Thud!

It's one thing to lose a series to the Philadelphia Phillies. They are by far the best team in baseball, so for an injury-prone and strife-ridden team like the Dodgers to go in and take one game out of three and play competitively in the other two, it was encouraging. Maybe not jump-up-and-down encouraging, but not bad for a team in their position.

Getting swept by the Cincinnatti Reds in Dodger Stadium is quite another. Cinci is a good team-no dis-respect to them. But in Dodger Stadium with the top three guys in the rotation going, the Dodgers needed to make a better showing. Aside from Chad Blillingsley, the starting pitching was decent. Three errors and a leaky bullpen helped do Hiroki Kuroda in on Monday. The bullpen let a strong Clayton Kershaw outing go to waste on Tuesday, and Billingsley once again has everyone scratching their heads. The Dodger offense is getting some hits, but they need to score more runs.

This was Billingsley's third straight weak outing, and his fifth in his last sixth. He continually digs himself into holes he can't get out of. Any success the Dodgers have this season is going to ride on pitching. He is the number #2 starter, and he needs to show some veteran steel. The Dodgers are very close to being out of it even in the mediocre NL West, and Billingsley needs to step it up. The bullpen is a roll of the dice and the offense is only going to bring it so far. You can rightly say that too much pressure is being put on the starters, but it is what it is. With the ownership mess, there are no easy solutions on the horizon, so the Dodgers have to do the best they can with what they got. Billingsley making quality starts is central to that.

Hopefully they can beat up on the Astros a bit before the Tigers come to town, and thank God they won't have to face Justin Verlander, although it would be nice to see him pitch in Dodger Stadium.