After starting the season as the potential ace of the Dodgers' pitching staff, a struggling Chad Billingsley will not start this weekend when the Dodgers host the San Francisco Giants, Manager Joe Torre said Wednesday.
The right-hander also was sent to the Dodgers' bullpen for Wednesday's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in case the team needed him after Tuesday night's 13-inning game, which the Dodgers won, 5-4, after using six pitchers.
Billingsley was not used Wednesday in the Dodgers' 3-1 win over the Pirates.
The rotation for the Giants series would be Vicente Padilla on Friday, Jon Garland on Saturday and Randy Wolf on Sunday, Torre said. The Dodgers are off today.
Billingsley, 25, is 12-10 with a 3.99 earned-run average. But he has gone nearly a month without a win, losing his last four decisions, including Sunday against the Giants in San Francisco.
His last victory was Aug. 18 against St. Louis.
He also was at a loss to explain what's wrong.
Torre said he tapped Garland for Saturday partly because he has "had maybe a little more success against the Giants than Bills has." But Torre also said of Billingsley, "We're all of a mind that we want to get him in a good place.
"Chad's been kept abreast of this whole thing. I just told him that we needed to get him straightened out, whether it be a game or an inning or whatever, we just need to have him in the right direction. He was fine with it. He certainly understands."
Ethier's moment
With Tuesday night's game deadlocked 3-3, Andre Ethier led off the Dodgers' half of the 11th inning against Pittsburgh reliever Joel Hanrahan intent on sparking a winning rally.
Instead, "he struck me out," Ethier recalled after the game. "The situation was there."
But Ethier kept his frustration at bay and waited for another chance, which came in the 13th inning, this time against reliever Phil Dumatrait but with Pittsburgh ahead, 4-3.
After Rafael Furcal singled, Ethier launched Dumatrait's first pitch into the right-field stands for a home run that gave L.A. another dramatic win, 5-4.
Ethier, 27, now has six walk-off hits this season, the most in the major leagues, and four are home runs. The left-handed hitter also leads the majors with nine walk-off hits since the start of the 2008 season.
Even Torre, who has seen his fair share of dramatic moments, said "it's just surreal" how Ethier has repeatedly lifted the Dodgers to victory in the final inning.
