Uribe, Billingsley lead Dodgers to easy win over Cubs, 12-2
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Slow starts are mental killers. A player can have a bad stretch at any other time in the season and it might go barely noticed.
But if you’re scratching at the start, those are you current numbers. Up there on the Jumbotron, on the Internet and in the newspaper every day.
Infielder Juan Uribe and right-hander Chad Billingsley did not have the best of starts this season, as their numbers would attest, but now look like they are hitting their stride.
Both played key factors on a cold Friday afternoon in Chicago, leading the Dodgers to a 12-2 rout over the Cubs.
Uribe went two for four and drove in four runs to lead a 14-hit offense, while Billingsley gave up only one earned run in his 6 1/3 innings.
The free-swinging Uribe was batting just .135 with no home runs and only two RBI in his first 12 games. Concern was growing.
Now, after hitting his second home run in as many games, Uribe is batting .343 with two home runs and 10 RBI in his last nine games.
Billingsley, as he did last season, got off to a nervous opening to the season, posting a 7.71 earned-run average in his first three starts. In his last two starts, both victories, he has an 0.70 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 14 1/3 innings.
With Andre Ethier pushing his career-high hitting streak to 19 games, the Dodgers managed to place their hits together Friday, scoring six times in the third, twice in the fourth and three times in the ninth.
The Dodgers’ third consecutive victory pushed them over the .500 mark on the season at 11-10, and 3-0 under Major League Baseball control.
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-- Steve Dilbeck