How sweep it is: Dodgers’ winning streak at seven as they knock off Padres again, 1-0

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Rolling, rolling, rolling. Keep those Doggies rolling …

Nothing like a perfect road trip to cure what ails a baseball team.

The Dodgers completed their three-game sweep of the first-place Padres on Sunday with a 1-0 victory to finish off a 6-0 road trip.

Chad Billingsley threw a gem, and needed to, shutting out the Padres for 7 1/3 innings. He held them to four hits and walked one.

It was his best, and longest, outing of the season. He threw well in his last start, but was even better Sunday. He threw only 95 pitches, 62 for strikes.

And with Padres starter Wade LeBlanc taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning, Billingsley had to pitch like the right-hander who was an All-Star last season.

Billingsley (2-1) was supported by a lineup featuring five reserves, including a pair who came to camp as non-roster invitees.

A Jamey Carroll walk, Billingsley sacrifice bunt and Russell Martin single -- the Dodgers’ first hit -- in the sixth inning scored the game’s lone run.

The Dodgers managed only one other hit.

But with James Loney making a nice stop in the second inning, the only time the Padres really threatened to score, and Reed Johnson making a pair of nice catches in right field in the seventh, it proved just enough offense.

It was the Dodgers’ seventh consecutive victory and ninth in their last 12 games. The sweep brought the Dodgers to within two games of the Padres in the National League West and marked their first sweep in San Diego since 1997.

That’s a team that’s rolling.

--Steve Dilbeck