400♦ LOS ANGELES DODGERS RUN LINE (LIST Billingsley and Detwiler) - Chad Billingsley hasn’t won in a month, and the struggling righty desperately needs to get back on track if the Dodgers plan on contending with some of the deeper rotations in the National League. Billingsley has failed to last more than six innings in any of his last 11 starts, and is 0-4 with a 5.97 ERA in six outings since beating St. Louis on Aug. 18. So why go with him and the Dodgers tonight … the due theory, quite frankly. At some point he has to shake this funk, and this is the perfect spot to expect such a thing.
The Dodgers are in after yesterday’s 14-2 shellacking of these same Nationals, their magic number to clinch a wild-card berth at the very least is down to two games and they can secure their playoff berth with a win and losses by San Francisco and Atlanta tonight. Thus, there’s no reason to believe Billingsley won’t turn it around against this lethargic lineup, while he gets plenty of run support along the way. Joe Torre’s boys have scored at least six runs in six of their last 10 games, while they’ve won eight of those games.
And besides, I’d rather side with Billingsley than Ross Detwiler, who is 0-6 with a 5.80 ERA on the year. Most recently, he’s 0-2 in his last three starts (the Nats are 0-3 in those games) with an 8.76 ERA to go along with it. This is a bad Nationals team that is about to endure their second-straight 100-loss season with this loss tonight. The Dodgers have won seven of their last nine on the highway while the Nationals are mired in a 3-11 slide at home. Also, the Dodgers have won 13 of the past 18 meetings. Lay the run line as it all comes together for Billingsley tonight
C Jordan 9/23
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