The Los Angeles Dodgers are playing the San Diego Padres as LA opens the MLB season again, this time with the American opener after they played in Australia and they matchup with the Pads in SD for the game at 8:00 pm ET and it will be streaming online from ESPN on the WatchESPN website from Petco Park.
The Padres will throw Andrew Cashner while the Dodgers will not have Clayton Kershaw on the mound and instead will have Hyun-Jin Ryu after the star had to hit the DL and the Dodgers are coming into the game after two wins against the Diamondbacks down under and now they kick off the season stateside before Opening Day for most of the league on Monday. Kershaw is coming into the season with a Cy Young in tow and he pitched the first game of the season and now Ryu comes in at 1-0 and will get the nod here as the Dodgers try to open the season on a hot streak. The Dodgers got hot last season and won 42 of 50 games and now this will get the division rivalry off to a fast start in the NL West after LA went wild last season and made it not even close at the end of the year.
The Dodgers started off the season with some nice play in Australia and they scored 10 runs in those two games and they hit fairly well up and down the lineup and Adrian Gonzalez comes into the game after leading the team in batting average, home runs and RBIs. The Padres come in with their highest payroll and they are looking to bounce back from a losing season and Jedd Gyorko comes in after leading the team in home runs and RBI and he is hoping to continue that, as the team ranked 24th in the MLB last season in runs and 23rd in batting average.
The next game will have Zack Greinke starting for the Dodgers and the team is hoping to have Kershaw back the next time around in the rotation after he had an injury to his back. Kershaw is on the DL for the first time in his career and he is hoping that it will be a short stint and the team is there with that as well and Matt Kemp is hoping to come back soon too. The Dodgers come in with a massive payroll and the Padres have their highest ever and they are expecting big things from Cashner, who won 10 games last season and he ended the year with a sub 2.00 ERA in his final nine starts of the year and the team is hoping he gets off to a nice start this year.
The Dodgers are the favorites once again in the NL and it should be interesting once again with Yasiel Puig and Don Mattingly along with Hanley Ramirez and Gonzalez. The team had the 42-8 stretch last season and now they will get the chance to show why the playoff loss last season was an aberration and they start with another divisional set after winning against the D-Backs.
Check here for the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers live stream from ESPN.
