Steve Webb
Freeway Series Game 1 @ Dodger Stadium, 3/24/24: Dodgers 5, Angels 3
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Given the huge amount of controversy that dogged the team on its last day in Korea, you could forgive the Dodgers if they were a little distracted by all the fuss. However, they showed no signs of it in their first game back in the United States: a solid workman-like victory over the “other” LA team, the Angels. Thanks to a solid pitching performance from Bobby Miller and a four-run second inning, the Dodgers coasted to a 5-3 win on a rainy Sunday in Chavez Ravine.
The biggest takeaway and perhaps the biggest news from Sunday is that Bobby Miller is being moved up in the rotation. Unlike the Korea series, where Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto were 1-2, the Dodgers will open their stateside season with Miller slotted in the Number 2 spot in the rotation behind Glasnow, with Yamamoto being moved to the three hole. So, Sunday’s game would be Miller’s final tuneup before he opens the regular season on Friday night. He did not disappoint. He went 4 2/3 scoreless innings in the exhibition start, allowing four hits and a walk while striking out five, with 51 of his 80 pitches going for strikes.
“Threw a few too many pitches [more] than I wanted to in the amount of time that I was out there,” said Miller to reporters after the game. “I’d like to be a little more efficient than that. But it’s nice to get out of a couple of jams with runners in scoring position with less than two outs.”
Offensively, it was rather tepid output compared to the eleven runs the team had put up in Seoul in its loss to the Padres. The best hit ball of the evening was the second-inning double off the bat of Jason Heyward that scored the Dodgers first run of the game. Gavin Lux followed that up with a little bloop single to the opposite field that score a couple, and Freddie Freeman finished off the scoring in the inning with a bases-loaded walk. Later in the game, they got an insurance run a Kiké Hernández sacrifice fly. And that was pretty much it for offense. For those wondering about the “big three” at the top of the lineup, it was a pretty quiet night: Mookie Betts went 1-for-2, but Ohtani and Freeman were both 0-for-2 with two walks and three strikeouts between them. None of the Dodgers’ starters were in the lineup by the end of the game, as Dave Roberts emptied his bench to give the prospects a taste of Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers have one more game at Chavez Ravine on Monday evening before they head to Anaheim to wrap up the Freeway Series on Tuesday. Then, it’s an off-day before the Opening Day festivities kick off the season (sort of) on Thursday afternoon.
