The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres met to begin the regular season for a second straight year. While the scene shifted from Dodger Stadium to Petco Park in 2016, Clayton Kershaw was nonetheless on the mound for a sixth consecutive Opening Day start.
Kershaw entered 3-0 with 1.14 ERA in season openers, with the Dodgers going 5-0 in those games. He’d thrown at least six innings in each of the four of the five starts; only failing to do so in 2012 when he tossed three shutout frames and was removed because of a stomach flu.
Monday came with much of the same from the left-handed ace, who was spotted 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to Chase Utley, Corey Seager and Adrian Gonzalez combining for one single, two doubles and two RBIs.
Kershaw went to a full count against Jon Jay in the bottom of the first before getting the Padres center fielder to whiff on a pitch outside of the zone for his first strikeout. Jay then came back in the third inning and dropped a single into left field that ended Kershaw’s early no-hit bid.
Although a potential no-hitter was lost, Kershaw continued to overpower Padres hitters. He finished with nine strikeouts over seven scoreless innings, improving to 4-0 with a 0.93 ERA in six Opening Day starts.
As for the Dodgers, their 15-0 win was the largest shutout victory on Opening Day in Major League baseball history.
