NL Worst of the Night: Dodgers' Ted Lilly Bitten for 9 Runs in Loss to D-Backs

Anyone curious as to why the Los Angeles Dodgers have been enjoying such a great season could find an answer from looking at Ted Lilly's numbers.

Going into Wednesday's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Lilly had a 5-0 record in seven starts with a 1.79 ERA that was ranked second in the National League. Not allowing many runs nor many hits was an excellent formula for success.

So far this season, Lilly is averaging 5.6 strikeouts per nine innings, the lowest rate of his career. That's not the way Lilly has gone about his business in the past, but he was able to make it work in his previous seven starts.

As ESPN.com's Mark Simon explained, Lilly has benefited from making hitters guess wrong and getting excellent defense from his outfield. 

But pitchers who pound the strike zone and don't get opposing batters to swing and miss are living dangerously. That finally caught up with Lilly on Wednesday night at Chase Field.

The D-Backs hit the Dodgers' lefty hard right away, with Ryan Roberts slamming a first-inning home run. That seemed to make Lilly a bit hesitant to pitch to contact, and he walked two of the next three batters he faced. Aaron Hill followed up with an RBI single to give Arizona a 2-0 lead.

It didn't get any better for Lilly from there. He gave up four hits over the next two innings, resulting in three more runs. This time, Lilly wasn't fooling anyone.

In the fourth inning, Lilly allowed five of the first six batters he faced to reach base. The big blow was a two-run triple by Jason Kubel, the second triple Lilly had served up to that point. Another RBI single from Hill gave the D-Backs an 8-1 lead, ending the evening for Lilly.

Needless to say, the Dodgers' six-game winning streak came to an abrupt end. 

In his previous seven starts this season, Lilly had allowed nine total runs in 45 1/3 innings. He almost matched that total in just 3 1/3 innings on Wednesday night. As the  Los Angeles Times' Steve Dilbeck pointed out in his recap, the nine hits Lilly gave up were the most he surrendered in a game since 2009. 

Surprisingly, however, the five walks allowed weren't Lilly's highest total of the season. He issued six to the Houston Astros in his second start of the season. 

Dilbeck's L.A. Times colleague, Bill Shaikin, summed up Lilly's bad night even more succinctly with the following Tweet.

The eight-run beating increased Lilly's season ERA from 1.79 to 3.14.

My fellow MLB Lead Writer, Zach Rymer, distilled it even further, tagging Lilly with the nickname "Ted LiLOLy." Well done, sir. 

Follow @iancass on Twitter