We heard it for the first time last year right around this time … “opener.” Not a starting pitcher, but an opening pitcher. It could be a regular starter who goes only one or two innings but it is usually a reliever who begins the game but goes only one inning and then hands the ball off to another reliever, and so on, and so on, and so on, until it’s time to bring in the closer to finish the game. It’s not rocket science, it’s just … different.

Although Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t use the exact word “opener” when talking about his star left-hander Clayton Kershaw on Monday morning when asked if Kershaw might start / open the game on March 28 against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium on a very limited pitch count to kickoff the 2019 campaign (thus keeping his consecutive Opening Day starts intact), it’s more a matter of semantics.

“Yeah, for sure,” Roberts answered. “But we still have to be on the same page with the two guys (Kershaw and right-hander Walker Buehler), see if it makes sense for them. They’ve got to believe in that, feel good about it, and we as well from a roster standpoint.”

As Dodger fans know, Kershaw experienced shoulder discomfort after his second bullpen session of the spring and after throwing live batting practice a few days later. As a result, the Dodgers shut him down completely and he just recently began throwing again – although not off a mound – until Monday morning, when he threw his first bullpen session since February 20; a 20-pitch session of only fastballs at what Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt called “…a clean 80 percent and I think that’s right where he needed to be today.”

As for Kershaw himself, he was as optimistic as he has been all spring after the session.

“Good day. Good step forward for sure,” Kershaw said. “Felt great. It was another good day and I’ll take that right now. Just keep moving forward and start building up.”

Is it a big deal for Kershaw to be the Opening Day starter / opener, which would set a new Dodgers franchise record at nine?

“Yes and no, I guess,” answered the soon-to-be (on March 19) 31-year-old future Hall of Famer. “Yes because I’ve got a little streak going, just the history behind it is pretty cool. But no in the fact that it’s not worth … it’s one game. You have to kind of weigh that back and forth. So, yes and no.”

How can anyone not love Kershaw’s brutal honesty?

Play Ball!

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