The Opening Day font reminds me of either Disneyland or a graveyard. Weird.
I swear, the new graphics for this season of Dodger baseball make me think management believes the more fonts you use, the more money you’ll make! Holy cow! Not only does every single announcement have, like, 6 different fonts, but the announcement cards for the players use nonstop changing fonts for their numbers. Some of the fonts look like bubblegum, others like they belong on a tombstone. It’s a real mishmosh.
What was not convoluted on this glorious Opening Day was the team’s resolve to kick some Cardinal ass! After Mookie Betts walked, Shohei Ohtani did what he’s getting the big bucks for: he doubled to right field and got the (almost) full house rocking! Unfortunately, our overly cautious third-base coach, Dino Ebel, held Mookie at 3rd (he could easily have scored), and Shohei got doubled up on that base, so he was out. But then Freddie Freeman knocked in Mookie with a beautiful seeing-eye single up the middle, and there was no looking back! The Dodgers took their home opener, 7-1.
What most impressed me, however, was the great pitching we got from starter Tyler Glasnow (an alum of my alma mater, Hart High School) and reliever Ryan Yarbrough, who got a 3-inning save after he and Glasnow kept all the Cardinals except Paul (“I Hate L.A.”) Goldschmidt from getting any hits at all.
It was just a great team effort all the way around, and if it doesn’t start raining soon, we’ll be back at it tonight. A great start to the season!
The view from our new seats in Top Deck 9. It was not my choice to move; the Dodgers management just likes to mess with those of us in the real fans’ section!
We open at home against the St. Louis Cardinals tomorrow at 1:10 p.m.
I could not sleep last night, I was fretting so much about getting to the game on time tomorrow, walking up to the stadium, what I would take to eat, whether I would make it in time for the first pitch. (This year, I am truly going to try to take score at every game I attend.)
Thus far, since Korea, the Dodgers have shown a somewhat lackluster level of energy. They lost that 2nd game — a nearly 4-hour slugfest — to the Padres in Seoul (Game 2: SD 15-LAD 11). I had my DVR set to record for 3½ hours, so I didn’t see the final innings! But I did see the 1st, when our new ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto put the game out of reach by giving up 5 runs almost immediately.
The freeway series was equally underwhelming. We won the first game, but lost the second two. My husband and I went to the games at Dodger Stadium, and it was too cold out there to sit and watch our Boys in Blue play with the enthusiasm of teenagers in detention. I hope they were just saving their strength for tomorrow.
I’m looking forward to another great season! We have a lineup to die for, but unfortunately, our pitching is thus far nothing to write home about. If we don’t have more effective arms on the mound, we might as well not hope for any trophies, just a certificate of participation and a fun time at the ballpark.
Noah Syndergaard on the mound in St. Louis on May 20.
Today we start a three-game holiday weekend series in Tampa Bay. The Rays, in the American League East, have the very best record in all of baseball (37-15, .712). We have the best record in a meager National League West (31-20, .608).
They are 7 games ahead of the New York Yankees. We are 1.5 games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks. (To be fair, the D’backs have a slightly better record than the Yanks.)
I fret for our chances today, but I have faith in the Boys in Blue. They have proven hard to count out, even when faced with a seemingly insurmountable deficit. Our starter, Noah Syndergaard, is 1-3 with a 5.88 ERA, which isn’t great. But their starter, Jalen Beeks, is 1-2 with a 4.68 ERA. So they’re rather evenly matched, statistics-wise.
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The last time I wrote was on Mothers’ Day (Sunday, May 14). I was so happy, and the Dodgers did not let me down. The Cat Man, Tony Gonsolin, pitched the boys to a shutout victory over the Padres, 4-0.
The next day (Monday, May 15) was Mookie Betts Bobblehead Night, and Stephen and I both went. It started out great for our team: we took a 5-2 lead into the 5th inning with Syndergaard on the mound. He had to leave then — I think his finger hurt — and gradually, the relievers called in to finish for him allowed the Twins to catch up. By the end of the 9th, it was 7-7, and we were headed for extra innings.
This is the time Stephen usually heads for the hills. But this game was so much fun that he decided to see it through. I was taking score, so there was no question about whether I would stay.
In the 10th, with that ridiculous rule that starts extra innings with a runner on 2nd, Phil Bickford loads the bases and walks in the go-ahead run! Minnesota took an 8-7 lead. (Now I’m sure Stephen will go home. He gives up easily. But no. He’s in it ’til the end.)
Lucky for us, their late reliever was just as shitty as Bickford, and he gives up an RBI single to J.D. Martinez (who had been 0-for-4 that night). We tie it up again, and on to the 11th (no scoring) and then to the 12th. Mind you, Bickford is still pitching for us. I suppose we had no other options, but also he settled down a great deal.
In the top of the 12th, with 2 outs, Bickford walks a guy. Two men on and 2 outs and Bickford gets Alex Kiriloff to fly out. It was very exciting! (Also, I had no more room on my scorecard after the 10th, so I’m just watching, cheering and whistling by this point.)
In the bottom of the 12th, as the 4-hour mark approached, Chris Taylor starts the inning on 2nd, and Mookie pops out (going 0-for-5 on his bobblehead night). Then the Twins intentionally walk Freddie Freeman, I guess to set up a double play. As Will Smith strikes out, Taylor and Freeman pull a double steal! Un-fucking-believable! So with 2 outs and two men in scoring position, Minnesota intentionally walks Max Muncy, loading the bases for .125-hitting Trayce Thompson (who had pinch-run for Martinez earlier in the game).
Thompson sees a ball, then fouls one off, then watches a sinker go right over the plate. The count 1-2, he watches the next three balls go over the plate with the patience of a saint, and he pulls off a walk-off walk. The Dodgers win 9-8, and the 20,000 or so left in the stadium go apeshit! Thompson valiantly fought off attempts to strip him of his jersey, but his teammates still made him aware how much they appreciated it!
PS: When I got home from this marathon baseball game, I re-created my scorekeeping on a 12-inning card. I present the final product:
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NOTE: From now on, I’m going to be providing links to box scores only of games I talk about specifically. Where the end result is mentioned, that is a link to the box score of that game.
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 