Clayton Kershaw (0-0, 5.79) vs. Ian Kennedy (0-0, 5.40).
COMMENTS: Here we go, the majors' last home opener, with the badly bruised Dodgers coming off a horrid 2-4 roadtrip that is either an ominous portent for an awful season, or evidence that our early stumble will be quickly overcome as we work out the kinks. It has been draining as a Dodger fan, but today's game will help us determine whether it's nigh time to pull the panic switch or if we shouldn't be reading all that much into three unlucky one-run losses (despite the fact that the last two were choke jobs).
There's no secrets this year that we don't have a solid pitching corps, with a starting rotation that isn't going very deep into games (save Hiroki Kuroda, who went eight full on Friday vs. the Fish), and a relief pitching squad whose lack of reliability is in stark contrast to the performance of the relievers over the last couple of years. Couple that with the creaking bones of new additions Garret Anderson and the twin Ortiz terrors, and we can see the limited flexibility provided by our roster. Growing old is getting old.
I know I got incredibly lucky at the home opener last year, watching the Dodgers pound Randy Johnson and the Giants while Orlando Hudson cycled his way to Dodgers history. I'm hoping for another great Opening Day today, as well (come on by Field Level 44 if you want to say hi; I'll likely be wearing a Dodgers jersey). I know it will be crowded (as Opening Days always are), with a stadium filled with rabid, hopefully not too drunk fans; but I don't mind. I figure I'll either be surrounded (or spiralling).
Swoon album layout and design done by the incredibly talented Sara Cumings Design. I'm a big fan. (Even if you don't write me back.)
209 comments:
1 – 200 of 209 Newer› Newest»It's time for Dodgers Baseball!
Time to start baseball season! Fer reals this time!
I'm en route! We're coming off the 2 and heading toward the secret gate!
Drinking on some side street before I drive up Sunset Gate.
Let the great experiment begin!!!!
man oh man I wish I could be there!
side-street drinking rules too! just make sure the keys aren't in the ignition if you are drinking in your car
Gameday link added to main post.
The Silversun Pickups are a very under-rated band. They are one of my favorites!
Noted FB. TG for sister in laws who are willing to drive my lazy ass around.
Here! And the place is lookin' gorgeous!
Alright, who made it to the Shortstop?? 2 buck PBR's are nothing to pass up in this economy.
Josh S, I'm here too. Shoot me a post with your location and I'll stop by to say hi.
This place is BEAUTIFUL today. AZ BP.
Looked at the Victory Knot. $18. Victory? Not.
Great Lakes Loons story on the D-Vision
You guys are getting me all riled up. I haven't been to opening day since '04, but I'm wishing I was there today.
Loge Lounge - anyone
109 Loge
I'm in loge 158 M.
I'm in. Glee!
That whole dodgers being shown up by scrub pitchers doesn't count for opening day right?
Hope not. YAY!!
I agree with MC. The only consolation we who are at home have is we get to hear Mr. Scully call the game.
Any sign of Jamie McCourt?
Dusty, where are you in 109loge, what are you wearing?
Jamie McCourt is sitting this one out. A short in the LA Times says she won't be at the game.
Radio time for me at work.
She probably couldn't afford a ticket.
I love how the kfc double down is out trending dodger stadium in LA right now.
#wearefat
Here we go! Good luck guys
Good luck my friends!!!
trying to get excited about the dodgers again, hope today is the day it happens
Go Blue!
I’m envious of those that are there. MLBN is no consolation. Have a great time and drink one for the rest of us poor souls destined to be elsewhere. GO BLUE!
wish i could hear vinny right now
Happy Opening Day, everyone!
Leadoff weak hit single. Ugh.
nice pic nic
a lot of strikes from kkershaw is encouraging
@ Sax
109 Loge row M seat 1
wearing traditional LA hat and Los Dodgere tee.
Good job CK
reynolds well on his way to breaking his own k record
3 strikeouts for Ck so far
how does kelly johnson have 3 homeruns this year so far?
home loney?
Rancho Ardiendo for Martin!
Oh Snap! C'Mon JMart
Dusty, I'll be up there around the eighth inning. I've already had a great time meeting Josh S and Mrs S....
patience j mart
Sac fly for Martin. Dodgers up 1-0.
in play run(s)!
i was wondering what the secret gate steve is talking about in his comment earlier? wish i could have made it for openning day, will be there saturday though for Lincecum vs Haeger
at least we got kennedy's pitch count up
8th it is Sax
Who-hoo! Meeting canceled, office goldbricking schedule resumes!
kkkk
Kershaw at 48 pitches through three. 1-0 Dodgers
Anyone wanna split a victory knot?
should we start calling him kkkkkkemp
Kemp really knows how to ruin a good at bat.
Why is Tommy wearing a sleeveless canary yellow sweater on opening day?
5 k's for CK
another strike out for kemp :(.... dusty, i just looked up the victory knot and it looks f'ing delicious!
Kemp must have been blinded by the glare of his gold glove.
gamecast said that ball was over the fence
I was reading that Honeycutt and Torre want Kershaw to pitch to contact more.
I don't think that's what they had in mind.
Reynolds struck out again?
Shocking.
Charlie keeps referring to Adam LaRouche as LeRoach.
almost dropped the f bomb in the middle of my class
kershaw looking pretty efficient out there 71 pitches through 4
@koufax: Allow me.
Fuck! 1-1.
thanks rbn
The hit for RBI was fluke. Good sequence in that AB for him and that was a good pitch. Just broken bat luck. ..
The delino is in the house. Walked 100 miles to get here. Awful bloopers. Awful lines. Great hot dog. Solid game. Mannys up....
Manny being manny!!!
boom
And she is gone! Thanks Manny
That looked like a monster HR on gamecast
dont recall manny having a solid at bat like that for a while
That looked like (at least on GameDay) like Manny's best AB of the year.
Pretty pretty pretty good
....Come on loney...do ny fb team proud
@Casey... 2010 = Home Loney
MANNY!
Holy shit, 3G sucks here.
No Beard Bomb
apparently they figured out that 88 mph fastball
I feel better now
Haha, my bad (@Steve)
cant remember seeing a homerun hit off of the first pitch after a coaching visit to the mound, love it. just throw strikes son...
Sweet....blake, loney bri ing me the points.
Casey and...uh, Home Loney?!
That's a good, good thing to see.
My father in law hit a guy in the face while going for a beach ball
Near as I can tell from Gameday. Kennedy has a slow flat fastball and off-speed pitches that can't get in the zone. Not a good recipe.
Josh,
Let me guess. AT&T? It was absolute hell for me in the playoffs last year. The bandwidth is totally inadequate for 57,099 fans all tweeting simultaneously.
Josh s.heard you.are in my row? My 3g sucks too
Kershaw has lost the strikezone.
Here comes another three run homer.
@NicJ - time to bring in your avatar
Power on Opening Day? Love it.
From his back..that is some kind of man
100
Women in blue fan club just got advertised. Tee hee
Walked away to do some actual work and I missed the bombs. Love coming back to a lead though.
*heart resumes beating*
Kershaw stepped in some lucky s__t that inning
Bison
Estimated distance on Manny HR: 435 ft. (via @dylanohernandez)
Homerun derby today! Save some of that patented mojo, lads.
A delayed BISON MODE!
Beach ball
It's 2010 and grown men have been begging to do the wave since the third inning. This is my town.
Nice patience.
Uh, time for the hook, Joe.
@ Keven C
They are remembering the 80's...
Aa fight broke out just out of my view. Consarnit
THROW A STRIKE.
effing god...
Is Joe leaving CK in because he's afraid of our bullpen?
FINALLY, a strike.
That was a miracle K. Now PULL HIM.
Hell yeah! 'bout time for another K
I think Broxton can pitch today, Torre must put him now
The question now is if Jeff Weaver will be better.
Clayton dancdd into the fire enough. Good houdini like game
Ortiz sighting in bullpen
FAAAAAACK.
So is the plan to just destroy Weaver this year?
Back to class now
Splat cam...genius.
We learned if you drop a tv one level it smashes.
3g is fine at my angle. Now if they could just invent a battery that lasted more than 2 hrs. Note to apple: look at mars rover.
So let me get this straight...Kershaw was allowed to throw 109 pitches in 4 2/3 innings in his first start of the season (most of any major leaguer), and then 111 in 5 1/3 (probably going to be most among major leaguers this week again) in his second start?
What happened to protecting that golden arm?
Will Kemp make Ri-Ri laugh again???
ETHIER!!
Holy hell we're hammering these clowns.
Homerun Galore
WHOOO!
If our lead gets a little bigger, we might be able to safely bring He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named...
This game is awesome.
Sax is awesome.
My connection is not awesome.
@ MR F
I'm confused, you are talking abou Sherrill right??
Hey, the thin Ortiz is in.
Is a 7 run lead enough for an Ortiz brother?
@Spanky:
Digging the Rush Avatar
Damn you, Ra Ortiz.
Steiner: "Reynolds lifts a flyball to fairly deep left field. It's more than fairly deep, it's gone."
Midseason form already.
@Karen:
NO!
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named = Voldemortiz
I can't wait for the return of Belly, Kuo and (mentally) Sherrill.
98% win chance on FanGraphs...
Where's the damn hook?
My god, this bullpen is incredible.
bloop, down to 97%
Get him out of there! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
@neeebs - that's my band. Damn, it was just 9-2 WTF!!!!!!!!!!
This week should be a huge wakeup call. Bring up McDizz and Belisario already! Hell, Lindblom, too!
@Spanky:
So are you Alex, Geddy, or Neil?
It's finally over.
The delinos real face was seen...by end of this innining, ill have aged enought that it won't matter
@neeebs I'm the Snowdog LOL
2112
Stuck in a meeting. What's the current score?
9-5 Blue on top of Snakes.
Not very smart JMart
The sun has finally reached me. Cursed warmth
Did everyone leave the stadium already or are you too drunk too post a comment
The Delino's not used to natural light.
Prediction: we will not end the season 162-0.
Ramooooooooon
Is DSB guy there? Didn't see him at the Cleveland exhibition.
That Rihanna has a talented boyfriend.
Was that Yoko Ono in the stands behind home plate?
We survived our bullpen! Yaaaaaay!
WE WIN!
That's more like it! Hoorah us.
I liked it better when shaggy was the most unpredictable guy we had in the pen, rather than middle of the pack.
A nice little win. The pen sucks, but its not really complete at the moment. If it continues to struggle when Kuo/Belli get back ill start to worry.
Traaaaaaaaafic.
Wasn't Belly1 supposed to be back next week, anyway?
well it depends, he is on the restricted list so he is basically working without pay. He should be ready soon but you never know if the organization wants to sit him out the full 30 days on the restricted list to send him a message. If the ortizes keep pitching like crap i dont think that message will be worth losing games over though.
good win
I don't like relying on homers to score our runs - it just doesn't work, long-term, in our park, but i'll take it. I like that we drew a lot of walks too.
FB, true. But i dont want to be on the lower third in HR totals. Its really hard to win games without the longball when your pitching is shaky and you dont have a whole lot of speed on the basepaths.
Before today Albert Pujols had more HR's than our entire team.
Back home. Exhausted. Happy.
Sax, Delino, and Dusty are all just as cool in real life as they are on here. Maybe even cooler.
This shoutout going to my sister in law for driving, to Josh for stopping by, and to Sax for also checking in. Great day at the Yard made better by good company. Checking in later w some thoughts and some tastefully post-processed photos.
Glad you made it through the traffic, Josh. It was bad, but not as awful as it can be sometimes.
So what do I do with the rest of my evening? Oh, I start watching the game again on Tivo.
#DustyNeedsALife
Dusty, Josh S, etc: send pix! We'll post them or at least links to them...
Sax: Will do, when I'm back in front of my computer later.
Will do. I'll upload to a Flickr or Flickr-lookin' account.
Wow what a game. I'm still sobering up...
That's weird, Sax...I'm still getting drunk!
If it matters to anyone, Buccos leading San Francicso(sic) 3-0, still batting in the top of third.
@MLASF-
I just checked. Yep, it matters! Thx for the update.
Having some 'za and uploading some pics from the day. Can't wait to post some masterful insight/useless snakrk later on. GLEE anyone?
Mr. LASF: When they introduced Monasterios during the pregame, I let out a huge "YEEEEAAAHHHH!!" and then realized I was the only one who had made any noise. It drew a good chuckle from those around me.
Thanks for representing me, Josh. When will people learn about the greatness that is Monasterios?
Here are some photos I took today. I'm no Jon Soohoo, but hope you all enjoy.
http://tinyurl.com/y3jcgj9
Here's to many more successful Opening Days.
Why was that game closer than it had to be?
Why didn't they use Monteserios?
Can we cut an Ortiz now, for god's sake?
Hey! Glee's on you bunch of worn out drunks!
I'm watching GLEE. I'm not worn out!
@Dusty
I loved your pics! Thank you for sharing.
Glad you liked them, Karen!
"Did you know that dolphins are just gay sharks?"
Nice line from GLEE.
I had a brutal day in enemy territory but a Dodger win made everything alright.
Thanks for the pics Dusty. I like that the Odyssey is right next to the Simpsons guide.
3 more outs and this day will be complete.
@Paul
Between both Homers, all wisdom is contained.
Now just one more out.
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