SEOUL, South Korea — The people of Seoul welcomed Major League Baseball with open arms, pounding drums, dance teams and coordinated cheering. The Dodgers welcomed the San Diego Padres to the slow water torture their lineup could inflict on opposing pitching staffs this season.
Seven hits and nine walks – four of them involving pitch-clock violations by the Padres’ pitchers – kept turning that lineup over until the Dodgers broke through for four runs in the eighth inning to beat the Padres 5-2 in their season-opening game Wednesday.
“I just think there’s no give,” said Gavin Lux who inadvertently pushed across the go-ahead run in his first regular-season game since 2022. “One through nine, everyone’s going to give you a tough at-bat. We’re going to grind you down, grind you out and plus you’ve got guys that can do damage up and down the lineup, too.
“Today was a good look at. We’re not going to give up, not going to give in and one through nine, we’re going to grind you down.”
The most anticipated season perhaps in Dodgers franchise history started in historic fashion for its location, 6,000 miles from Los Angeles in Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome, and the trifecta of former MVPs at the top of their lineup – Mookie Betts (2018 American League), Shohei Ohtani (2021 and 2023 American League) and Freddie Freeman (2020 NL).
It was only the fourth time in major-league history a team had former MVPs batting 1-2-3 in their lineup – the Cincinnati Reds did it in 1976 (Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Johnny Bench) and again in 1978 (Rose, Morgan and George Foster) and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1983 (Rose, Morgan and Mike Schmidt).
The Dodgers’ trio did what they could to light a fire through seven innings. Betts and Ohtani were on base twice each and Freeman three times. But the Dodgers went a collective 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position before they broke through in the eighth with Betts and Ohtani each stroking RBI singles.
“The…
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