Los Angeles Dodgers defeat San Diego Padres 5-3 – MLB Update
Los Angeles Dodgers defeated San Diego Padres 5-3 at the Petco Park in San Diego, California on Thursday, April 5 in their regular season encounter of the 2012 Major League Baseball.
Magic Johnson (current owner) and Franck McCourt (previous owner) sat in the dugout to see the Dodgers beat the Padres comfortable 5-3 on Thursday evening.
Johnson’s group bought the club from McCourt for an estimated $2.15 million, was absolutely delighted to see his team dominating their opponents. Matt Kemp’s towering home run brought a big smile on his face. Kemp, who hit a two run home run, also had three RBI’s.
While many baseball writers and analysts were not expecting the Dodgers to live up to the hype surrounding them, it seems Johnson’s dreams may come true in his first year as Dodgers’ owner.
"He wanted to go," Dodgers’ Manager Don Mattingly said in a post game interview. "He wasn't dizzy or didn't have a fever or any of that kind of stuff, so it was one of those situations where he wanted to go."
"I'm sure (the Padres) were looking for a lot more out there on opening day," he added. "His fastball probably looked more like some type of a changeup or something. Basically he was trying to get quick innings, get through them, get off the field, try to survive inning by inning. Pretty impressive, really, that he gets that far."
Dodgers adopted a very aggressive strategy to floor their rivals in their opening game of the season. Exploiting the conditions to great effect, the Dodgers made a magic start to their regular season campaign.
Although the Dodgers did not have the best of times in the Spring Training Session, they will be looking to give consistent performances during the regular season to cheer up their fans.
The 2011 Cy Young Award winners Clayton Kershaw will be a bit disappointed by the fact he pitched over just three innings on opening day. Kershaw had to sit in the dugout due to stomach flu. The starter allowed two hits, struck out three and walked one in his three innings.
Tags: