Those opportunistic Dodgers

Now there is a couple of words you didn’t often read in the same sentence during the first half. But the boys had a GREAT third inning that began with an eight-pitch at-bat by Andre Ethier, who worked the count full, fouled off a 3-2 pitch, then dumped a leadoff single just in front of Dave Roberts. Although Billingsley failed to bunt him over, Rafael Furcal singled after another lengthy at-bat, and Ethier scored on Juan Pierre’s single. Although Furcal got hung up between second and third on that play, he wisely engaged Roberts long enough to allow Pierre to scoot into second, from which he subsequently scored when Bengie Molina threw the ball up the leftfield line as Pierre was trying to steal third. Billingsley got himself into the usual Billingsley-type trouble in the first inning, walking Ray Durham to put runners on first and second with one out for his Barry-ness. But Bonds GIDP’d to end the inning, and Billingsley has more or less cruised ever since, retiring seven of eight. Dodgers 2, Giants 0, top 4