The Los Angeles Dodgers got off to a strong start at home, taking three of four games from the St. Louis Cardinals as part of MLB’s Opening Week, with both their offense and pitching staff contributing in a big way.
The offense scored 23 runs over the four games, an average of just shy of six per game, and their starting pitchers threw 22 innings with a 1.64 ERA, 11.05 K/9 and 1.23 BB/9.
Each of Tyler Glasnow, Bobby Miller, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Gavin Stone turned in a strong start, with all but Stone allowing one run or fewer in five or more innings.
Miller, Yamamoto and Stone also combined to make some MLB history with their starts. All three of them opened their game with a perfect first inning where they struck out the side.
That made the Dodgers the first team since at least the Expansion Era (since 1961) to have their pitchers strike out the side in a perfect first inning in three consecutive games, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
The trio combined for 22 strikeouts in 17 innings across their starts with just three runs total, all of which were accounted to Stone. Miller struck out 11 in six scoreless, Yamamoto punched out five in five scoreless, and Stone whiffed six over five innings.
The streak came to an end on Monday with James Paxton, who managed to throw five scoreless innings as well. However, Paxton dealt with some walk issues in his start, and he’s working on correcting them.
The Dodgers made it a priority to upgrade their rotation in the offseason, bringing in Glasnow, Yamamoto and Paxton while re-signing Clayton Kershaw.
It would be difficult for the group to get off to a better start than they have, with the only real blemish coming in South Korea for Yamamoto’s debut.
The group should be a strength moving forward, and they may get Buehler, Kershaw, Dustin May and Emmet Sheehan back at various points throughout the season to further improve their rotation.
Dodgers starters Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw making progress in rehab
Buehler began his rehab assignment and threw 3.1 innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City. His fastball sat at 94 mph, and he topped out at 95.7 mph.
He is set to continue his rehab assignment either with OKC or another Dodgers’ affiliate.
As for Kershaw, his timeline is further out, but he began ramping up the intensity with his throwing program.
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