Dodgers: An Opening Series Preview of the Best Rivalry in Baseball

Opening Day is the most anticipated day of the year for baseball fans everywhere. Fans of their team – or just the game in general – have already received a slight taste of what some players will have to offer this season, based on their spring performances. As every year tends to begin though, we will see some surprises in hot and cold starts, early season injuries, and some unexpected eye-openers.

The beauty that Opening Day provides is that it is a fresh canvas for all players, coaches, and organizations around the entire league. The offseason work, spring training tuning, and mental preparation for a long regular season will all be put into display, once the first pitch is thrown in the 2018 season.

Not everything from the previous season will be forgotten, however. And, as for our featured opening series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, we see two teams collide in one of the most spectacular rivalries in the history of sports. The history runs very deep between the two California teams and seemingly never fails to disappoint during any matchup, whether it be spring training, regular season, or postseason.

Last year was unique and rare for the two franchises. The Los Angeles Dodgers had an unforgettable regular season and rocked the Ravine all the way through a great postseason run – falling just short of a World Series title in Game Seven.

In the Bay Area, baseball fans were full of complete and utter shock after their San Francisco Giants tied the Detroit Tigers with a league-worst record of 64-98. The Giants’ dreadful record was due (in large part) to the loss of their ace, Madison Bumgarner. San Francisco was faced with a difficult reality of having insufficient depth to account for the loss of their ace. Baseball fans everywhere will tell you that the game is more exciting when a powerhouse like the Giants are more competitive, but they simply could not find themselves a chemistry to help establish a winning group.

The Dodgers have experienced a shock like the Bumgarner injury when Clayton Kershaw was put on the shelf for extended periods in each of the past two seasons. Luckily for Los Angeles, they will have the Texas-born lefty starting his eighth consecutive Opening Day (also setting a franchise record with that feat).

San Francisco’s unfortunate reality of having insufficient depth to carry a team without their ace will plague them once more as they will again be without him – this time it is to start off the 2018 season. With Bumgarner suffering a broken hand on a comebacker in spring training, it seems that the Giants expect to go with a four-man rotation while they are at a loss in starting depth (Jeff Samardzija will also start the season on the Disabled List).

But, Without further ado, here is the preview for the opening series of the season between the Dodgers and the Giants.