ANAHEIM — In the end, the Dodgers have made it to one among their most anticipated seasons in franchise historical past.
Now, the Dodgers’ consideration turns to the Cardinals, who they’ll host within the dwelling opener on Thursday at Dodger Stadium. Fortunately for the Dodgers, they had been ready to make use of their closing exhibition recreation to work out some final minute kinks — particularly for his or her beginning pitcher.
James Paxton — who will doubtless pitch within the collection opener vs. the Giants subsequent Monday — labored via the primary few innings of his outing earlier than turning it round within the Dodgers’ 4-3 loss to the Angels at Angel Stadium on Tuesday. After permitting three runs within the first two innings, Paxton didn’t enable a run in his closing three frames. He just about handed his closing check.
“Tonight, the plan is to get him to 5 innings and get that pitch rely up,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned about Paxton earlier than the sport. “We wish to get him prepared for the fifth recreation of the season.”
The left-hander threw 80 pitches, primarily counting on his four-seam fastball (52 %) and knuckle curveball (37 %). It’s value noting that Paxton’s fastball velocity was down 2.2 mph from final yr (93 mph on Tuesday) however that would have been a byproduct of a starter simply attempting to make it to the common season wholesome.
Accidents have regularly popped up for Paxton — he hasn’t cleared 100 innings in a season since 2019 — so retaining the lefty wholesome and efficient will probably be an vital process for the Dodgers. In 96 innings for the Purple Sox final season, Paxton had a 4.50 ERA and three.77 anticipated ERA.
The 35-year-old lefty may play a giant position for the Dodgers rotation within the early going. Because the membership awaits the eventual returns of Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Emmet Sheehan and Dustin Might, Paxton will probably be relied on as a rotation mainstay to start out the yr.
Ohtani — who will strictly DH this season whereas recovering from elbow surgical procedure — stepped to the plate within the first inning whereas a minute-long video tribute appeared on the Angel Stadium scoreboard. In his time with the Angels, Ohtani was a two-time AL MVP winner (2021 and ‘23), three-time All-Star and the 2018 Rookie of the 12 months.
Ohtani struck out in every of his two plate appearances in opposition to Angels starter Chase Silseth. Like lots of the different Dodgers regulars, Ohtani solely obtained just a few plate appearances earlier than his evening ended.
