Dodgers officials have been waiting for years for ballyhooed outfielder Matt Kemp to mature into the game-changing player they always believed he could be. In the club's season-opening win over San Diego, he finally showed that ability.
Kemp made a diving catch in the bottom of the sixth inning, robbing Jody Gerut of at least a double. Although there was no one on base and it was the second out of the inning, the catch would prove to be huge, as the Padres went on from there to load the bases and fail to score at a point when the Dodgers led by two. "The (late-afternoon) shadows were tough, but I got a pretty good jump on it," Kemp said. "He hit the ball pretty hard. I knew I had to try to catch it or it would be a double or a triple, and that might put them right back in the game."
Kemp then came to the plate to lead off the top of the seventh and took Jake Peavy over the center field wall, a key blow on a day when the Dodgers would go on to beat Peavy for just the second time in his 23 career starts against them.
Kemp finished 1-for-3 with a walk.
"Matty has been working it this spring," manager Joe Torre said. "Last year, he was trying to find it and trying to figure out what was going on. He has been working with (hitting coaches) Donnie (Mattingly) and Jeff Pentland, and his approach has been more consistent. We know his talent. On that 3-1 pitch off Peavy, he didn't try to pull it, and that was good. The middle of the field is where he will be successful."
DODGERS 4, PADRES 1: Hiroki Kuroda dominated for five-plus innings before hitting the wall in the sixth, after which the Dodgers' allegedly shaky bullpen came up big. Cory Wade, Hong-Chih Kuo and Jonathan Broxton combined to shut out the Padres over the final 3 1/3 innings. James Loney went 3-for-4, including a two-run single with two outs in the first inning, and Andre Ethier went 2-for-4, including an RBI single with two outs in the third.
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