Giants routed by Dodgers in delayed season opener.
A tale of two beginnings, Kapler with S.F., Betts in L.A.
LOS ANGELES — The Gabe Kapler era finally began on a comfortable midsummer evening with no Buster Posey, no Brandon Belt, no Evan Longoria and no Clayton Kershaw to torment their replacements.
The fans at Dodger Stadium could have made a strong case that they were stiffed until Mookie Betts repaid a few pennies of his 12year, $365 million contract.
In his first game with the Dodgers, Betts spearheaded a fiverun, tiebreaking rally in the seventh, leading them to an 81 rout. Kapler, with half of his 30 players appearing on an Opening Night roster for the first time, joined Bruce Bochy in beginning his Giants managerial career 01.
Kapler, true to his word that he would use “Swiss army knife” Tyler Rogers anywhere in the game, entrusted the submariner with a 11 game in the seventh inning.
Betts hit a leadoff single, took third on a Cody Bellinger double then flashed his speed by thwarting the Giants’ drawnin infield. Justin Turner hit a grounder right to Mauricio Dubon, who made a solid throw home.
Betts beat it anyway for a 21 Dodgers lead. Kiké Hernandez added a backbreaking single with two outs that scored two. Rule 5 righthander Dany Jimenez could not throw strikes in
his bigleague debut and walked three of his five hitters, Max Muncy with the bases loaded. He finally got off the field by striking out Betts.
Hernandez hit a tworun homer off Conner Menez to get the Dodgers to eight runs.
Hours before first pitch, the Dodgers threw their first curveball at the Giants when they announced that Clayton Kershaw was going on the injured list with a stiff back and that righthander Dustin May would start instead.
Kershaw has owned the Giants, but May is no picnic, with a high90s sinker that touches triple digits.
May, the first rookie to start a Dodgers opener since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981 held the Giants to a Pablo Sandoval sacrifice fly in 4 1⁄3 innings to match the run that Johnny Cueto allowed in four.
The Giants’ best news was Cueto looking his vintage, healthy self over 63 pitches, with a firstinning strikeout of
Betts as evidence. Drew Smyly and rookie Rico Garcia made their Giants debuts with a shutout inning apiece, Garcia hitting 98 mph, before the misery of the seventh.
Kapler had written a righthandheavy lineup for Kershaw and gone through the happy ritual of telling players individually that they would start on Opening Night. He then had to tell three of them — Austin Slater, Darin Ruf and Donovan Solano — that they would start on the bench.
Instead, Alex Dickerson got his first career Opening Night start, making him the 14th different left fielder in the past 14 seasons to start the opener, dating to Barry Bonds’ final season. Hunter Pence was going to play in left against Kershaw but moved to DH against May.
Kapler downplayed any difficulties adjusting from Kershaw to May.
“We were prepared for a righthanded lineup and a lefthanded lineup,” he said. “There are certain advantages that come from having a lineup earlier in the day, and perhaps having the starting pitcher earlier in the day. At the same time we understanding things happen. We’re always able to adjust.”
After the standard Opening Night introductions down the line, players and staff from both teams — all but Giants reliever Sam Coonrod — knelt and grabbed a black ribbon that stretched down both lines in a moment of silence that followed a Black Lives Matter video. Coonrod did hold the ribbon.
When the anthem began, Kapler stayed kneeling, along with Mike Yastrzemski, Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence, Austin Slater, Jaylin Davis, Trevor Gott, Wandy Peralta and coaches Justin Viele and Antoan Richardson.
The Giants scored the season’s first run, in the third inning, on a bunt single in against the shift by 29yearold catcher Tyler Heineman in his 12th bigleague atbat, singles by Yastrzemski and Wilmer Flores in his first Giants atbat, and Sandoval’s sacrifice fly.