GIANTS, A’S WIN ON OPENING DAY
Blach duels Kershaw, Giants blank Dodgers
LOS ANGELES — Joe Panik stared in disbelief.
Clayton Kershaw laughed it off.
It was one of those moments that didn’t seem real. Until it was.
With a high, arching flyball that hooked just inside the foul poul, Panik pushed the San Francisco Giants ahead in the fifth inning of a 1-0 Opening Day win over the five-time defending National League West champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Panik’s home run was hardly the most surreal aspect of Thursday’s season opener.
After Giants’ ace Madison Bumgarner fractured his pinky last Friday, left-hander Ty Blach was thrust into the role of Opening Day starter and expected to take the reins in front of 53,595 rival fans.
His opponent? Two-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw.
It’s the type of opportunity players grow up dreaming about. On Thursday afternoon, Blach did more than just dream. He delivered.
A season after posting a 4.78 ERA, the third worst mark among qualifying pitchers in the National League, Blach tossed five scoreless innings to outduel the best regular-season pitcher of the last decade.
Dominance against the Dodgers is nothing new for Blach, who entered Thursday’s outing with a 1.67 career ERA in 27 career innings against the Giants’ rivals.
In his second major-league start, Blach threw 8 innings of three-hit ball to eventually help the Giants capture a 2016 wild-card berth. When asked why he maintained confidence in Blach to handle the Opening Day stage in Los Angeles, Giants’ skipper Bruce Bochy cited the left-hander’s performance in that pressurepacked outing as one of the primary factors.
Once again, ice water rushed through Blach’s veins.
A two-strikeout frame in the first, double play balls in the second and third and a few hard-hit groundouts in the fourth and fifth helped Blach keep the Dodgers from crossing home. His nemesis
on the mound, Kershaw, proved to be his greatest threat at the plate.
Two of the three hits Los Angeles collected against Blach were singles Kershaw poked into left field, with the other being a line drive off the bat of catcher Yasmani Grandal.
Against a revamped San Francisco lineup, Kershaw didn’t quite have his best stuff. Still, Kershaw at 75 percent is better than most pitchers on top of their games.
Despite allowing multiple baserunners in the first, third and fourth innings, Kershaw pitched his way around trouble. By the time the top of the fifth rolled around, he was cruising.
After throwing 211/3 scoreless innings in Cactus League play and 42/3 clean frames on Thursday, Panik stepped to the plate and lofted a long flyball that appeared destined to land to the right of the foul pole.
Instead, it curled just inside of it. For the first time in 2018, Kershaw had an ERA.
Armed with a 1-0 lead, Bochy pulled Blach after an 81-pitch outing that went as well as the Giants could have hoped for.
The stress on the Giants’ pitching staff didn’t end there, though. After losing closer Mark Melancon to the disabled list Thursday with a right elbow flexor strain, Bochy needed to pull all the right strings in a bullpen that’s spurred hair loss over the last two seasons.
The first reliever, Josh Osich, began a redemption tour this spring by ditching his breaking pitches in hopes of finding more consistency with his hard stuff and changeup. In the sixth, the left-hander allowed a free pass, but notched a pair of strikeouts to post a zero.
The second arm, Cory Gearrin, allowed a pair of singles including one that forced new right fielder Andrew McCutchen to range deep into the gap. McCutchen barely arrived in time to hold Grandal at third base, but Gearrin froze leadoff hitter Chris Taylor with a slider to end the inning.
The third reliever, Tony Watson, entered after crossing sides in the rivalry. Following five World Series appearances with Los Angeles last season, Watson painted the corners of home plate orange and struck out the side in the eighth.
At last, it was time for Bochy to turn the ball to his closer. Enter Hunter Strickland.
With five career saves on his ledger entering Thursday, Strickland’s scoreless spring convinced Bochy to tab him for the role Melancon’s injury prevented the $62 million man from fulfilling.
There’s never a dull moment for Strickland, who allowed a leadoff single to Matt Kemp to spark a Dodgers’ fire.
A year after the Diamondbacks blew up Melancon’s first day as the Giants’ closer and dealt the club a crushing walk-off blow, Strickland grabbed his hose.
He struck out Grandal, induced a Logan Forsythe popout and retired pinch hitter Joc Pederson. He put out the flames, and put the Giants in the win column.