/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46054190/usa-today-8441416.0.jpg)
LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw will make his fifth career opening day start, but that won't be the most by a pitcher at Dodger Stadium on Monday. New Padres hurler James Shields makes his seventh career opening day start, with his third team. Here is how the Dodgers have fared against him in the past.
Shields is 1-2 with a 5.05 ERA in his six career opening day starts, with 22 strikeouts and 12 walks in 35⅔ innings. He started the season opener for the Rays from 2008-2010 and 2012, then did the same for the Royals in the last two seasons.
Shields, 33, signed a four-year, $75 million contract with the Padres in February, giving San Diego a true innings horse at the top of their rotation. He has pitched at least 204 innings in seven straight years, averaging 223 innings per season during that span. In the last four years Shields has not pitched fewer than 227 innings in a season.
The current Dodger with the most experience against Shields also has the most success, as old American League foe Howie Kendrick is 14-for-29 (.483) with four doubles, a home run and a triple in 30 plate appearances, including the postseason.
Adrian Gonzalez is next with 29 plate appearances against Shields, and is 8-for-25 (.320) with a home run and three walks and a sacrifice fly.
Jimmy Rollins is 4-for-12 (.333) against Shields with a home run and a double. Carl Crawford is 2-for-11 (.182) with a walk, but all of those appearances against his former Rays teammate came in 2011.
Yasiel Puig is 2-for-4 against Shields with a triple and a double, and Juan Uribe is 2-for-6 with a triple, though all of Uribe's PA against Shields came in 2007.
Scott Van Slyke is 1-for-2 with a hit by pitch against Shields, but everyone else is without a hit. A.J. Ellis and Andre Ethier are 0-for-3, Justin Turner is 0-for-2 with a walk, and Yasmani Grandal is 0-for-1.