First a Dodger Stadium record crowd shows up, a 16-year-old waif belts out one of the biggest national anthems you'll ever hear, a stealth bomber flies over, and then the Dodgers annihilate their traditional enemy from San Francisco, 11-1.

The Dodgers should quit and go home now. It can't get any better than that, can it?

"(The anthem) was better than the game," joked catcher Russell Martin of singer Charice's pregame home run, before adding, "We hit, pitched, played defense . . . "

Cruised. Best of all, the staff ace may have identified himself.

It was so complete, the Dodgers as a team collectively blotted out their sun, Manny Ramirez. Even Manny had a double, two walks and two runs, but left the clubhouse before the media masses could get him to talk about the other 10,000 things that went so perfectly right on Monday.

I mean, Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier hit two home runs, and when someone teasingly suggested that he was upstaged by their brand new second baseman Orlando Hudson - who, oh by the way was the first Dodger to hit for the cycle in 39 years - he offered a correction.

"I don't even think the cycle was the marquee thing," Ethier said. "It was the way Chad (Billingsley) pitched. He matched (Giants starter Randy Johnson) early, then he just accelerated."

Oh, yeah, that.

If the offensive fireworks were the fun part, Ethier had it right from the Baseball perspective. The most important thing that happened was Billingsley's overpowering day on the mound.

In a season the Dodgers are looking for someone to call their No.1, Billingsley is making his case. He threw seven innings of one-run, five-hit ball, with no walks and 11 strikeouts. He K'd the last five Giants he faced, then aw-shucked his effort.

Someone tried out the "ace" tag on him, and he said, "I'm not worried about that. I just want to get the ball every fifth day and try to win the game."

In his fourth season as a Dodgers starter, he has a career 37-19 record. The big picture is that he's only 24 years old.

"I'm still learning how to pitch," he said. "My first couple of years, I tried to strike guys out a lot. Now I'm trying to have quick innings and get deeper into games."

Catcher Martin noted the irony - the strikeouts keep coming even though it's not Billingsley's main objective anymore.

"He's added the curveball to the fastball," said Martin, suggesting he has two put-away pitches now. "The maturity has kicked in the last year or so."

It was a 1-1 game when the Dodgers scored six runs in the bottom of the fourth.

"That allowed me to be aggressive with the hitters, get first-pitch strikes," said Billingsley, who won his second start in two tries, and lowered his earned run average to 2.08. "I didn't have to break out the curveball until late."

Martin has a whole pitching staff to catch, so he's not interested in labeling, either, not even when "Billingsley the Ace" was floated.

"You don't have to put a name on it," Martin said. "He has some of the best stuff in the league. He's a horse. He goes out and competes."

They all did Monday, leaving themselves 80 more home games to match the sparkling opener. Good luck, there.

Reach Gregg Patton at 951-368-9597 or gpatton@PE.com