Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers set an MLB Opening Day record by hitting eight home runs to take down the Diamondbacks 12-5 on Monday at Chavez Ravine.
Things got started early, as the first two batters (Joc Pederson, double; Corey Seager, walk) reached base against Zack Greinke. The Dodgers managed to scratch across a run in the first inning on a Max Muncy ground out. Then, the dong parade commenced.
Pederson hit a 2-run shot in the second inning. That was followed up in the fourth inning by Enrique Hernandez‘s first of two dingers on the day. Austin Barnes, who hit four homers all of last season, teed off on Greinke in the fourth inning as well. Then Seager, making his first MLB appearance in 11 months, hit his first home run of the season.
It was 6-0 Dodgers after four innings. Greinke’s final line was quite ugly: 3 2/3 IP, 7 H, 7 R/ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 4 HR allowed. Yikes.
After a scoreless fifth inning, Pederson launched his second homer of the day in the sixth off Diamondback reliever Matt Koch.
Then in the seventh, Muncy, Cody Bellinger and Hernandez all went deep to make it a 12-2 contest. Like Greinke, Koch gave up four dingers of his own.
Funny enough, two of the five Diamondback runs came via the home run — one from Adam Jones, one from Christian Walker. So, there were 10 dongs at Dodger Stadium on the afternoon.
But it wasn’t just an impressive bit of slugging from the Dodgers. Hyun-Jin Ryu was great in his season debut: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R/ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 1 HR, 82 pitches, 59 strikes, 4/2 GO/AO. He’s the first Dodger pitcher not named Clayton Kershaw to make an Opening Day start since 2010, and he fared quite well.
Yimi Garcia and Brock Stewart closed out the game for the Dodgers. Garcia gave up a run, while Stewart gave up three garbage time runs in his two innings of work.
The Dodgers move to 1-0 on the young season. Ross Stripling gets the ball in Game 2 of the series. He’ll be facing off against Robbie Ray. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Pacific time.
