Dodgers' rotation aligned for Opening Day?
Kershaw unhappy with scoreless outing against Halos
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Dodgers haven't announced it, but if they keep with the current alignment, their starting rotation is set for the opening week of the regular season.
Opening Day starter Clayton Kershaw -- who pitched three scoreless innings in Wednesday's 4-2 win over the Angels -- is followed by Alex Wood, Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu. That wedges the right-handed Maeda between two sets of lefties.
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Against the Angels, Kershaw allowed three hits and wavered in his final inning by issuing back-to-back walks to Ian Kinsler and Michael Trout that loaded the bases before getting Justin Upton to pop out.
"Not very good," an unforgiving Kershaw said of his outing. "Lot of traffic out there on the bases. Thankful that Upton swung at one, bailed me out. Overall healthy, I feel good, got some things to work on for sure. Slider wasn't great today. That one's important to me, so definitely got to work on that."
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"It seemed like it was a struggle for him," manager Dave Roberts said. "His third inning he was 90-93 [mph], so that was a good thing for him. He had one stressful inning, but I thought he got squeezed on the walk to Kinsler."
In the anticipated showdown with two-way Japanese star Shohei Ohtani, Kershaw bent a 2-2 curveball on the outside corner for a called third strike by plate umpire Bill Miller, one of two strikeouts. But Kershaw didn't share the crowd or media's fascination with the matchup against Ohtani, who rejected a free-agent offer from the Dodgers in the offseason.
"No, I could care less now. He didn't pick us," Kershaw said, "so, good luck to him."
Ohtani was a little more impacted by the moment.
"I've been watching Kershaw pitch on TV a lot but of course it felt a lot different actually standing at the plate against him," Ohtani said through a translator. "It is still Spring Training games, but it was somewhat of a special moment to be able to face Kershaw. I learned a lot from that at-bat, facing him."
Bounce back
John Forsythe, who dropped from 20 homers the season before he was acquired to only six in his first season with the Dodgers, slugged his second home run of the spring on Wednesday.
"Logan, last year was an outlier for him against right-handed pitching," Roberts said. "He's absolutely being more aggressive early in the count when he gets into a good hitter's count, and for me what's encouraging is he's beating guys in the gap. His swing looks really sound."
Don't forget me
Brock Stewart allowed a run in two innings and Roberts added Stewart's name to the growing list of contenders for the bullpen spot that has opened with the right shoulder injury to Tom Koehler, who is out indefinitely.
"I thought there were some good throws in there," Roberts said. "I think Brock is still working through some things, he's not where he needs or wants to be."
Stewart brings multiple-innings ability, as does Thomas Stripling, who seems to already have a spot in the bullpen with Kenley Jansen, Scott Alexander and Tony Cingrani. The final four spots will come from a group of Adam Liberatore, Pedro Baez, Yimi Garcia, Wilmer Font, J.T. Chargois and Josh Fields, although the latter remains on a limited workload after a physically demanding 2017.
Camp battle
Alvin Toles continued his bid for at least a share of the left-field job with his second home run. He went 1-for-3 with a strikeout after getting the start in right field. He is batting .368 coming off knee surgery. Joc Pederson started in left field and went 1-for-3 with a run scored and a strikeout.
"Joc is trending in the right direction," Roberts said. "He's doing a pretty good job of staying in the strike zone."
Up Next
Watch live on MLB.TV as Wood starts against Josh Tomlin and the Indians on Thursday at 5:05 p.m. PT in Goodyear, Ariz. Chris Taylor, Matt Kemp and Justin Turner will probably return to the Dodgers' lineup.