If you weren’t able to catch today’s game, you missed a gem. It looked like it was going to be a classic pitchers duel after Manny struck out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning, but Brandon Webb just couldn’t put it together for the second straight start against the Dodgers, potentially weakening his lock on the Cy Young Award this year. It was awesome to watch the Dodger hitters against Webb (who couldn’t throw a strike to save his life) as they took pitch after pitch and that opened the flood gates with six walks. Manny pulled down five RBI including a crushing three-run home run. Ramirez got lucky with two of them when Justin Upton lost the ball in the sun and let a sure out turn into a ground rule double when the ball bounced off the warning track and into the stands, but that’s the kind of game it was.
Following are the pitching lines for the two starters:
| Pitchers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | PC-ST | ERA |
| B Webb (L, 19-7) | 5.2 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 101-56 | 3.41 |
| C Billingsley (W, 14-10) | 6.1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 97-59 | 3.02 |
This was one of those games where everything seemed to be going the Dodgers way. They were super patient at the plate, they received a tremendous pitching performance from Chad Billingsley, they had clutch hits and even a little luck. The crowd was totally into it, and you could see that the guys totally believed in themselves. They could smell a possible NL West title.
One interesting stat that I learned today from the Dodgers radio team: this is only the second day in 2008 that the Dodgers have been in first place by themselves. The only other day this season when this has happened was April 6. How crazy is that?
Now let’s see if the Dodgers can keep the momentum going with a Sunday Sweep of the D-Backs!
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
