The 30-year-old Marquis (10-5) is now tied for the major league lead in wins, faced two batters more than the minimum while throwing just 86 pitches in his third career shutout. The complete game was his sixth in 214 career starts and second this season.
Both the Rockies and Giants have won seven of their last 10 games and the Los Angeles lead was cut to 6.0 (five in the loss column) over San Francisco and 7.5 (seven in the loss column) after the loss. The Dodgers have been a quite average 14-12 in June.
Colorado was 14 games behind the Dodgers on May 27 after getting swept in a three-game series at Chavez Ravine and outscored 31-13.
Former Dodgers manager Jim Tracy replaced Clint Hurdle two days laater and the Rockies are 24-8 since, following their 21st victory in 25 games.
James Loney picked up the first hit with a single in the second inning. The next 18 batters went out in order before Juan Castro singled to right field in the eighth inning. Marquis didn't walk a man
Chad Billingsley, who is winless in the last three attempts to win his 10th game after beating Texas on June 14 after starting the season 6-1, gave up only five hits, including a home run on a change-up to Brad Hawpe in the fourth and a two-strike, two-run single to Marquis in the seventh.
Marquis is 5-0 with a 1.84 ERA in his last eight starts against the Dodgers going back to Sept. 4, 2004 and the Rockies set a franchise record for wins in a month with 21.
Billingsley, now 9-4, tied a season high with 11 strikeouts -— two more than he had in his previous three starts combined. He retired theh side in order in four innings and threw 118 pitches.
“Billingsley was great,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said after his team’s fifth loss in seven games. “He went after it tonight and certainly pitched well enough to win. He battled as he always does, and his command was much better than it has been recently.”
Colorado deployed a shift against Andre Ethier, the hero of the first game of the series, moving three infielders to the right side of the infield when he was at the plate and he grounded out on his first two trips to the plate.
The two clubs turn around quickly and meet in an afternoon game to day n the rubber match.
LHP Clayton Kershaw (5-5, 3.70 ERA) takes the ball for the Dodgers after allowing only a single walk and striking out eight Mariners in his previous start. He is 2-3 with a 7.30 ERA in five career starts against the Rockies.
Colorado counters with RHP Jason Hammel (5-3, 4.21 ERA) who is 5-0 over his last seven starts with a 3.40 ERA.
Score by Innings
Colorado 000 100 200-3
Los Angeles 000 000 000-0
Los Angeles ab r h bi ave
Pierre lf 4 0 0 0 .324
Furcal ss 4 0 0 0 .237
Ethier rf 3 0 0 0 .260
Blake 3b 3 0 0 0 .287
Loney lf 3 0 0 0 .278
Kemp cf 3 0 0 0 .306
Castro 2b 3 0 1 0 .345
Ellis c 2 0 0 0 .000
Loretta ph 1 0 0 0 .258
Mota p 0 0 0 0 .000
Billingsley 2 0 0 0 .207
Leach p 0 0 0 0 .000
Martin c 1 0 0 0 .246
---------------------------------
Totals 29 0 2 0
Colorado 31 3 5 3
LOB- Dodgers 2, Colorado 4.
Los Angeles in h r-er bb so era
Billingsley (9-4) 7.2 5 3-3 3 11 3.12
Leach 0.1 0 0-0 0 0 3.24
Mota 1.0 0 0-0 0 1 4.11
WP- Billingsley. T- 2:16. Att- 43,437.
Slip, Slidin' Away
The Dodgers offense has short-circuited recently and they have lost four of five and five of their last seven games. Manager Joe Torre has announced he would give catcher Russell Martin three days off to help him out of his slump.
A.J. Ellis started in Martin's place last night, and Brad Ausmus will start today.
However, the following hitting chart shows that over the last 10 games, Russell has led all regulars with a .323 average. The complete list:
Last 10 games overall
Martin .323 10-for-31 .246
Pierre .309 13-for-42 .324
Kemp .275 11-for-40 .306
Loney .257 9-for-35 .278
Hudson .227 10-for-44 .297
Blake .225 9-for-40 .287
Ethier .222 8-for-36 .260
Furcal .167 6-for-36 .237
Dodger Blue Notes-- The first six innings were played in 73 minutes. ...The Rockies are a major league-best 29-6 when scoring first. ...The Rockies became the first NL team with 19 wins from their starting rotation in one month since the 1985 New York Mets. ...The Dodgers signed third-round draft pick Brett Wallach, a right-hander from Orange Coast College who is the son of Albuquerque Manager Tim Wallach. ...The Dodgers are now 9-2 against the Rockies this season. ... Los Angeles has lost three of its last four and five of its last seven.