That was ugly. No question. The Dodgers bombed Pirate pitching for 15 runs and 23 hits. Chad Billingsley cruised through five leisurely innings while Brad Lincoln didn’t get out of the second inning.
Lincoln started off with a shaky first. Dee Gordon tripled to lead off. Jamey Carroll’s ground ball out scored him and the hope was that Lincoln would settle in. But Matt Kemp homered to make it 2-0. With two gone, James Loney, Aaron Miles and Jerry Sands each singled to score a third run.
Kemp picked up his second RBI of the game in the second. Chad Billingsley singled to start the inning. Gordon bunted him to second. After Carroll lined out, Kemp singled home his pitcher to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead. AFter Juan Rivera singled, Lincoln was pulled for Aaron Thompson. Loney greeted him rudely with a two run double and it was 6-0. Miles walked and Sands poked a three run homer for his fourth RBI of the game. It was 9-0.
The beating continued in the next inning. Gordon was on third (walk) and Kemp was on second (double) when Rivera singled them both home. That damage was done against Chris Leroux. It was 11-0 before the Pirates had even recorded double figures in outs.
The Dodgers would tack on four more runs with A.J. Ellis, Rivera (two) and Loney getting the run scoring at bats.
Xaver Paul’s double in the fifth scored Chase d’Arnaud with the Buccos only run.
Lincoln went 1-2/3 innings. He allowed eight hits and six runs. Billingsley gave up the Pirates lone run in five innings of four hit ball. He whiffed five.
The Good
Paul and Ronny Cedeno both had two hits.
Chris Resop, Tony Watson and Jason Grilli were all unscored upon.
The Bad
Um, the pitching, the hitting…
The Rest
Lincoln’s only other appearance against LA was September 1 of this year. He gave up three runs in six innings and took the loss. Billingsley came into the game with a 4-1 career mark against Pittsburgh. That loss was May 9, 2011 in Pittsburgh.
Jerry Sands had never driven in more than two runs in a single game. He had four tonight. This was his second career four hit game.
This was Rivera’s 14th career four RBI game and his third of 2011.
Loney had a pretty good week in the last three games. He picked up five hits and another three RBI in this game. This was his first career five career hit game. He had never had more than one straight three RBI game and he now has three such games in a row. Loney flied out leading off the eighth. Had he collected another hit, he would’ve been the first player since Adrian Gonzalez on 8/11/09 to get six hits in a nine inning game. The last Dodger to do so was Shawn Green back 5/23/2002.
Eugenio Velez remains hitless on the year.
The 23 hits are the most allowed by the Pirates in 2011. Last time Bucs gave up more than 23 knocks was 4/22/10 when they allowed 25 hits and 20 runs to Milwaukee. This was the second time in 2011 they allowed 15 runs.
