Clayton Kershaw day by day: An opening day shutout & home run

A lot has been said recently about today’s Clayton Kershaw start, his April 1, 2013 masterpiece against the Giants in 2013. Kershaw was the first to pitch a shutout and hit a home run on opening day since Bob Lemon in 1953.

It was rebroadcast last week, so we are quite familiar with the outcome, a 4-0 Dodgers win.

This was my third Dodgers opening day, and the first one that I covered at home. What I remember most about this game, in addition to the epic duel between Kershaw and Matt Cain, was that the internet was spotty in the Dodger Stadium press box for a good portion of the game. It was hard even getting Twitter (Echofon?) to load on my phone, so I was mostly sending texts to tweet.

Like this one in the middle of the seventh inning:

After working around a Mark Ellis double in the seventh inning, George Kontos was asked to pitch a second inning for the Giants, and was rudely greeted by Kershaw to lead off the eighth.

This was the second straight opening day with a hit for Kershaw, who has at least one hit in six of his eight opening day starts, hitting .350 (7-for-20) with a walk and four runs scored in the season’s first game throughout his career.

This was Kershaw’s 152nd career game, his 150th start, his ninth complete game, and sixth shutout. It was the ninth opening day shutout by a Dodgers pitcher, dating back to 1904.

The outing (W, 1-0): 9 IP, 4 hits, 7 strikeouts

Up next: April 3, our first date with multiple Kershaw starts