DENVER — On the first day of the season, Kyle Freeland became the Dodgers’ first victim.
For three innings Friday afternoon, the Colorado Rockies left-hander was cruising through his opening-day start against the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup.
He had six strikeouts. He had stranded each of the first four runners who reached base. And despite a single from Will Smith and a double from Chris Taylor in the top of the fourth, Freeland was one strike away from getting through another inning unscathed.
But then the Dodgers’ offense awoke from its winter slumber, roaring to life for the first time — and what is certain to be far from the last — this season.
Gavin Lux sent a two-run single up the middle to erase the Rockies’ early two-run lead. Mookie Betts put the Dodgers in front with an RBI double in the next at-bat. Even after Freddie Freeman’s walk chased Freeland from the game, the pitcher was charged with two more runs after reliever Tyler Kinley gave up an RBI single to Trea Turner and permitted another run to score on a wild pitch.
The five-run explosion sparked a 5-3 season-opening win for the Dodgers in front of a sellout crowd of 48,627 at Coors Field. It also offered a glimpse of how good the team’s lineup could be this season — a 15-minute sequence that flashed its tantalizing potential.
The Dodgers are entering this season with sky-high expectations. They are a team that, despite winning a World Series just 18 months again, still has “something to prove,” in the words of manager Dave Roberts.
Such ambitions have been driven in large part by the talent in their lineup, which Friday included seven All-Stars and three former MVPs.
All spring, they acknowledged how dangerous they could be, imaging the potential impact of Freeman’s free-agent signing, improved health from Betts, Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy, and the return of almost every other key piece (with the exception of Corey Seager) from a group that ranked fifth in scoring in 2021.
Roberts went as far as guaranteeing the Dodgers would win the World Series.
“For me to put it out there and believe that this is what’s going to happen, I think it’s very powerful,” Roberts said this week. “It raises the bar for myself and everyone that’s a part of the Dodgers.”
In Game No. 1, at least, they cleared the bar with ease.
The Rockies did strike first, scoring twice in the bottom of the second on three two-strike hits against Walker Buehler. But the right-hander didn’t allow anything else in his first career opening-day start, completing a five-inning outing with five strikeouts.
The Dodgers’ bullpen was hardly tested the rest of the way. Brusdar Graterol stranded a walk in the sixth. Blake Treinen and Daniel Hudson handled the heart of the Rockies’ order in the seventh and eighth, respectively. New closer Craig Kimbrel gave up a run in the ninth but still secured his first Dodgers save.
While the Dodgers didn’t score any more runs after fourth inning, they still finished the day with production from all parts of the lineup. Seven different players recorded a hit. Freeman, Taylor and Smith all got aboard twice. And in a reminder of their batting order’s depth, Lux reached base three times from the No. 9 spot.
