Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Well, that was fun, now wasn’t it? Amid uncertainty going into the season, the Dodgers came out firing on Opening Day, easily besting the Arizona Diamondbacks by a score of 8-2.
Will Smith went 3-for-4 and drove in four runs in his debut hitting in the three-hole. New Dodgers David Peralta and Miguel Rojas both had a pair of hits, and phenom James Outman had a single and smashed the Dodgers’ first home run of the season, a two-run jack in the bottom of the 6th to pretty much put the game on ice for the home team.
Pitching-wise, Julio Urias struggled a bit early, giving up two runs and a lot of hard contact in the first two innings, but settled in nicely after that, lasting six innings and relinquishing only those two early runs. Phil Bickford, new Dodger Shelby Miller, and Yency Almonte all were solid in three innings of scoreless relief.
The most gratifying part of the game perhaps was seeing the contributions from the bottom third of the lineup, something that the team struggled with in 2022. And this was a fact that was not lost on manager Dave Roberts.
“Tonight, I hope, was a sign of things to come,” said Roberts in postgame comments. “This lineup, internally, we realized how much length we had and they certainly showed that today.”
Short hops:
- After a solid spring, Max Muncy got off to a horrible start to the regular season, striking out five times. That’s not a misprint. 0-for-5, five strikeouts. Yeesh.
- Mookie also looked a little tentative at the plate, striking out twice himself.
- However, Betts made up for any offensive shortcomings when he gunned down Ketel Marte, who was making an ill-advised attempt to stretch a single into a double.
- Orel Hershiser, Jerry Reuss, and Eric Gagne threw out three simultaneous first pitches on Thursday, caught by Rick Dempsey, Mike Scioscia, and Dave Roberts.
- The Dodgers have a new lighting system. I’ll have to witness it in person, but it seemed a little much on TV. We don’t need to turn Dodger Stadium into a pinball machine.
- The Dodgers appear to have adopted David Peralta’s “Freight Train” sign for their on-field celebration this year
