Dodgers take on NL West Rival in Korea
By Nikolas Araiza
To kick off the 2024 Major League Baseball season, The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres would face off in Seoul, South Korea. This is a part of MLB's World Tour initiative that will see three other countries visited this season.
Opening Day featured starting pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Yu Darvish to start the game for their respective teams. Glasnow would end his night allowing two earned runs across five innings of work, with Yu Darvish allowing just one run in three and two-thirds innings.
When asked post-game, Glasnow described his outing as “The whole day was kind of a grind, just timing and everything was not my day.” Glasnow struggled to have command with his curveball in this game, eventually relying on his slider due to command issues
Entering the top of the eighth inning, the Dodgers would come up to bat down 2-1, with Gavin Lux up to bat with two men on first and second, with one out. Lux's hit was what many thought would have been an inning-ending double play, instead, the ball got through the glove of Jake Cronenworth, allowing a run to score.
From there the Dodgers never looked back as they proceeded to score four runs in the inning capped off by a pair of singles from Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers would end the top half of the eighth up 5-2 and proceeded to hold on to win game one of the series.
For game two of the series, it would feature the major league debut of Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yamamoto entered his MLB debut with huge expectations, as just this winter he signed the largest contract ever given to a pitcher.
Unfortunately, those expectations would not be met as Yamamoto would give up five earned runs in his lone inning of work. Though he was not the only starter to struggle in this game, as Padres starting pitcher, Joe Musgrove, also had a forgettable night giving up five runs as well.
Unlike game one of the series, this game would be all about offense, with Manny Machado’s three-run home run in the ninth inning capping off a night where both teams combined for 26 runs.
In a postgame interview, Yamamoto described his struggles as “The problem I was having today was, you know, because I was not able to control my pitches.” For a pitcher who has been credited with pristine control, this is a debut that Yamamoto will be quick to forget about.
For the Dodgers, they will now head back to Los Angeles and get ready for official Opening Day against the Saint Louis Cardinals on Mar. 28.