Eight Dong Day

Phil Gurnee ♦ March 29, 2019 ♦ Leave a comment

The Dodger Twitter-verse has decided that Dodger home runs are now Dodger Dongs and who am I to argue with that? To celebrate the Dodgers decided to go where no dong has ever gone by blasting eight dongs in one game.

They hit him em to left field, they hit em to center-field, they hit em to right field, they hit em long, they hit em longer. The greatest dongfest to ever grace Dodger Stadium and they did it in on opening day against one of their best old friends.

You don’t answer questions about a season in one game but coming into the season the Dodgers had plenty of questions.

Talk about acing a test.

Can Joc Pederson hold off Alex Verdugo for the Left Field job and continue to build upon his solid 2018 season?

Joc led off the game with a ball off the fence in LF. He would later hit a home run to center-field, and another to right field. He came very close to the coveted Home Run Cycle where you hit a home run to every part of the ballpark.

Will Corey Seager be the player who entered 2018 as one of the best young players in baseball?

Corey walked, struck out, slugged a deep home run, and followed that with a deep out. Nice first game in almost a year.

Was Max Muncy a fluke?

Max drove in the first run of 2019 with a ground ball to right scoring Joc.  Max followed that with a strikeout and weak popup.  In his fourth at-bat, he crushed his first home run of 2019 to deep right field.

Can Kike Hernandez be the everyday starting 2nd baseman? Can he handle right-hand pitching well enough?

Hmmm, ground out, two-run home run, walk, solo home run. Both home runs came against right-hand pitching.

Will Austin Barnes bounce back from a horrible 2018 season and be more like the Barnes of 2017?

Everyone had an answer today, but Austin Barnes might have had the most emphatic answer. Single up the middle, home run to deep left-center field, pop up, and another single to center field.

Ryu was replacing Clayton Kershaw as the opening day starter and had big shoes to fill. Could the big lefty handle the assignment?

Ryu was as good yesterday as he had been all last year when he had the second-best ERA in the NL for starters with at least ten games started. Ryu cruised through five, gave up a home run in the sixth and finished the game with six innings, one earned run, no walks, and eight strikeouts. Ryu didn’t walk anyone all spring but went to a three-ball count on his first hitter before striking out Adam Jones. Ryu would have only one more three-ball count the rest of the game.