Dodgers 2, Astros 0

Big-time performance from Chad Billingsley, who shut out the Astros on three hits over 7 1/3 innings, ran his record to 4-0 in four starts this season and sliced his ERA to 2.05. This guy is really blossoming into a true staff ace, and it couldn’t come at a better time with Hiroki Kuroda on the DL and the bullpen so shaky that starters almost HAVE to pitch deep into games. Billingsley hasn’t failed one time this year to give the Dodgers at least six, and tonight he became just the second Dodgers starter this year (Randy Wolf on April 12) to pitch into the eighth. I must say, though, that the Chadster is getting a bit sensitive when it comes to the postgame questions. I asked him what the difference has been this year, and he was quick with this answer:
“I pitched well last year, too.”
Well, yes, you did. But you didn’t pitch like this. Without looking into what some of the other guys around the league are doing, I have to say this guy is at least a strong candidate for N.L. Pitcher of the Month honors. And if he keeps this up, he has an excellent chance of winning more games than he did last year, when he led the team with 16 victories.
it also was a big night for Jonathan Broxton, who hadn’t pitched since last Friday. Just as he was then, he was asked to get five outs. This time, it was a little more adventurous, what with the tying runs being in scoring position when the game ended, but he never blinked. He appears to have developed into a big-time closer, with the unflappable personality to match. He credits his WBC experience with that, because he pitched well under what he says was the enormous pressure of representing the USA. Whatever the reason, he is a different pitcher than what he has been in past seasons.
Dodgers go to 11-5 and now lead the Pods by 1 1/2. At the Rockies tomorrow, Eric Stults against Aaron Cook. Dodgers dominated the Rockies in a three-game sweep last weekend, but the Rox are a different team at Coors Field. Game starts at 6:10 L.A. time.
By the way, Kuroda did throw off a mound before the game and will do so again on Saturday.

Transcript of Ned Colletti’s interview with XM/Sirius

This took place today. Just received the transcript in my in-box. Most notable thing is he says Dodgers haven’t closed the door on signing Pedro Martinez. Here it is, I believe in its entirety:

Today (April 23, 2009) on the MLB Home Plate channel on SIRIUS XM Radio, hosts Jody McDonald and Jim Duquette spoke with Dodgers GM Ned Colletti about the team’s pitching staff.

Host, Jim Duquette: “The pitching staff has gotten off to a terrific start and you never know what to expect from the youth but, obviously, it looks like you guys knew what you were talking about.”

Ned Colletti: “Well, it’s still real early. Our last couple of games in Houston have been a touch disappointing. We’re pleased we’re 10-5. I think the pitching will be always on our mind all year long, guys. Even as well as we pitched before the last two games in Houston I felt that we needed at least one, if not two, more veteran, well, one starter, one reliever to help us through it. But we’re pleased with where we’re at right now. [Clayton] Kershaw has been real good at times. [James] McDonald is getting better after a rough start in Arizona and, of course, [Chad] Billingsly I think is blossoming into one of the better pitchers in the league.”

Host, Jody McDonald: “You mentioned those veteran starters you might have an eye on. I know that you were linked to Pedro Martinez and talked to him at some point earlier this year back in spring training. Do you put a weekly phone call in just to see if Pedro’s still concentrating on coming back, if his price tag has come down a little bit?”

Ned Colletti: “Well, we’ve stayed in touch. I won’t say it’s scheduled or it’s weekly but we’ve stayed in touch and we’ll continue to stay in touch. You can never shut off an option and he may be an option for us at some point in time but we’ll have to wait and see how that all fairs itself out.”

Host, Jim Duquette: “Do you think at this point the likelihood, if you were going to get a starter, it would be that free agent route? It’s a little bit early to be making trades, right?”

Ned Colletti: “Yeah, right now teams aren’t really, the trade talk, as you know, is really quiet at this point of a season. I think there’ll be maybe more opportunity in June than there has been in the past depending on teams’ economics. Right now the best way to fix a problem is probably internally and we’re looking at some guys in triple-A. We signed a lot of major leaguers to minor league deals so part of our solution may be in Albuquerque right now. But right now trying to make a deal would be pretty tough to do. You’d probably have to overpay to get somebody’s attention.”

“The Show” airs nationwide every weekday (4-7pm ET/1-4pm PT) exclusively on SIRIUS XM’s MLB Home Plate Channel (XM channel 175 and SIRIUS channel 210 with the “Best of XM” programming package).

Jeff Weaver to go into ABQ rotation, couple of injury updates

Weaver will make his first start on Saturday at New Orleans. The reason for this is that the front office wants the option of calling him up for EITHER the rotation or the bullpen, and right now, his innings and pitch count aren’t sufficiently built up for starting in the majors. … Also, Cory Wade ended up pitching in an extended spring-training game today, NOT a simulated game. He will do another one on Saturday, after which there is a chance he will skip his minor-league rehab entirely and rejoin the Dodgers in San Francisco on Monday. And Hiroki Kuroda was going to play catch today, and if he felt good enough, he was going to get on a mound. I apologize, but I had too much going on pregame to notice whether he actually did so or not. But Stan Conte said before BP that Kuroda had only thrown at 50-60 percent so far, that he hoped to get him to 80-90 percent soon and that he needs to be pretty close to 100 percent before he goes out on a rehab.
“This is the type of injury you can’t push through,” Conte said.

A random thought regarding the Dodgers’ bullpen problems

This isn’t something I’m hearing from a source, either on the record or off. It’s pure speculation on my part. But I’m wondering if Jeff Weaver might be in a big-league uniform pretty soon. He has had four relief appearances at ABQ, two of them really good, two of them mediocre. But it dawns on me that the ONLY reason he didn’t make the team out of spring training was that there wasn’t a 40-man roster spot available. There technically still isn’t one, but one could be cleared quickly by moving Mkz to the 60-day DL (he is going to be out at least that long). It is becoming increasingly apparent that there aren’t many guys in the current crew down there in the bullpen whom Joe Torre feels he can trust in a key, late-inning situation, and last night, he all basically admitted that he doesn’t trust Hong-Chih Kuo right now in an eighth-inning setup situation, which was the exact role Kuo was supposed to have coming into the season. If nothing else, adding Weaver would bring a more veteran presence to the group. Once again, just a thought.