Bills, Bills, Bills

Reporters congregated at Chad Billingsley’s locker after his last start in San Francisco, but before taking any questions, the Dodgers ace broke from the pack and nodded at me instead.

“Welcome back,” he said, smiling.

I figure I should say the same thing about Billingsley, who is 4-0 and looking to stay perfect after this afternoon’s game against the Padres.

After all, it was a rough offseason for the right-hander who dealt with the emotions of pitching poorly in the National League Championship Series and also breaking his leg.

The first person Billingsley called after apparently slipping on some ice at his Reading, Pa. home was agent Dave Stewart. The second was Dodgers trainer Stan Conte, who was dismayed and responded with an expletive.

After that, Billingsley didn’t return many phone calls during the winter, not even to Joe Torre or pitching coach Rick Honeycutt. Admittedly, the kid was a little embarrassed.

But during spring training, Torre sat down Billingsley in a room along with the coaches and began to tell stories. Andy Pettitte turned out fine after first playoff loss came in the 1996 World Series when he famously served up a home run to a young Andruw Jones. And Mariano Rivera had to bounce back from giving up the game-winner to Luis Gonzalez.

For Billingsley, so far, so good.