Dodgers left with frustrating split after 5-0 loss to Padres
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Just one out of 162.
Sure, that’s what they’ll say now. No more, no less than any other game on the Dodgers’ six-month schedule.
Only it’s not really true, of course, this one wasn’t like just some other game in June. This one hurt, and not because of the way they lost, simply because they did.
The Dodgers had a chance to take three of four games from San Diego with a victory Thursday night, to climb within six games of the Padres, to exit the series feeling like they had put themselves back in the race.
Instead of just treading water in the deep end of the National League West.
The Dodgers missed out on their opportunity to advance in the West when they fell 5-0 to the Padres, leaving them with a frustrating split in the four-game series.
The Padres headed out of town with Los Angeles still the eight games back , as it was when they arrived, and with four more games off the schedule.
Chad Billingsley again pitched well, just not as well as had been, and not quite as well as the Padres’ Kevin Correia.
Billingsley had thrown 25 scoreless innings before the Padres scored three runs against him in the fourth.
A Miguel Tejada single and a walk preceded Chase Headley’s run-scoring single. A Yorvit Torrealba base hit scored the second run, and Tony Gwynn’s fly to right sacrificed in the third.
Correia (8-7) shut out the Dodgers during his 5 2/3 innings on four hits and one walk. Four Padres relievers completed the shutout. Heath Bell pitched the final 1 1/2 innings to earn his 31st save.
It was the 12th time this season the Dodgers have been shut out, tying them with Cincinnati for most in the majors.
Pitching a day short of his normal rest because of the suspension to Clayton Kershaw, Billingsley did not allow a run in the 6 2/3 innings of his last outing against the Giants.
Against the Padres, Billingsley (9-6) went six innings, allowing the three runs on seven hits and three walks. He struck out four.
The Padres made it a 5-0 game in the ninth on Chris Denorfia’s two-run, inside-the-park home run.
After Gwynn walked, Denorifa hit a drive just beyond the outstretched glove of Casey Blake at third and down the line. The ball bounced off the wall just beyond the rolled-up tarp, ricocheted past Scott Podsednik and rolled all the way to the wall.
-- Steve Dilbeck