Billingsley, Ethier lead Dodgers over Padres

Baseball Betting Lines

07/28/2010 - San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chad Billingsley pitched six shutout frames, and his pinch-hitter, Andre Ethier, came through with a big hit in the top of the seventh, as the Dodgers kicked off an important NL West three-game set with a 2-0 victory over San Diego.

Billingsley (9-5) scattered three hits and two walks with four strikeouts on the heels of his shutout on Wednesday versus the Giants. Blake DeWitt and Garret Anderson scored for the Dodgers, who have won three straight. Jonathan Broxton pitched a perfect ninth for his 20th save of the season.

Jon Garland (9-7) took the loss, yielding two runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks over 6 2/3 frames. Yorvit Torrealba finished 2-for-3 in the loss. The Padres saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.

The Padres put together a serious threat in the home fourth, beginning with Adrian Gonzalez's single to left. Chase Headley then singled and Torrealba followed with an infield hit deflected by Billingsley.

Billingsley settled down, inducing a Will Venable grounder to second, where DeWitt came home for the force out. Tony Gwynn popped out to short and Everth Cabrera struck out looking to end the threat.

The Dodgers mustered an offensive charged in the sixth as Russell Martin singled and moved to second on Billingsley's bunt attempt that wasn't fielded cleanly by Gonzalez for an error. Garland, like Billingsley, thwarted any scoring chance by retiring the next three batters.

Los Angeles put together a furious two-out rally in the seventh to finally push across some runs. DeWitt started the two-out rally with a single to right, Anderson followed with a single to right and Martin was intentionally walked, forcing manager Joe Torre's hand. Despite six shutout innings, Torre pinch hit for Billingsley with Ethier, who knocked a two-run single to center.

Game Notes

Garland dropped to 5-2 at Petco Park...The Dodgers have won five of six over the Padres this season...These two teams began a stretch of seven games against each other out of the next 10.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.