Dodgers Diaries

On Monday, Dodgers’ starter John Ely was terrible, yielding six runs in 2.1 innings before giving way to the bullpen, which was stellar. Jeff Weaver threw 3.2 innings of hitless relief, permitting just one baserunner to reach, via a walk. Ronald Belisario was equally good, throwing three innings for the first time ever, and yielding just one hit.

It was all for naught, as the Dodgers couldn’t climb out of Ely’s hole, falling a run short to the Marlins, 6-5.

On Friday, Dodgers’ starter Chad Billingsley was good, pitching into the eighth inning after a shaky second and third inning where he loaded the bases each time, but only surrendered a single run. But the middle relief by George Sherrill and Justin Miller was dreadful. They allowed the Chicago Cubs to climb back from a laugher to necessitate the unleashing of the Broxton. The Ox was pedestrian, allowing a run of his own, and bringing the tying run to the plate before settling down and retiring the final out.

Given a choice between good bullpen and a loss or bad bullpen and a win, I'll take the latter.

Bills showed real resilience Friday night. Earlier in the year, he might have crumbled after being unable to command his pitches. He walked three the bases full in both the second and third innings, and looked like he just couldn’t throw a strike. But both times, he rebounded with strikeouts to end the inning. I’m not sure why Joe Torre allowed him to pitch the 8th inning after he had thrown 115 pitches, but the Dodgers got away with it.

-- JOHN ROSENTHAL