And here we are. The 2021 Major League Baseball season begins tomorrow; a season that is expected to be a full 162 games, with a full round of playoffs that will (hopefully) lead up to a complete best-of-seven 2021 World Series.

“I think that we couldn’t have got through Spring any better,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters following his team’s 6-4 win over the Angels of Anaheim in the final game of the annual preseason Freeway Series on Tuesday night. “Guys are ready to get going regular season; we came out of it relatively healthy.

“We’ve got a couple guys on the IL – Brusdar [Graterol] and Joe [Kelly], but position player-wise, I think guys are swinging the bats well, their bodies feel good, starting pitching, guys in the pen, all that stuff is lined up; so, excited for Thursday,” Roberts added.

That starting pitching thing is huge. In yet another show of offensive power in Tuesday’s series finale (four home runs including two by future Hall of Fame outfielder Mookie Betts), 23-year-old Dodgers right-hander (and recently-named fifth starter) Dustin May was outstanding in his final tune-up of the Spring.

“I thought he was in control emotionally, mechanically. I thought the fastball had the best command that he’s had all Spring,” Roberts said of May. “He could throw a strike when he needed to, and I was really impressed the way that he and Will [Smith] stuck with the breaking ball. The curveball, specifically it wasn’t good early, but the last couple innings he was striking it, he was shortening it, he’d get swing and miss, so really encouraging coming out of that outing.”

The Dodgers finished Spring Training 2021 with a mediocre 13-11-5 (.542) record. That said, most of those 11 losses came after the regulars had been removed from the games. As was expected, a good many of those 13 wins, including Tuesday night’s 6-4 win over the Angels, were the result of the Dodgers tremendous power bats. They finished the Spring, having hit a combined 35 home runs, including four in each of the three Freeway Series games. In those 29 so-called “meaningless” Spring Training games, 2020 World Series MVP Corey Seager hit a team-leading eight home runs.

Betts’ two home runs on Tuesday night were his first and second of the Spring and are a good indication that he is heating up at exactly the right time.

The Dodgers open the 2021 regular season on Thursday afternoon against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40 PM PT, with Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw making his franchise-record ninth Opening Day start for the Dodgers. He will oppose Rockies right-hander German Márquez.

Play Ball!

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