Dodgers beat Padres, 1-0, for seventh win in a row
Reporting from San Diego -- It’s a long season, and even with the Dodgers riding a six-game winning streak and playing the division-leading San Diego Padres, they opted to rest three of their regular starters Sunday. And their best hitter, Andre Ethier, was injured.
Add the fact that San Diego pitching has the National League’s lowest earned-run average, and perhaps it wasn’t surprising that the Dodgers didn’t get their first hit until the sixth inning against left-hander Wade LeBlanc.
But that hit by catcher Russell Martin drove in a run, and with starter Chad Billingsley holding the Padres scoreless into the eighth inning, it proved all the Dodgers needed to prevail, 1-0, at Petco Park for their seventh win in a row.
The Dodgers have won nine of their last 10 games and, by sweeping their six-game trip against National League West rivals San Diego and Arizona, are only two games behind the first-place Padres.
The Dodgers managed only two hits in front of a sellout crowd of 42,327, but Billingsley (4-2) held the Padres to four hits in 7 1/3 innings and Hong-Chih Kuo and closer Jonathan Broxton didn’t allow another runner, with Broxton getting his seventh save.
Billingsley “was being super aggressive” with the Padres batters, said Martin, who has an 11-game hitting streak. “His fastball for the most part was kept down in the [strike] zone, out of the middle of the plate. I thought he did a great job of getting a first strike early in the count.”
Dodgers pitchers were backed up with good defense from first baseman James Loney and Reed Johnson, who played right field in place of Ethier. In the ninth inning, for instance, Loney snagged Adrian Gonzalez’s sharp grounder that might have gone for a double down the right-field line.
“That was a terrific play because who knows where the game goes at that point,” Manager Joe Torre said.
Added Loney: “I didn’t bring my bat today, but I brought my glove, so it worked out all right.”
With a seven-game homestand starting Monday night, the Dodgers return to Los Angeles a resurgent team that has overcome a dreary first month of the season.
The Dodgers are “walking around feeling good about themselves, but in a sort of a workman-like way,” Torre said. “But it still comes down to how well we pitch. We certainly pitched well this weekend.”
Indeed, Dodgers pitchers have posted a sparkling 1.71 ERA during the seven-game winning streak.
With the Dodgers playing a day game Sunday after a night game, Torre had wanted to rest Martin, along with outfielder Manny Ramirez and third baseman Casey Blake, despite Martin’s desire to stay in the lineup.
But, “it’s tough to give all three of them [the day] off, especially when you don’t have Ethier,” Torre said, adding that he met with Martin and “I told him, ‘I lost another battle, you’re playing.’ ”
Which was fortunate for the Dodgers, because after Jamey Carroll walked and moved to second base on Billingsley’s sacrifice bunt in the sixth inning, Martin hit a 3-and-2 pitch from LeBlanc (2-1) for a single to drive in Carroll.
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