08/20/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The pitcher who has emerged into the unlikely ace of the Los Angeles Dodgers' staff will be asked to play the role of spoiler when the National League West contenders resume a three-game series against the visiting Colorado Rockies this evening.
On a team that contains former All-Star hurlers Brad Penny and Derek Lowe and just recently added future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, Chad Billingsley has been the Dodgers' best and most consistent pitcher this season. The talented 24-year-old leads Los Angeles with 12 victories and a 3.10 earned run average, while his 162 strikeouts trails only San Francisco's Tim Lincecum for tops in the NL.
Billingsley also enters tonight's matchup on a roll. The stocky right-hander is 3-0 with a 2.34 ERA over his last five starts and allowed just one home run over that strong stretch.
He maintained his strong recent form with a home win over Milwaukee on Friday, holding the Brewers to three runs on five hits in seven innings. The triumph improved Billingsley to 8-4 in 14 games at Dodger Stadium this year, and he owns a 3.28 ERA on the home mound in 2008.
Billingsley will be facing a Colorado squad he has never beaten in his three- year major league career, although he's yet to pitch against the Rockies during his breakthrough 2008 campaign. In six games (4 starts) versus Colorado, the former first-round pick is 0-2 with a 6.46 ERA.
He'll be attempting to draw the Dodgers even in this series after the club dropped Tuesday's opener to the Rockies by an 8-3 score. Ian Stewart belted one of three homers for Colorado and knocked in a career-high five runs to lead the way.
Matt Holliday and the red-hot Brad Hawpe also went deep for the Rockies, with Holliday collecting four hits on the evening to help his team to its fourth straight win.
Hawpe homered for a second straight day and is batting .478 (11-for-23) with four long balls and nine RBI over the course of a six-game hit streak.
Ubaldo Jimenez (9-11) benefited from Colorado's power surge, with the young pitcher picking up the win after allowing three runs and striking out seven over the first five innings.
Hiroki Kuroda (7-9) was saddled with the loss after giving up four runs in six innings of work.
Jeff Kent finished 3-for-5 with an RBI double for Los Angeles, which had won six of seven coming in. Matt Kemp also doubled in a run and ended with a pair of hits.
The loss dropped the Dodgers out of a first-place tie with Arizona in the NL West standings. The Diamondbacks posted a 7-6 win over San Diego on Tuesday.
Jeff Francis gets the starting assignment for the Rockies tonight. The left- hander, who won a career-high 17 games during Colorado's pennant-winning 2007 season, is a disappointing 3-8 with a 5.74 ERA in 19 starts this year. However, one of those victories came at the expense of the Dodgers.
Francis twirled seven shutout innings to beat Los Angeles at Coors Field on June 3 in one of his sharpest outings of the year. He is 1-1 with a 2.79 ERA in three 2008 starts against the Dodgers and 5-2 with an excellent 2.69 ERA over 12 lifetime encounters with tonight's opponent.
The 27-year-old has made two starts since returning from a near six-week stint on the disabled list. After giving up five runs over 5 1/3 innings in an August 7 loss to Washington, Francis permitted three in a six-inning no- decision against Arizona last Wednesday. He hasn't notched a victory since June 18.
Los Angeles holds a 7-6 edge in this year's season series with Colorado and has taken four of seven tests between the clubs at Dodger Stadium in 2008. However, the Rockies have won five of the last six meetings.
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NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
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The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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