Dodgers' Matt Kemp, left, pours a bucket of ice water on Clayton Kershaw as he is being interviewed.(Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA straight cancelled Sports)
The offshoot of a six-month journey is no place to draw conclusions. So sue us. USA TODAY Sports fanned forbidden across the country for crack day and learned more than you'd think from bingle day of baseb all(prenominal).
***
FROM KOUFAX TO KERSHAW
Clayton Kershaw power be mend than we thought — if that's possible.
Before Monday's game, the Los Angeles Dodgers had a nifty infinitesimal skit in which team legend Sandy Koufax came out to " reduce" co-owner Magic Johnson and throw out the ceremonial starting pitch.
OPENING DAY: Box scores
MORE: Kershaw does it all with a shutout, home run
Then Kershaw did an awfully lifelike impression of the mid-1960s Koufax, all overwhelming the support World Series champion San Francisco Giants in a 4-0 success highlighted by his kickoff career home run.
Kershaw is the first Dodgers ewer to homer on opening day since Don Drysdale in 1965, but the Hall of Famer whose memory he usually evokes is Koufax, who rejoined the Dodgers transcription as an instructor this spring after years of estrangement.
"It admit the day complete with him throwing out the first pitch and thusly Clayton throwing the last pitch," catcher A.J. Ellis said. "It was almost like a freeing of the torch-type day. Two iconic Dodger lefties linked, pitching off the like mound on the same day. It was pretty surreal."
So was the sight of Kershaw, a .146 career hitter coming, leading off the eighth by slamming George Kontos' pitch over the fence in center for the game's first run.
Kershaw raced around the bases and watched his teammates build the margin in a four-run eighth, because completed the sixth shutout of his career.
"What an awesome feeling. It was so very much fun," Kershaw said of his trip around the bases. "I didn't know what I was doing."
***
YANKEES' BATS STAY SILENT
We learned early on opening day what we suspected throughout spring training: The newly York Yankees will be searching for offense.
Manager Joe Girardi says that isn't necessarily so, but the omit of clutch hitting in Monday's loss to the archrival capital of Massachusetts loss Sox suggests otherwise for a team that's missing Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez.
MORE: Red Sox handle the crushed Yankees in win
The Yankees got six hits but had runners on base in seven of the nine innings. But they also struck out 10 times, including seven times with runners on base. The most decisive sequence came in the seventh inning after the first both batters walked and with the Yankees down 5-2 in a game they would pull away 8-2.
Red Sox reliever Andrew Miller struck out Eduardo Nunez and, more significantly, Robinson Cano — the extend remaining hitter in the middle of the Yankees batting found — with 97-mph fastballs.
Andrew Bailey came into the game and fanned former Red Sox Kevin Youkilis.
"It's one game. You don't make too much of it," Girardi says.
He knows better. His team plays in New York.
"We brought in a lot of new guys late (in spring training)," Girardi says. "They're difference to get opportunities. They need to perform."
Among those recent additions Girardi refers to, Vernon Wells, Ben Francisco, Travis Hafner and Lyle Overbay played Monday. They combined for one hit in eight at-bats.
"Yes, we are a divergent kind of lineup," Girardi says. "We're probably going to score runs in a different way. I don't think we're going to hit 240 homers."
***
Bryce harpist waves to the crowd after hitting a solo home run against the Marlins in the fourth inning. It was his second of the day.(Photo: Rob Carr, Getty Images)
TWO-MAN SHOW LIGHTS UP D.C.
Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper unfastened could dominate the case federation this gentle.
They fit their personalities to a lay — the flamboyant Harper and the steady, unassuming Strasburg — during a 2-0 victory against the Miami Marlins on Monday.
MORE: Harper hits cardinal home runs in opener
What can top setting off the crowd with a long home run in your first at-bat? Doing it again the next time up. That was Harper's start to the season.
Perfect, right — especially with Strasburg giving up three hits in seven innings?
Not so, Harper says.
"I think the perfect ruler would be a World Series win," says the 20-year-old, who began last season in the minors but ended up National League sonny boy of the year. "If that was Game 7 and we did that and win the ballgame, that would be the perfect thing for us."
This wasn't Strasburg at his most spectacular — he struck out three — but it was the efficient pitcherful he says he wants to be, especially now that he's non relations with the controversial innings limits that ended his 2012 season in early September.
Manager Davey Johnson has predicted all spring we'll see the best Strasburg yet now that he's not distracted by the limitations. And the opener was the first step in vindication for general manager Mike Rizzo, who took much of the waken for shutting down the right-hander in the year after elbow surgery.
Strasburg threw 80 pitches Monday before turning the game over to the bullpen.
***
CUBS HAVE TWO FOR THE SHOW
There's no truth to the assumption the moolah Cubs will be unwatchable this season.
At least not when Jeff Samardzija is starting. And not when Anthony Rizzo is reminding the two clubs that gave up on him that they'll live to regret it. And when the sky is gifted and the beer is cold at Wrigley Field.
OK, so only two of those elements were at play Monday, when Chicago defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 at PNC Park, as Samardzija won the first opening-day start of his career by tossing eight innings of goalless ball and allowing two hits.
With the Houston Astros taking their sad-sack act to the American League West, the Cubs are widely expected to assume the mantle of the belabor team in the NL Central. They went 61-101 last season, made mostly nonfunctional changes and have not concealed their intentions to rebuild.
One win vs. the Pirates will not change that perception, but at least the Cubs can operate to having a few pieces in place for a better future. One is Rizzo, the first baseman who batted .285 with 15 homers as a rookie last season after being traded by the Boston Red Sox in December 2010 and by the San Diego Padres in January 2012.
Rizzo's two-run homer in the first provided all the scoring Samardzija would need, as the right-hander outdueled Pittsburgh's A.J. Burnett.
***
Materials taken from USA Today
No comments:
Post a Comment