Through all of the pomp and circumstance that is typically a part of Opening Day festivities, we still had to play a ballgame. And what a ballgame it was.
We had the defending World Series Champion Giants in town to renew, if not revitalize, a rivalry that has been painfully one-sided the past several years. On top of that, we were bound to witness a pitching duel, as the staff aces for both clubs took the mound.
For my money, I'd place a bet on Kershaw over anybody these days, and if you did that then you came out a happy camper. As expected, we did witness a duel for the ages. Back and forth, Cain and Kershaw matched each other pitch for pitch. Cain went 6 innings while spreading around 4 hits. He also recorded 8 strike outs. For the most part, he had stifled the Dodger bats.
Kershaw was even better- way better! He pitched a complete game to record his first win of the season on just 94 pitches. Better yet, the Dodger bats were so quiet he had to win it for himself at the plate.
With the game still tied at zero, Clayton came up to bat lead-off at the bottom of the 8th inning and proceeded to belt his first career MLB home run to straight away centerfield. Heck, I bet he hasn't hit anything that hard since he
pitched a high school perfect game that was capped with an aluminum bat home run by him.
With that, the flood gates began to open, ever so slightly. For the remainder of the inning, the Dodgers played some small ball to record another 3 runs before Clayton finished the Giants off in the ninth inning.
Wow! What an incredible afternoon to be a Dodger fan!
As a follow up, I thought I would share a tweet from Clayton's wife, Ellen. She tweeted this just minutes after her husband put the Dodgers ahead for good. See it below.
You can also watch a bit of the
home run here.
Video Link:
Pic Credit/photo at very top:
@Dodgers on twitter:
UPDATE:
Below is an even better video of Clayton's Home Run, via the Dodgers.
Video Link: