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.

Game Two – Alex Wood vs Johnny Cueto

Alex Wood:

Not a lot needs to be said about the 2017 All-Star, Alex Wood. He has good command, controls both sides of the plate, works efficiently by generating many ground-balls, and mixes his pitches well. Wood has really fine-tuned his slider to form it into his strikeout pitch – to go with his ability to get ahead of hitters early in the count.

Wood will have to really take care of the 2012 NL MVP, Buster Posey – if he wants to limit any significant damage that can be had. Posey has two doubles and has slashed a line of .467/.600/1.100 in 15 ABs against the lefty, Wood. There is certainly no moment to let a slider get away and end up hanging or letting a fastball drift over the middle of the plate to be crushed by the Giant backstop.

Johnny Cueto:

Johnny Cute barely struck even last year as he went 8-8, with a 4.52 ERA. Historically speaking, he has been much better than he was last year; that alone gives good reason to believe that he is set on bouncing back into his well-known form. The Cueto that Major League Baseball knows is one of compelling style – mixed with a winning mentality. As a 32-year-old, we still are much aware of the fact that Cueto, when on, can be one of the top pitchers in the game. Assuming he plans on varying his deliveries and switching his pitching style every now and then, he could throw his way to a successful first outing if he disrupts the Dodger hitters enough.

An older Dodger face has had number 47 shaken up a few times in the past, and hopefully, Matt Kemp will be able to rattle Cueto once again. The veteran who the Dodgers recently brought back has hit Johnny Baseball well; posting a .324 batting average and three home runs on the resume. There is a chance that the success of Kemp will force him to be more anxious at the plate – as he tries to feast on fastballs. If Cueto can mess with Kemp’s timing, and work the breaking pitches down and away, he could be on a fast track to a solid game.

Game Three – Kenta Maeda vs Derek Holland

Maeda:

Sure, Kenta Maeda had issues last year. Maybe he was too tired through the course of the season after having experienced one year of success in the big leagues. Maybe some pressure to perform got to him. Or maybe he needed a small setback in the numbers category to realize what he needs to get back to in-order to reassert his dominance.

When Maeda toes the rubber on Saturday, he will have to focus on pitching like he did in the postseason: throwing every pitch with authority and with a purpose. Since he will not have the luxury of being in the bullpen all year, so that he can come out and throw 95mph, Maeda will have to use his stuff wisely for it to work through at least five innings. Not only does Kenta need to mix his pitches well, but he must control his breaking pitches and keep them away from the middle of the zone since that was a large area of how he was hit around last season.

When looking at a familiar foe, Kenta cannot let little mistakes get to him. There is no need to panic. However, Joe Panik has been a force against the Dodger right-hander. Panik bats in the neighborhood of .500 against Maeda (4-for-9) and has hit one home run against him as well. And it goes for all Giant hitters, as it does for Panik, you cannot leave a ball out over the plate. It will be sent into orbit, if so.

Holland:

Some people do forget that Derek Holland was like an anchor piece to the Texas Rangers organization only a few years ago. After dealing with a few injuries and the inability to make large strides in once again becoming a solid three-to-five starter, Holland will have his sights set on channeling back some of his past glory, but this time it will be with the Giants.

The only current Dodger to have recorded a hit against Holland is currently out of commission with a broken wrist (Justin Turner), so it is fair to say that the right-handed hitters will have to feed off the first pitch fastballs – if they are in a preferred location – and sit back on the breaking balls. If you are the Dodgers and have had little to no experience against Derek Holland, it might be best to just look for a certain pitch and location, but otherwise try forcing a heavy workload for the southpaw, no matter what.

Game Four – Rich Hill vs Chris Stratton

Hill:

Rich Hill has not been unfamiliar with success over the past couple years now. He has been around the league and, in terms of competition, he has played at the lowest of lows and the highest of highs – some having been very recent. What we do know about Rich Hill is that he feeds off of his mix of pitches. Once Rich can establish his sharp variations of curveballs, he becomes extremely lethal. He will work quick and mow you down if you let him settle in early, which is exactly how he plans on starting his 2018 season debut.

One key thing for Rich to remember, when facing the San Francisco lineup, throw difficult strikes to the meat of the order (1 through 5). If he can spot his pitches on the perimeter of the plate, he should have good amounts of success. A few San Francisco bats have gotten to Rich in the past, so there is the requirement of him to attack them with a solid plan, and with precision.

Stratton:

There is not a lot when it comes to Chris Stratton, and that is not a knock on him, he just has yet to fully establish himself in the eyes of the Major League Baseball community. But maybe it is the low key profile of Stratton that could carry him toward a nice early season showing when he wraps up the opening series finale against the Dodgers.

He does have a lot to prove, even while currently holding a sub-3.70 career ERA, but that is definitely a nice starting point. Historically, a batter who is unfamiliar with a  pitcher could struggle to begin with; you add in the early season cobwebs that may need to come out still, and you could be looking at a potentially intriguing outing for Chris Stratton. As long as pitch location is in-check, he might not yield much for opponent production.

True to a relatively fresh face, there have not been sample sizes that are large enough to dig much into the numbers against Stratton. Really, if you are the Dodgers, you just want to jump on him early and hope that you have worn down some bullpen arms throughout the course of the series to have a good chance at really breaking through to start off the new season.

Dodgers will take three of four, with their lone loss coming in game three. Not to take much away from Kenta Maeda, but it might take him some time to get comfortable and settle back into a rotation role – where he will likely be faced with making many in-game adjustments.

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Kershaw will improve to 6-0 on Opening Day and will throw at least 6.0 innings of shutout ball, with 10 or more strikeouts. Still, the best – and another Cy Young campaign has to start somewhere, right?

Wood will impress and surrender less than three runs in his start, while also compiling more than 8 strikeouts. Expect most of his strikeouts to come on that sharp slider.

Rich Hill might not go too deep into his start, and anything more than 6 innings could be a long shot unless he is cruising. All we need is efficiency out of Rich and the offense and bullpen can do the rest.

Overall, the Dodgers were playing good ball this spring – as they did for all of 2017, so there should not be any reason to start off slow. The right pieces seem to be in place, and the small amount of acquisitions over the offseason is somewhat of a testament to how good this team has remained and the confidence that the front office and coaching staff have in this special group of men.

Next: Dodgers Way: Predicting the 2018 MLB Award Winners

Opening Day is finally upon us, so for the ones that now count… It’s finally time for Dodger Baseball!