The Los Angeles Dodgers made their long-anticipated 2020 debut on Thursday night, defeating the San Francisco Giants, 8-1, on Opening Day to start off the shortened year on a high note.
There has been a ton of talk over the last few months about how potent the Dodgers’ lineup is after the addition of Mookie Betts, but for much of the night they looked rather pedestrian against the Giants’ pitching staff.
Johnny Cueto turned back the clock a bit by starting the game with three shutout innings. The Dodgers finally broke through in the fourth, however, as Corey Seager lined an opposite-field double into the gap and then scored on a single by Kiké Hernandez.
The Dodgers were eventually able to break it open in the late innings against the Giants’ bullpen, and Hernandez was a big reason for that. L.A.’s typical primary utilityman got the opportunity to start at second base, and he made the most of it.
Hernandez was swinging as hot of a bat as anybody in the Dodgers’ exhibition games and he carried that into the regular season, going 4-for-5 with five RBI.
He drove home two with a single in the Dodgers’ five-run seventh inning, and then he capped off his big night with a two-run home run in the eighth, accounting for the team’s first long ball of 2020.
Betts also found a way to make an impact in his first game as a Dodger, reaching base twice in five trips to the plate, with one coming on a single to left to account for his first hit with his new team.
Betts is considered to be one of the most instinctual players in baseball, and he proved why in the seventh inning when he scored the go-ahead run on a ground ball to second base off the bat of Justin Turner.
The Giants had the infield in, but Betts broke for home at the crack of the bat and slid in just ahead of the tag.
May fills in admirably for Kershaw
The big news of the day before the Dodgers took the field was that their expected Opening Day starter, Clayton Kershaw, was scratched from his start and placed on the 10-day injured list due to a back injury.
Dustin May wasn’t even part of the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster that had been announced in the morning, but he was called up and became the first rookie in the organization to start the opener since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.
Considering he took the mound on short notice, May looked as good as can be expected, pitching 4.1 innings of one-run ball while giving up seven hits with four strikeouts and no walks. His fastball touched 100 mph, which is impressive for a 22-year-old and makes it easy to see why the organization is so high on him.
The Dodgers are not sure how long Kershaw will be out, so May could get an extended opportunity to fill his spot in the rotation for the time being.
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