Erick Aybar turns a double play in front of Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier as he slides into second base during the Angels' 8-5 victory Friday at Angel Stadium. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times / June 22, 2012)
Don Mattingly was tired of hearing about Chad Billingsley’s inconsistency. On Friday, he went into an impassioned pregame defense of his right-hander.
He talked about how Billingsley has never had a losing season. He has won 10 or more games in each of the past five seasons. He said that if you put his numbers over the last four years up against the rest of the league, they’re “pretty damn good.”
The Dodgers’ struggling offense then went out and staked Billingsley to a quick 5-0 lead.
And after four innings, Billingsley had given it all back.
The Angels rallied to hand the Dodgers their fourth consecutive loss, winning, 8-5, before a sellout crowd of 44,548 at Angel Stadium.
A Dodgers team that had managed a total of three runs in the past three games in Oakland opened Friday’s game like it had undergone an unexplainable offensive metamorphosis.
The Dodgers scored three runs on three hits in the first inning, and two runs on three hits in the second.
The Dodgers equaled the total amount of runs scored while being swept in three games by the A’s in the first inning against right-hander Dan Haren. Jerry Hairston Jr. and Andre Ethier singled with one out, before ex-Angel Bobby Abreu drilled a three-run homer into the right-field stands.
It was Abreu’s first at-bat back in Anaheim since the Angels released him.
The Dodgers added two more in the second after Tony Gwynn Jr. led off with a walk, stole second and scored on a Hairston single. After Andre Ethier singled off the glove of first baseman Albert Pujols, Juan Rivera -- another ex-Angel -- singled Hairston home.
The Dodgers turned the 5-0 lead over to Billingsley, and watched it wither away.
The Angels got three runs back in the bottom of the second after Kendrys Morales and Mark Trumbo singled. Alberto Callaspo doubled in Morales, and Howie Kendrick’s fly to center sacrificed Trumbo home. Callaspo scored on Erick Aybar's ground out to first.
The Angels took the lead with three more in the fourth. Callaspo singled and scored on an Aybar triple. The Angels tied it on a suicide squeeze, Billingsley coming home late on Bobby Wilson’s bunt. Wilson was out at first, but the Angels took the lead when rookie sensation Mike Trout homered on Billingsley’s next pitch. It was Trout’s seventh home run of the season.
Billingsley (4-6) left after the fifth, having surrendered six runs on 10 hits. His earned-run average rose to 4.15. Confidence in him did not rise accordingly.
Haren, who had thrown 45 pitches after the second inning alone, managed to make it through the fifth and get the win. Haren (5-7) allowed the five runs on nine hits and three walks.
The Angels added two more in the sixth off Jamey Wright. Aybar opened with a double, but Wright threw him out at third on a Wilson bunt attempt. But after a walk to Trout, Torii Hunter singled both runners in, the lightning-fast Trout scoring all the way from first.
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