Dodgers blast off on Opening Day, tying franchise record for homers
by Rowan Kavner
For a team that set an Opening Day record for home runs in a game Thursday afternoon, the Dodgers seemed relatively cool and composed after an emphatic win to start the 2019 season.
It’s not that they didn’t enjoy themselves as they tied a franchise record for homers in a game with eight blasts, starting in the second inning with the first of two on the day from Joc Pederson and capped by a three-homer seventh inning, it’s just they know as well as any team how fickle this lengthy trek of a season can be.
So they reveled briefly as player after player jogged around the bases — six different players in total going deep — then put the 12–5 victory against the Diamondbacks in perspective.
“We can enjoy that right now, but we’ve got to come back tomorrow and do it again,” said Pederson, who finished 3-for-5 with three extra-base hits. “Enjoy this moment. And move on.”
The club’s methodocial, even-tempered nature comes from experience. They know leading the National League in homers and walks last year didn’t guarantee they’d send out rockets in October, just as they know a scoreless start the first two games of 2018 didn’t stop them from making a second straight run to the World Series.
“We’re off to a better start,” Kiké Hernández deadpanned after his two-homer day.
Not just better, but historic.
No team had ever hit more than six home runs on an Opening Day. The Dodgers doubled their previous record of four, set in 2017. By day’s end, Pederson, Hernández, Austin Barnes, Corey Seager, Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger had all notched their first homers of the year in the first game of the year.
“It’s always fun,” Bellinger said, before adding a caveat. “It’s probably not always going to be like that.”
That type of even-keeled nature is what manager Dave Roberts said he expects from his players, even if they understand and appreciate the depth, talent, power and patience they possess. All of those traits were on display Thursday.
“The homers, scoring the runs, are a byproduct of good at-bats,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot of work behind the scenes these guys have put in each day. … Not to get too high or too low, that’s kind of the mark of a champion.”
The Dodgers set the tone immediately.
The first batter starting pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu faced struck out. The first Dodger batter of the season, Pederson, doubled. In his next at-bat, Pederson sent a two-run homer out to center.
By then, Arizona starter Zack Greinke was already taxed.
Greinke threw 30 pitches in the first inning, with Pederson, Seager and A.J. Pollock each working at least six-pitch plate appearances before reaching base. The same occurred an inning later with an eight-pitch single from Barnes leading up to the Pederson home run.
The homers would then come in bunches, including three in the fourth inning and another three in the seventh.
The three in the fourth would end the day for Greinke, who allowed seven runs in 3 2/3 innings. His last batter of the day was Seager, who, in his first Major League game since April 29, 2018, homered and reached base twice. That ended an inning that also included back-to-back home runs from Hernández and Barnes.
“It was a solid day for everyone,” Pederson said. “We saw the ball really well, put some good swings on it, and that’s what we’re capable of.”
This wasn’t a game about the superstars, but rather the Dodger players who highlight the club’s depth.
There was Ryu, the first person not named Clayton Kershaw to start on Opening Day for the Dodgers since 2010, answering the call and striking out eight while allowing one run in six innings.
There was Pederson, playing in one of the only platoon spots on the team in left field, knocking in five runs.
There was Muncy, coming off a career year but a homerless spring, going deep in his fourth at-bat of the year. There was Barnes, mired in an offensive slump last season, building on his standout spring with three hits including a home run.
And there was Hernández, with a starting position finally locked in, homering multiple times. He said this is the Opening Day he’s always dreamed of.
“Being in the starting lineup and having a position, it’s definitely one I’ll never forget,” Hernández said.
On a night the Dodgers tied the franchise record for home runs, matched only by the May 23, 2002, game in which Roberts watched his teammate Shawn Green hit four home runs, it’s unlikely Robert Van Scoyoc will forget it either in his first Major League game as the Dodgers’ hitting coach.
“Only downhill from here for Robert,” Roberts joked. “He’s got to feel good about this one. A credit to him, to Brant (Brown), to Aaron Bates. The players, they buy into what they’re talking about.”
