The San Francisco Giants and LA Dodgers are playing a California matchup on Friday and the MLB game will be streaming online from Dodger Stadium and the home opener for Los Angeles comes after they played in Australia and started the season on the road and now the two teams are looking to take an early lead in the NL West to start 2014.
The Dodgers are looking to repeat as NL West division champions and they went on an amazing run last year, putting everyone away with a streak that saw them lost just eight games out of 50 and now they are the favorites in the division, but this years it should be more competitive. The Dodgers have a ton of money and talent, but the Giants are expected to bounce back and the Diamondbacks are a strong young team along with the Rockies and Padres, who have a record payroll as a franchise. The Dodgers have many questions and on Friday they will see the return of Matt Kemp and that is a welcome sight for the Dodger faithful.
Kemp had a tough year in 2013 while dealing with multiple injuries and now he comes back and is getting the start after he was told he might be serving as the fourth outfielder this year. Kemp said that was not a role he wanted and on Friday after being activated from the DL he was inserted into the starting lineup for Yasiel Puig, who showed up late to practice and now he is out of the game. Kemp is getting the start, but it might be short lived and that could bring some issues for the team, as Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier are the other outfielders.
Kemp had a near MVP season a couple years ago, but since then he has dealt with numerous injuries and he would like to get back to that season, which saw him hit over .320 with nearly 40 home runs and over 120 RBIs and now he looks to be fully healthy after missing the playoffs last season. Adrian Gonzalez and the team spoke about the rough travel to Australia, but the Dodgers got things done and went 2-0 down there before winning two of the next three and now they are 4-1 and leading the NL West and they have played the most games of anyone in the league right now.
The Giants have Ryan Vogelsong and the Dodgers will have Hyun-jin Ryu making his third start already, as he pitched down under, in the opener and now in the home opener for Clayton Kershaw, who was forced to go on the DL with a back injury. Hanley Ramirez is off to a slow start and the team is hoping he can pick up where things left off last season when he got very hot down the stretch. The Dodgers are playing their first home games and they come in after a win against the Padres that saw Dan Haren pitch.
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