I think Kershaw closed his eyes on this swing
So today didn’t go quite as we all would have liked, and no, it was not an April Fools’ joke. Take solace in the fact that Clayton Kershaw beat the Giants, with his masterful pitching, and of course, his first career MLB home run off of Kontos in the bottom of the eighth to break a scoreless tie. Entering today’s game, Kershaw owned a 1.37 career ERA versus the Giants, and obviously lowered it by pitching a complete game shutout today.
Who knows what would have happened if Bochy had brought in Affeldt in the 8th instead of sticking with Kontos (Affeldt was warming up in the 7th, and the Dodgers had 2 lefties to lead off the eighth). I bring this up because I saw some buzz on Twitter (clearly full of even-tempered Giants fans) already chastising Bochy’s first non-move of the season. Kontos was solid in the 7th, and hey, shit happens. Yeah, Kershaw ain’t Don Robinson, Matt Cain, or Babe Ruth with the lumber, but every dog has his day, even at the plate.
The bullpen effort was a bit of a comedy show in the eighth, with a wild pitch, a walk, a botched bunt coverage, a hit batsman, extra base hits, and of course, the Kershaw home run, all leading to 4 runs, but they’ll be fine. There’s always more focus on the results of the first day of the season. It’s like a new toy you unwrapped as a kid at Christmas. You love it, caress it, play the hell out of it for the first hour or two before it usually ends up lost or in the toy bin to only get a little attention from time-to-time.
I mean, both the Astros and Dodgers are in first place right now. That won’t last long, right?
How to comfort the black and orange faithful out there:
- The first game of the season is the equivalent to the first 18 SECONDS of an NBA game
- The D’backs swept the Giants to open the 2012 season (and look what happened)
- The Giants lost their first game against the Dodgers in 2012 (9-1) and lost 2 of 3 in that first series (and look what happened)
- Panda went 2-4 and played good defense today (elbow, elbow, elbow)
- Posey cut down a speedy Crawford attempting to steal third
- Pence hit one to the left field wall
- Posey lined out hard to third base that would have set up second and third with one out
- Despite a tough first inning (29 pitches), Matt Cain looked solid out there, delivering 6 innings of shut out ball
- I nice stiff rum and coke (or three)
Let’s hope the G-men can get back on track tomorrow.
Chad
The TortureCast 