Loney & Billingsley Lead Another Laugher
May 30, 2011 at 5:31 pm | Posted in Chad Billingsley, James Loney | 27 Comments
James Loney hadn’t thrilled the home crowd with a homer since August 31, 2010, when he took Philadelphia’s Kyle Kendrick deep. He’s now done it twice in four days, tonight leading the Dodgers with three hits as they battered Colorado’s Jason Hammel and the reeling Rockies on their way to a 7-1 win. Loney’s certainly playing like a man who wants to keep his job, and a .295/.354/.420 in May is certainly a good start. It’ll certainly take more than that to overcome everything else, but it’s a step in the right direction, and for all the heat he’s taken here and elsewhere over the last year, it’s fantastic to see any bit of a spark from him. I’ll take it – and I’ll also take six hits from the top third of the lineup, as Rafael Furcal, Jamey Carroll, and Andre Ethier each chipped in two. Considering all three of these guys were struggling just a few days ago, having them all click at the same time is a welcome sight.
Chad Billingsley allowed just one run over seven innings, striking out eight, which sounds great on the surface but doesn’t quite illustrate how much of a tight line he was walking. Billingsley allowed eleven hits, which is a new career high, and allowed the first man to reach in each of his last six innings. (Scott Elbert let his first man reach too, so make that seven consecutive innings.) Despite that, the only Colorado damage came on a Ty Wigginton blast in the 4th, which somehow came without anyone on base, as Todd Helton‘s leadoff walk was erased by Seth Smith‘s ensuing double play. Hardly the most dominating we’ve seen Billingsley, though I suppose he deserves the W tonight based simply on all the times he was dominant and received no support from the subpar offense. Still, he managed to string most of those hits across different innings without allowing Colorado to put up the one big inning you’d think that sort of baserunner total would lead to, and that’s a performance worth noting (with credit due to Matt Kemp for unleashing a laser throw to the plate to end the first inning, the only time Colorado could string some hits together) . But don’t forget, kids, Billingsley can’t pitch with a lead, right?
Keeping this one short and sweet tonight, since it’s the end of a gorgeous holiday weekend. Plenty of fun to come this week, though.
27 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a Reply
How Many McCourt Sins?
MSTI on the web
MSTI Library
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
Our worst fears may come true people, once Urine returns and the team wins a few games Uncle Ned will say they are “competitive” and need to trade for that big Bat, meanwhile keeping Sands and everyone in AAA.
Comment by DodgersKings323— May 30, 2011 #
That’s something that’ll worry me in July, but not just yet. No trades really get made before the end of June anyway. For now, I’m happy to see them play well.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— May 30, 2011 #
This team is competitive. If the lineup’s healthy (as it is now), it’s better than any other in the division except for the Rocks. If Uribe comes back as a No. 7 hitter, he has some value. The pitching is well above average. I agree, though, that do not need any new acquisitions to remain competitive – letting the youngsters fill in when the old guys need rest will do.
Comment by WBB— May 31, 2011 #
Don’t know how long this hot streak will last, but I’ll take it. Oh, and sorry for all those things I’ve been saying lately.
Comment by john— May 30, 2011 #
Billingsley only allowed one run, not two, despite his unusually giving nature with hits.
Loney’s swing has looked much better of late. The dude is actually swinging with authority and generating some bat speed, as opposed to looking like he is sleeping out there.
Comment by Alireza— May 30, 2011 #
Lyons believes Jamey Carroll is the team’s MVP.
SIGH.
Comment by Gregory Zakwin— May 30, 2011 #
What did he base that on? Last season?
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— May 31, 2011 #
This season. Said it’s clear as well. And Miles should play more. So yeah. That happened.
Comment by Gregory Zakwin— May 31, 2011 #
who cares?
Comment by Juan Pierre— May 31, 2011 #
Intelligent people who realize that it’s people like Lyons that help to exacerbate the problem of so many idiotic Dodgers fans who know nothing about the team and feel guys like Loney are cornerstones to a winning future, and guys like Bills lack (or lacked) intestinal fortitude.
Comment by Gregory Zakwin— May 31, 2011 #
Jamey is certainly in the running for MVPPNNMK (Most Valuable Position Player Not Named Matt Kemp).
Comment by Dave— May 31, 2011 #
Gregory, yeah there’s that pesky matt kemp fellow to ruin that narrative. Oh wait, he can’t be MVP because he’s not as “gritty” as carroll.
Comment by phil c— May 30, 2011 #
Because his runs don’t matter, they come when the team wins in a blowout or meaningless game, Gamer comes through in the clutch with the Ribbies just like Loney…….:P
Comment by DodgersKings323— May 31, 2011 #
And Gold Glove defense. Can’t forget about that.
Comment by Gregory Zakwin— May 31, 2011 #
And those walk off bombs Kemp hit? Totally detrimental to the team, because he JOGGED around the bases.
.
Seriously though, it sucks for Jamey that Lyons is making us talk about him like this, because he has played so far above what was expected since he came to the Dodgers. But he’s not Matt Kemp. Or Andre Ethier. Or Clayton Kershaw.
Comment by Dave— May 31, 2011 #
HRs are rally killers, don’t ya know.
Comment by Gregory Zakwin— May 31, 2011 #
It appears that Loney was standing closer to the plate tonight. It seemed most pronounced on his flyout in his last AB. Also, his HR was actually on the outer half, but he was able to get the barrel on it and pull it.
Hopefully, he has made this adjustment purposefully and can become merely a below average 1B, rather than literally the worst atrocity of this, or any, century.
Comment by kbrooks2— May 30, 2011 #
Yes, he WAS on top of the plate his last at bat. I intended to back up the game and see if he was that close the entire game, but forgot to do it.
Comment by SamAdams— May 31, 2011 #
Just saw the HR replay on dodgers.com and, indeed, Loney’s stance was much closer to home plate.
Comment by SamAdams— May 31, 2011 #
Very interesting. I’ll try and look into this today.
Comment by Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— May 31, 2011 #
I remember seeing that a few games ago. I remember thinking “what the heck are you doing?” but he has been hitting lately, so maybe he knows what the heck he’s doing.
Comment by Bip— May 31, 2011 #
Great game, I agreed with the Colorado announcers that on the fly ball by Kemp that was muffed, Ethier was safe at 2nd, BUT it would have been a no doubter had he been playing half way on the fly. He ran back to the bag, then took off when dropped. HAd it been caught he could have gotten back to 1st no problem. He wasn’t going to tag run to second anyway….bad baserunning on that play….
Comment by John Young— May 31, 2011 #
I was thinking the same thing when I saw the play last night. Didn’t know that he went back to first but can’t imagine what he was even thinking. He is too slow to tag and move to second on a fly to left and even if he wanted to draw the throw away from home it was the wrong play.
Comment by west coast ram— May 31, 2011 #
So Bills has an eight-inning one-hitter and a seven-inning 11-hitter, losing the former and winning the latter.
Comment by WBB— May 31, 2011 #
I have to say I have been impressed with the amount of double plays turned since Furcal has been back. Its nice to have a bit of defense working
Comment by Gillbert— May 31, 2011 #
The Dodgers have finally awakened their sleeping average first baseman.
Comment by Goober— May 31, 2011 #
[...] again, on May 30: James Loney hadn’t thrilled the home crowd with a homer since August 31, 2010, when he took [...]
Pingback by MSTI’s 2011 in Review: First Base « Mike Scioscia's tragic illness— October 5, 2011 #