Monday, April 01, 2013

Post-Game 1 Thread: A Day for Lefties

"How about you and I rule the world five years from now?"

DODGERS 4, GIANTS 0

First off, kudos to the Dodgers organization for the classy and thrilling pre-game ceremonies on Opening Day. There was an impressive star-studded video played on the new Dodger Stadium screens, but the highlight was Sandy Koufax throwing out the first pitch to Orel Hershiser (below). Chills? Chills. SoSG AC, SoSG Dusty and SoSG Sax were in attendance and let's hope we hear from them what the buzz at the stadium was like.

The Dodgers got off to a great start in the first inning off Matt Cain, making him throw a lot of pitches and getting two men on with no out. But Carl Crawford tried to play hero by stealing third and was thrown out easily by Buster Posey, and the inning fell apart after that. Despite making Cain throw 29 pitches, the Dodgers went scoreless in the first.

Clayton Kershaw and Cain proceeded to lock everything down by throwing up matching zeroes for seven and a half innings. Cain ended up with eight Ks, Kershaw seven.

Then came the bottom of the eighth. Bruce Bochy had already pulled Cain after 92 pitches. First up to face reliever Goerge Kontos is Kershaw, who crushes the first pitch to deep center for his first major-league home run. The Dodgers went on to score three more, but of course Kershaw's home run was the game-winner. According to the post-game interview, Kershaw is the first pitcher to throw a complete game and hit a home run on Opening Day since Bob Lemon in 1953.

So, pay the man already. 2013 just got off to a pretty damn fine start.

photo, from 2008, by Jon SooHoo/Dodgers

27 comments:

Fred's Brim said...

Goddamn right!

Hideo Nomo said...

I haven't tried to stand up since Kershaw's homer. I'm worried I might fall right over.

Franklin Stubbs said...

Aroldis Chapman is still good at baseball.

Cliff Beefpile said...

Looks like the zombie Expos are pretty good too.

MR.F said...

Replay:
http://www.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?c_id=la&content_id=25943321&partnerId=as_mlb_20130401_6805234

Kershaw looks like a hitter at the plate. He's not just trying to make contact; he's trying to hit line drives.

Franklin Stubbs said...

Votto aboard on an error with no outs. Reds and Angels still tied in the 11th

Orel said...

Former spring-training Dodger Mark Lowe gets off the hook. On to the 12th.

Orel said...

Bore-joes triple.

Orel said...

Wow, Trout goes down swinging.

Orel said...

An-hels strand Bore-joes.

Orel said...

Cesar Izturis up for the Reds. He looks exactly the same.

Orel said...

C.J. Wilson and Josh Hamilton did a Head & Shoulders commercial.

Dusty Baker said...

AC was in tha heezy, too! We'll all chime in some way later but for now I'm still trying to come down from the thrill of today's game. Sorry couldn't make the GT but the cellular service was terrible!

Orel said...

Thanks, updated!

Nostradamus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dusty Baker's Toothpick said...

When do the playoffs start?

Pride of Dong said...

First game tomorrow, who's coming with me?

karen said...

I wonder if The Kid is into older women. Read NOT old, just older.

Johnny Blanchard said...

Lots of complaints about parking on Dodger Talk. Was it really any different than normal?

I park on Lookout (although I was lucky to get a spot today), and I was home to the LBC by 5pm.

Paul said...

Getting out of the parking lot was bad but normal bad. Although the lack of any parking attendants to direct traffic out there was annoying.

Steve Sax said...

Parking was really bad this Opening Day, worse than normal. Must be the ghost of Frank McCourt haunting us.

Dusty Baker said...

Agree w the above. Parking - mainly exiting - was the worst that I can remember. It's like it took me as much time to exit as the game took to start and finish. It's not that hard, Dodgers - call Booz Allen Hamilton, do a few studies, look at some aerial, and fix this shit.

Paul said...

I was actually out quicker than most games so I must have been lucky.

Steve Sax said...

@Dusty: Booz concentrates in defense nowadays, so I'm not sure if i'd hire them

I believe McKinsey consulted to the Dodgers back when they picked up Darryl Strawberry. You can draw your own conclusions from that.

Alex said...

booze concentrates in my liver...

Paul said...

Not very productive this morning cause I keep looking for more info on the Dodgers. 7:10 pm can't get here soon enough.

Orel said...

Enjoy the perfect record while we can!