5 Things We Learned from the Dodgers' Opening Series

The way too early questions and little things we've learned from the Dodgers so far.
5 Things We Learned from the Dodgers' Opening Series
5 Things We Learned from the Dodgers' Opening Series /
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The Los Angeles Dodgers have made it through weekend one of play and the opening series of the 2023 season. The results are a bit mixed. As usual, they are among the league leaders in runs scored and run differential as a team, but they're just 2-2 and the majority of the club's 20 runs scored entering play on Monday have come in two games.

Starting pitching has looked good but relief pitching has been a little rocky.

But, let's get into the 5 things we're learned from these first four games.

1. Clayton Kershaw is still great. 

He dominated the Diamondbacks in his 6 inning effort on Saturday night. Kersh allowed just 1 run while striking out 9 and walking none en route to his first win of the season. 

After watching guys like Madison Bumgarner struggle and Jacob deGrom struggle to stay on the field over the last few seasons, it's nice to know that Clayton Kershaw just keeps motoring along at his Hall of Fame clip.

He'll pitch for as long as he wants and we hope to Vin that he does it in a Dodger uniform.

2. Julio Urias can handle the moment. 

He pitched on opening day for the first time. Three former Cy Young award winners threw out the ceremonial first pitch and were watching on the sidelines. Sandy Koufax was sitting in Tommy Lasorda's seat in the owner's box. Staring. Watching. Fans in Mexico City we're watching a display on the side of their World Trade Center.

And Julio handled it all. He may be his own biggest enemy and critic at times, but no outside distractions will ever affect the UriACE.

3. The offense is going to take some time to gel.

Most of the Dodger run production this season has come off the bats of two players. Trayce Thompson, who has 8 runs batted in. And Will Smith who has 5. 

The Dodgers are getting their hits (29, fourth in NL) and taking their walks (23, tops in NL). But they're not stringing them together well. With so many new faces and a good chunk of the team away from Camelback Ranch during the World Baseball Classic, these guys are still learning one another.

The question is, how long will that take?

4. Max Muncy is pressing.

Mad Max had a really nice spring. His 1.005 OPS was the best on the team (among players with 30 or more at-bats). He looked comfortable and locked in. 

Then opening day happened.

Now he has just 1 hit in 13 at-bats and took a glancing blow from a baseball off of his groin area to add injury to insult. He's hitting the ball hard, when he's making contact. But he's also swinging at bad pitches down or out of zone. It doesn't help that he has had some very tough pitches called strikes on the outskirts of the strike zone.

Max Muncy will bounce back. Keep the faith.

5. The bullpen could be a question mark?

Like, the numbers on the surface are solid. The Dodgers have a 2.45 team ERA (all of this we should note is an extremely small sample size), having allowed just 3 earned runs over 11 innings. But the relief unit also has just 4 strikeouts, which is dead last in baseball. And it has been tagged with both Dodger losses.

Is it too early to be concerned? Yes. But it's absolutely something to watch.


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Clint Pasillas
CLINT PASILLAS

Clint is the lead editor of Inside the Dodgers and personality on Dodgers Nation's network of programming. His work has been published on SI, DN, and Bleacher Report over the last decade.