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Los Angeles Dodgers are starting to lose ground atop the National League West standings and will kick off a three-game series tonight versus the division-rival
San Diego Padres at Chavez Ravine.
The Dodgers have dropped three of their last five games to have their NL West lead shrink to just two games over the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have won three in a row and seven of 10 to make it interesting for the year's last week of regular-season play. LA just lost two of three games against San Francisco, including Sunday's 1-0 contest in 11 innings. Rich Aurilia ripped an RBI single in the top of the 11th inning to lead the Giants.
Andre Ethier had a pair of hits for the Dodgers and starter Derek Lowe hurled seven scoreless innings of five-hit ball in the no-decision. Takashi Saito absorbed the loss for giving up the only run of the game. LA's magic number to clinch the NL West title is five.
Taking the ball for Los Angeles on Tuesday will be Chad Billingsley, who is 15-10 with a 3.22 earned run average this season. Billingsley is 3-0 in his previous four trips to the mound and did not factor in the outcome of a 15-8 loss at Pittsburgh on September 17. He was reached for seven runs -- six earned -- and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings of work.
The righty is 0-2 in three starts against San Diego this season and 4-3 with a 2.47 ERA in 12 lifetime meetings (eight starts) with the Padres. Billingsley will put his 9-4 home record on the line tonight.
San Diego just swept Washington in three games at National Park and recorded the sweep with Sunday's 6-2 triumph in the series finale. Kevin Kouzmanoff drove in three runs while Adrian Gonzalez homered and scored three times for the Padres, who got great pitching from starter Cha Seung Baek. Baek allowed one run on five hits in seven innings and fanned five batters for the win.
Wade LeBlanc will make his fourth career start on Tuesday and is 1-1 with a 5.63 ERA in three appearances this season. LeBlanc takes the start in place of ace Jake Peavy, whose Tuesday start was pushed back to Thursday. LeBlanc last toed the rubber on September 15 at Colorado, hurling six innings of four-run ball for the victory in an 11-5 triumph.
LeBlanc, a left-hander, started his major-league career with back-to-back starts against the Dodgers this season, going 0-1 with a 5.40 earned run average over 10 innings pitched. He has given up 13 hits and six runs during that stretch.
Los Angeles has won nine of the 15 matchups with San Diego this season, with a 4-2 record at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers have won two straight and five of the previous six matchups in this series.
