In the past two Opening Days – 2016 at Petco Park and 2017 at Dodger Stadium – the Dodgers have scored 29 runs to the San Diego Padres’ three. In fact, over the past seven Opening Days, the Dodgers have won them all. When they did so on Monday, April 3, 2017 by a lopsided football-ish score of 14-3 in front of a sellout crowd of 53,701 at the Ravine, they set an all-time franchise record for most consecutive Opening Day wins – Brooklyn and Los Angeles.

Dodgers Opening Day starter Clayton Kershaw also tied a franchise record (with Hall of Famer Don Sutton) when he made his seventh consecutive start. Do you see a pattern here? Not only is Kershaw now tied with Sutton for consecutive Opening Day starts, he is now 5-0 in those seven starts to tie Hall of Famer Don Drysdale for the franchise record and his 0.99 ERA in those seven Opening Day starts is the second lowest in MLB history for at least five Opening Day starts behind only former Atlanta Braves right-hander Rick Mahler (0.92).

After a great pre-game ceremony that saw 1954 National League Rookie of the Year Wally Moon and Hall of Fame Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda throw out the ceremonial first pitch, Kershaw and his teammates embarked on their quest to win their fifth consecutive NL West Division title, and they embarked with a vengeance.

After giving up a single that was followed by an uncharacteristic throwing error by Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager in the top half of the first inning, Kershaw was absolutely brilliant, taking a one-hitter into the seventh inning when he allowed a solo home run to Padres third baseman Ryan Schimpf. Through it all, Kershaw ended his day with a line of two runs (one earned) on two hits with one walk and eight strikeouts to notch his first win of the new season, and did so making only 84 pitches (61 for strikes) in his 7.0 innings pitched.

But as he so often does, Kershaw made the overwhelming Dodgers win about his teammates, not about himself.

“If they can keep scoring double-digit runs, it’s going to be a pretty good year,” Kershaw said after the game.

In spite of his overpowering dominance of the Padres on Monday afternoon, Kershaw admitted that, like always, he had butterflies before his seventh consecutive Opening Day start.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

“The day the butterflies leave, I need to find something else to do. It means you care about what you do,” said the Dodgers ace.

To be fair, the Padres were not and probably will not be a worthy opponent in the NL West this season. Now this is certainly not to say that the Dodgers will win all of their 19 meetings against the Friars, but it’s probably safe to say that they will win more than they lose, especially those when Kershaw is on the mound.

In order to win, Kershaw needs run support and usually one or two will suffice. But on this day he was given 12 (and reliever Chris Hatcher three more), five of which came at the hands of Dodgers center fielder Joc Pederson, who had a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second inning and a game-changing grand slam home run in the third.

“I had some Opening Day jitters,” Pederson said. “I was just trying to slow the whole game down. I got some runners on base, so I just wanted to put a good swing on a pitch I could hit … and I hit it.”

There’s locked in…

…and then there’s Joc Pederson locked in.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But wait, there’s more!

In addition to Pederson’s grand salami and a three-run blast by Corey Seager, Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal slugged two home runs in Monday’s season opener. Better still, the switch-hitting backstop did so from each side of the plate; a two-run shot in the third inning batting left-handed and a three-run shot in the eighth inning from the right side.

“I was very excited to have my first start on an Opening Day,” Grandal said. “For me it was as exciting as a postseason game. I’m just happy with the outcome and also that I was able to help my team win.”

One down, 161 to go.

…plus the postseason, of course.