Padres @ Dodgers April 7, 2015: The Real Start Of The Season

Hey, that was fun, right? Clayton Kershaw! Jimmy Rollins! Adrian Gonzalez! Chris Hatcher! That was good. I enjoyed that. Let’s do it again.

Padres
Dodgers
7:10 p.m.
Los Angeles, Ca.
CF
Myers
SS
Rollins
C
Norris
RF
Puig
RF
Kemp
1B
Gonzalez
LF
Upton
2B
Kendrick
3B
Middlebrooks
C
Grandal
1B
Alonso
LF
Crawford
2B
Gyorko
3B
Uribe
SS
Amarista
CF
Pederson
P
Ross (R)
P
Greinke (R)

It’s just a little different tonight, though, starting with the fact that it is tonight and not today. We have Zack Greinke, trying to show that another rough spring was just a blip. We have Yasmani Grandal, making his Dodger debut against his old mates. We have Greinke throwing to Grandal, and not A.J. Ellis, which is interesting — though hardly unexpected — in itself. And we have rain in the forecast, enough to have the tarp on the field earlier, though not likely enough to impact the evening at all.

Yesterday was about celebration, about welcoming back the baseball season with plenty of new faces and the best pitcher in baseball on the mound. Today is about baseball, about getting down to business. A win tonight gives the Dodgers a series victory right off the bat, and that’s all you can really ask from a baseball team — win the series. You’re not going to win every game. But win two of three, or three of four, and do it regularly? That’s when things are looking good.

We’re only a day into the season, but already there’s some injury updates to share. Kenley Jansen has lost his walking boot and played catch on flat ground today, with the target for his return being “mid-May.” Hyun-jin Ryu played catch today as well, which is a good sign. Still no word, just yet, on who takes that start against Seattle next week that would have otherwise been Ryu’s.

There’s time for that, though. Right now, there’s just Tyson Ross and the Padres.

[table id=5 /]

About Mike Petriello

Mike writes about lots of baseball in lots of places, and right now that place is MLB.com.