This certainly isn’t going to slow down the hype train. After an offseason full of headlines, the Los Angeles Dodgers took the field for the first time in exhibition action Thursday against the San Diego Padres. On the mound for the Padres to start was All-Star right-hander Joe Musgrove. He was, let’s say, touched up a bit.
The Dodgers scored eight runs before the second out of the inning was recorded. They’d end with eight runs on five hits, two walks and a hit batsman.
Mookie Betts started things off with a walk before Chris Taylor singled, James Outman was hit with a pitch and then Teoscar Hernández broke the game open with a double.
Austin Barnes struck out and it might’ve looked like Musgrove would settle in. Instead, he issued a walk to Gavin Lux — in his exhibition return after tearing his ACL last spring — before Chris Owings doubled to score two more. Andy Pages then singled home two more and then Kevin Padlo homered for the seventh and eighth runs of the inning.
What’s the takeaway from all of this?
Not much, really. These games don’t matter and they are essentially practice. You might’ve noticed that absent from the Dodgers’ lineup were the likes of Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and, oh, Shohei Ohtani. Joe Musgrove had a 3.05 ERA last year and 3.05 in the last three seasons combined, actually, which was over 450 innings. It’s his first game action of the spring and it doesn’t even count.
Still, after an offseason full of hype, the Dodgers busting through with an eight-run first inning is going to garner plenty of interest from the masses.
