Jones 1 for 3).
