Cody Snavely
Opening Day (2.0) Game 3, 3/28/2024: Dodgers 7, Cardinals 1
LOS ANGELES, CA — Did someone say Déjà vu? The Dodgers kick off another Opening Day as they host the rivals from the central St. Louis Cardinals in a four-game series.
While the Dodgers began regular season play in Seoul, Korea, last week, where they split the series 1-1 with the Padres, today was the much-anticipated regular season home debut of Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernández, and, of course, Shohei Ohtani.
Kicking it off for the Dodgers today was California native Tyler Glasnow, who looked much sharper today compared to his first start of the season when he surrendered four walks in the Dodgers’ 5-3 win.
This time, Glasnow had the off-speed working early. He pitched six innings, allowing only two hits, one walk, and five strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 2.45 to begin the year. The lone run was to Paul Goldschmidt, who had three hits on the day, including two against Glasnow.
The Dodgers bullpen held down the rest of the game thanks to a three-inning save from Dodgers left-handed reliever Ryan Yarbrough.
On the offensive side, the Dodgers jumped out often and early against Cardinals right-handed pitcher Miles Mikolas, who had some interesting comments about the Dodgers a week ago.
“We’re not exactly a low payroll team, but you got the Dodgers playing checkbook baseball. We’re going to be the hardest working group of Midwestern farmers we can be. … It would be great to stick it to the Dodgers.”
via Miles Mikolas to Cardinals beat writer John Denton
However, despite the enthusiasm, Mikolas could only go 4.1 innings, allowing five runs, including two home runs to Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, as they continue their 2023 tirade on offense into this season.
Speaking of Betts and Freeman, how did the Dodgers’ new three-headed monster perform today? Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman went a combined 5/8 with two HR and four RBI.
In his regular-season Dodgers home debut, Ohtani went 2/3 with a double each time, sending the sold-out crowd into a frenzy.
The bottom of the Dodgers order also did their job, driving in a pair of runs by James Outman and Max Muncy. However, if there were one area to critique, it would be the number of strikeouts, as the team combined for ten on the day.
The one billion dollar Dodgers are now over .500, so pop the champagne. The team will be back at it tomorrow night when Bobby Miller faces off against young left-handed starter Zack Thompson.
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