March 28, 2019: Dodgers smack eight homers in record-breaking Opening Day at home

The start of the 2019 season came on March 28, when the Arizona Diamondbacks traveled to Dodger Stadium to take on the previous year’s National League champions. In 2018, the 82-80 Diamondbacks ended up 9½ games behind the Dodgers in the National League West race.

Perhaps the breakout should not have been too much of a surprise. The Dodgers had led the National League with 235 home runs in 2018. But this game showed just how powerful their lineup was and what kind of damage it could do.1

Before a crowd of 53,086, the Dodgers entered the history books with a bevy of home runs that no one had ever seen since the ballpark opened in 1962.

Above Dodger Stadium were “picturesque puffy white clouds on a 68-degree afternoon.”2 It was perfect baseball weather. The day also included a tribute to Don Newcombe, the Dodgers pitcher who had died at the age of 92 on February 16.3

The pitching matchup saw Arizona put former Dodger Zack Greinke on the mound against the Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu. Longtime Opening Day starter Clayton Kershaw was on the 10-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation. He had been the starting pitcher the eight previous Opening Days, with five wins, one loss, and two no-decisions.4

The Diamondbacks were scoreless in the first, though Ryu allowed a single to Eduardo Escobar. The Dodgers scored in the bottom of the inning on Max Muncy’s groundout to first base that drove in Joc Pedersen, who had doubled and taken third on a groundout.

The Diamondbacks were cold in the top of the second inning and the Dodgers maintained their lead.

In the bottom of the second, Pedersen hit a homer with Austin Barnes on base. That made it 3-0.

Neither team scored in the third inning. The Dodgers enjoyed an offensive explosion in the fourth. Enrique Hernández hit a two-run homer, Barnes and Corey Seager added solo shots, and the Dodgers jumped ahead, 7-0. (Seager had missed a lot of time the previous season with injuries; he had not played a game for the Dodgers in 333 days thanks to several ailments, including hip surgery and a torn ulnar collateral ligament.5

After the Seager home run, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo pulled Greinke and replaced him with Matt Koch. Justin Turner lined to right field to end the inning.

The Diamondbacks posted a run in the sixth inning when Adam Jones hit a solo home run to make it 7-1. The Dodgers answered by tacking on two runs in the bottom half on a two-run homer by Pedersen that gave LA a 9-1 advantage.

Arizona added another run on Christian Walker’s home run in the top of the seventh inning off Yimi Garcia. In the bottom of the frame, Muncy, Cody Bellinger, and Hernández all hit solo homers and Los Angeles pushed ahead, 12-2.

The Dodgers pulled Garcia and had Brock Stewart pitch the final two innings. In the eighth Stewart didn’t allow any runs and the score remained 12-2. The Dodgers failed to score in the bottom of the eighth.

The Diamondbacks mounted a comeback of sorts in the ninth inning as Walker doubled to score Wilmer Flores, Ketel Marte hit a sacrifice fly that brought home David Peralta, and a sacrifice fly by Nick Ahmed drove in Walker. The game ended with the Dodgers in front, 12-5.

No major-league team had ever had so many home runs on Opening Day. Through 2023 the record still stood.6 The previous record, six, was set by the New York Mets in 1988 and tied by the Chicago White Sox in 2018.7

In addition, the Dodgers tied their record for the most home runs in a game. They had hit eight homers on May 23, 2002, against the Milwaukee Brewers at Milwaukee’s Miller Park.8 (The Toronto Blue Jays hold the record for most home runs hit in a single game, with 10 on September 14, 1987.)

Not to be lost was the pitching performance of Ryu, who struck out eight and set down 13 straight Diamondbacks at one point.

Greinke had a horrible game and said, “Yeah it was bad. Not really much to build off because all that stuff was bad, so that’s probably the most disappointing thing.”9

The game was the kickoff moment in a season that saw the Dodgers go 106-56, the second-best record in the major leagues that season (Houston was one win better, at 107-55) and advanced to the National League Division Series, where they were eliminated by the Washington Nationals, the eventual World Series winners.

The Diamondbacks went on to have an 85-77 record, slightly better than their previous season. They didn’t make the postseason.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN201903280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2019/B03280LAN2019.htm

Notes

1 Jorge Castillo, “Blasts from Cast; Six Dodgers Hit Eight Homers to Tie Team Record in First Game,” Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2019: D-1.

2 Hailey Branson-Potts, “A Smashing Opening Day; Fans at Dodger Stadium Start the Season Brimming with High Hopes, Missing Some Favorite Players and Witnessing Eight L.A. Home Runs,” Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2019: B-1.

3 Bill Plaschke, “Blasts from the Cast; a Great Day to be Back, Back, Back, Back, Back, Back, Back, Back,” Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2019: B-1.

4 Matthew Moreno, “History of Clayton Kershaw’s Streak Opening Day Starts for Dodgers,” Dodger Blue, March 28, 2019, retrieved on January 2, 2024 from https://dodgerblue.com/dodgers-history-clayton-kershaw-franchise-record-opening-day-starts-streak-snapped/2019/03/28/.

5 Andy McCullough, “Seager Makes Immediate Impact; After Two Surgeries and 11 Months Away, Shortstop Joins In on Home Run Parade,” Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2019: D-7.

6 Associated Press, “Power Surge! Dodgers Hit 8 Homers in 12-5 Win Over Arizona,” ESPN.com, March 29, 2019. Retrieved on January 1, 2024, from https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap/_/gameId/401074733.

7 Associated Press, “Dodgers Set Opening Day Record with Eight Home Runs,” New York Times, March 28, 2019. Retrieved on July 12, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/sports/dodgers-eight-home-runs.html.

8 Associated Press, “Dodgers Set Opening Day Record with Eight Home Runs.”

9 “Power Surge! Dodgers Hit 8 Homers in 12-5 Win Over Arizona.”