Off To A Good Start

The Los Angeles Dodgers are off to a 2-0 start after a 4-3 win over the San Francisco Giants last night. The Dodgers capitalized on a couple of errors by the defending World Series Champions.

The offensive stars for the Dodgers were Rafael Furcal who went 2 for 4 with an RBI and Matt Kemp who was also 2 for 4 with an RBI on a ground-rule double in the third inning. Rookie Ivan DeJesus got the start at second base but he had a rough major league debut as he went 0 for 3 with 3 strikeouts and a walk. Also making their Dodger debuts were Aaron Miles (1-4 with a run scored) and Hector Gimenez got an appearance as a pinch-hitter. He grounded to Giants pitcher Sanchez who promptly booted the ball and allowed Aaron Miles to score. The Dodgers were 2-7 with RISP.

First Base Coach and former Dodger great Dave Lopes has tried to instill some aggressiveness in the Dodgers on the basepaths working with the team daily during Spring Training. It was a point of emphasis and Matt Kemp became his special project. It seems to be paying off so far. Matt Kemp went from first to third last night on a groundout to third basemen Pablo Sandoval and has shown much better awareness in the first two games. Rafael Furcal had a little rougher day on the bases as he was picked off first and was caught stealing.

The Dodgers' pitching was solid if not spectacular. Chad Billingsley only made one bad pitch but it resulted in the first major league homerun by rookie First baseman Brandon Belt and drove in three. Billingsley left the game behind 3-1 but he eventually did get credit for his first win of the season. Blake Hawksworth vame in and quickly loaded the bases on 2 hits and a walk but struck out Buster Posey to put them away. Matt Guerrier also got in his first appearance as a Dodger giving up one hit in his inning of work. Jonathan Broxton came in to shut the Giants down and get his second save in as many games. This is a vast improvement for Broxton over last year. In appearances covering 2 2/3 innings against the Giants last year, Broxton gave up 6 runs, had an 0-3 record with 2 blown saves. He made last nights appearance with the Giants short and sweet, only needing 9 pitches to finish them off.