Apr 13

Game Five, 2022

Dodgers at Twins, 10:10 AM PDT, TV: BSN, SPNLA

The Dodgers’ LHP Clayton Kershaw makes his season debut today, as does the Twins’ RHP Chris Paddack. It still seems odd that future Hall of Famer Kershaw has been held back until the fifth game of the season before starting his first game of 2022. Paddack is newly-acquired by the Twins from the Padres.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1939 In a spring training game played in Norfolk, Virginia, Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig, with apparent muscle loss, especially around his shoulders, goes deep twice in a 14-12 exhibition loss against the Dodgers. The second and ninth-inning home runs will be the last round-trippers the ‘Iron Horse’ will ever hit.
  • 1993 Lee Smith passes Jeff Reardon to become the all-time major league saves leader when the Cardinals beat the Dodgers, 9-7. The right-handed reliever tosses a scoreless ninth inning at Chavez Ravine to record his 358th career save.
  • 2009 In the LA home opener, Orlando Hudson completes his cycle with a sixth inning triple down the right-field line in the team’s 11-1 rout of the Giants. The second baseman becomes the first Dodger to hit for the cycle at Dodger Stadium, and the first franchise player to accomplish the feat in a nine-inning game since Gil Hodges did it in 1949.
  • 2012 Aaron Harang, after surrendering a leadoff single to Cameron Maybin to start the game, strikes out the next nine consecutive Padres in L.A.’s 9-8 victory at Dodger Stadium. The 34 year-old right-hander’s performance is one more than Johnny Podres’ franchise mark of 8, but falls one short of the major league record held by Tom Seaver, who fanned 10 straight Friars for the Mets in 1970.
  • 2019 Chris Davis ends his recording-setting streak of consecutive at-bats without a hit with a two-run single in the first inning of the Orioles’ 9-5 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park. The Baltimore first baseman’s safety snaps the major league record at 54 straight hitless at-bats by a position player, easily extending the previous mark of 46 set by utilityman Eugenio Vélez, who established the dubious distinction over two seasons while playing with the Giants (0-for-9) and Dodgers (0-for-37), respectively in 2010 and 2011.

Lineups: