Dodger pitchers come strong out of the gate

The first weekend of the 2018 season is in the books and if this opening performance against the Giants is any indication, the Dodgers will once again have a stellar pitching staff.

L.A. lost the first two games of the series by 1-0 scores as San Francisco's Joe Panik stunned the Dodgers on back-to-back outings.

But the silver lining in those two losses was the fact that Clayton Kershaw and Alex Wood gave up only one run between them, with Kenley Jansen giving up the other.

The Dodgers earned a series split with a 5-0 win on Saturday and a 9-0 pummeling of San Francisco
on Sunday as Kenta Maeda pitched five innings of shutout ball and Rich Hill tossed six innings of shutout ball to notch a pair of wins.

Other than Jansen's solo HR to Panik, the Dodger bullpen pitched 10 innings of shutout ball. Scott Alexander, Pedro Baez, JT Chargois, Tony Cingrani, Josh Fields, Wilmer Font and Ross Stripling posted nothing but zeros.

Last night, Yasiel Puig had three hits and is looking solid and Cody Bellinger broke out with an opposite field dinger as the Dodgers piled on the Giants. San Francisco has a new look with Andrew McCutcheon in right and Evan Longoria at third and should be formidable when Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardziga return from injuries.

It's only four games, but I like our pitching and scoring 14 runs in two games after being shutout twice to start the season. Hopefully, Justin Turner's broken wrist will not keep him out of the lineup too long.