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The San Francisco Giants came into enemy territory and stole an Opening Day win from the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0. The Dodgers assigned Clayton Kershaw to throw the first pitch of their season while the Giants came through with the veteran Ty Blach. Giant ace Madison Bumgarner would've made the start, but he suffered a fractured hand off a line drive at the end of Spring Training. A few days ago, Bruce Bochy remarked he'll probably be out until June.
Kershaw got into some trouble in his first half-inning of the 2018 season. He gave up consecutive hits to the first two batters the Giants threw at him: Center Fielder Austin Jackson and 2nd Baseman Joe Panik. Thankfully, Andrew McCutchen grounded into a double play and Posey struck out swinging. Kershaw escaped unscathed after one.
After an uneventful series of at-bats by the boys in blue, the Giants came right back with a Hunter Posey double to deep left (fielded by returning Dodger Matt Kemp), and Brandon Belt singled to shallow right field. San Fran runners were on first and third, aching to make that first score of the season. Kershaw was looking uncharacteristically vulnerable in the first two innings of Opening Day, but he managed to extract a couple fly balls and a strikeout to walk off the mound with the score still 0-0.
His fastball didn't have a lot of velocity. It regularly hovered underneath 90 mph and cracked 92 a couple times. In the top of the 4th, Hunter Pence came right back at Clayton and capitalized on an 89er for a single that pushed Buster Posey to third in the process. He went back to his trusty curveball and struck out Brandon Belt on a pitch inside. He squeaked by the bubbling onslaught of Giant bats once more thanks to a speedy catch from Yasiel Puig in right field.
The Dodgers lineup couldn't figure out Ty Blach the whole game. They made him work in the first two innings to the tune of 29 pitches but didn't manage to score. Then he proceeded to get a grip of quick outs on them from the third inning to the fifth. That lack of production came back to bite them because Kershaw gave up a right field solo-homer to Joe Panik for the first score of the contest 1-0. Kershaw did manage to get two singles off of Blach, but Bruce Bochy subbed him out for a pinch hitter in the top of the 6th which ended his outing. He left the game with his team in the lead after five scoreless innings, to the surprise of many.
The Giants brought in Josh Osich in the 6th, who walked one, got a flyout and struck out two. In the seventh, the Dodgers felt some momentum again when San Francisco they sent out Cory Gearrin. He surrendered a center field single to Yasmani Grandal and a hit to the old geyser Chase Utley who pinch-hit for Dodgers reliever J.T. Chargois. Utley stole a base to set two runners in scoring position at second and third. The count was full with two outs and the sound of the crowd was rising in anticipation as Chris Taylor faced up Cory Gearrin - but he went out like a fart in the wind looking at a strike three slider down the middle.
The Dodgers had a chance to tie in the 8th it off a two-out walk drawn by Kike Hernandez, but Cody Bellinger left him stranded at first after he struck out swinging. With the score still 1-0 coming into the 9th, Matt Kemp led off the blue team with a grounder up the middle. Unfortunately, Yasmani Grandal proceeded to strike out with a huge swing down the middle. Justin Forsythe fouled a ball off high into the air right after which landed in Evan Longoria's mitt, and that brought up Joc Pederson with two outs on the board. He ended up grounding out to the shortstop for the final out, and that ended LA's 7-game Opening Day winning streak. Friday's game will pit the left-hander Alex Wood for the Dodgers against the righty Johnny Cueto.
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