Joe Torre

On Clayton Richard’s complete game shutout:

“It just looked so easy for him.  We didn’t do a whole lot of damage.  We just couldn’t get anything going.  Up until that last inning, we didn’t really have a threat.  You have to give him credit, he works fast, he’s very aggressive in the strike zone and he certainly pitched well tonight.”

On being eliminated from the playoffs:

“We didn’t play well enough to be in a pennant race.  We thought in the first half that we would be able to contend.  Unfortunately the second half started off badly and we never really recovered from it.”

On Billingsley’s performance:

“It just didn’t look like he had command.  He’s been pitching so well, his stuff looked good, but he just wasn’t able to locate.  It sounds simple, and that’s probably a simple explanation, but as I said, I thought his stiff was good, but he just didn’t get the ball where he wanted to.  Plus we put pressure on him.  We don’t score, they score a couple of runs and you try and be perfect.  I think a lot of the pitchers have had to deal with a lot of that this year.”

Chad Billingsley

On his performance in tonight’s game:

“I just didn’t get the job done today.  I was battling those two innings and couldn’t find a way to get out of it.  I’ve just got to get ready for the next start.”

A.J. Ellis

On Chad Billingsley’s performance:

“They capitalized when we put their runners on base.  The walk or a hit by pitch, they capitalized on it.  When he was ahead in the count and throwing strikes, he was dominant as he normally is, putting guys away.  When you put guys on base it makes it that much harder on you.”

Casey Blake

On being officially eliminated from the playoffs:

“In order to be a championship team, obviously you’ve got to be playing well, but you’ve got to have a lot of things go your way.  It seems like neither of those happened for us.  Injuries didn’t help anything: Losing Manny, losing [Furcal], Padilla, just go down the line.  Andre for an extended period of time.  I was out five games and that really killed us [laughter].  Every team goes through adversity like that.  It’s disappointing.  You feel like a failure.  We’re not embarrassed, it’s just really disappointing for all the expectations and hope you have.  You make it to the playoffs a couple of years in a row and you just expect to do it.  When it doesn’t happen, it’s really, really tough to take.”

Roy Halladay

Just read on ESPN.com that Roy Halladay is open to waiving his no-trade clause and allowing the Blue Jays to listen to offers from other teams.  According to Buster Olney, Toronto would want either Billingsley or Kershaw in return, which he considers a “deal-breaker.”  I consider this absolutely ludicrous.  Why we would we trade an integral long-term piece of the starting rotation for a more expensive version of the same? Sure, it makes the Dodgers better in the short-term, but it still doesn’t deepen our rotation, which is the reason the move is necessary in the first place.   To even have a chance of making this work the Dodgers would need to move either promising minor leaguers or position players.

Photo Credit: AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese