Isn’t it bad enough the Padres had to face Clayton Kershaw -- the best pitcher in baseball -- on Opening Day? Can’t the baseball gods cut them a little slack? Apparently not, as the Dodgers’ offense was as unstoppable as Kershaw. And nobody homered.
Yeah, Kershaw did his thing. The lefty went seven innings, allowed only one hit and one walk while striking out nine. As if you’d expect anything else from the three-time Cy Young Award winner.
On offense, both Chase Utley and Adrian Gonzalez had three hits each. Gonzalez had three rib-eyes, as did A.J. Ellis. Utley, Corey Seager, and Trayce Thompson had two each. Every starter in the Dodgers’ lineup, including Kershaw, had at least one hit and one run scored.
The game was competitive through five innings, but the Dodgers broke out for five runs in the fifth inning against Tyson Ross and it started when Puig was hit by a pitch with one out. The Dodgers then got five consecutive hits, turning a 3-0 lead into an 8-0 lead.
The Dodgers tacked on three more in the seventh on a Thompson two-run double and an Utley RBI single. It continued into the eighth with four more runs, which included Puig tripling into a Little League home run. The game ended, mercifully, in a 15-0 Dodgers victory.
Per Bill Center, it’s the worst Opening Day shutout loss in major league history and the worst Opening Day loss in the Padres’ history. Ouch.
