Two pitchers were attempting to show that they could make a comeback for their respective teams. Josh Beckett took the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tim Lincecum was on top of the hill for the San Francisco Giants. Beckett was a combined 7-14 last season with the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox while posting an earned run average of 4.65 between the two teams and former two-time Cy Young award winner Lincecum was coming off the worst season of his career having gone just 10-15 last year for the Giants while posting the division’s highest earned run average with a 5.18 ERA.

It was pretty for either of them, but in the end it was Lincecum who limped away with the victory even after walking a career high seven batters.

The Dodgers jumped on Lincecum early with a lead off single to center by Carl Crawford and Skip Schumacher, in his first start since signing with the Dodgers, drew a walk in the next at-bat. Kemp hit a sacrifice fly to center, advancing Crawford to third.  Lincecum threw ball four in the dirt that catcher Hector Sanchez failed to block, allowing Crawford to score the early run on the passed ball. Andre Ethier popped up and Luis Cruz struck out looking to end the inning.

The Dodgers threatened again in their half of the second when A.J. Ellis his a one-out double to deep right followed by Beckett drawing a walk. Crawford came up to the plate and proceeded to hit a bloop single to left field, loading the bases for Skip Schumacher who went down swinging, giving Lincecum his first strikeout of the season. Matt Kemp then came up to bat but lined out to center field, ending the Dodgers’ rally almost as soon as it had begun.

The top of the third inning proved to be the pitfall for Josh Beckett. Gregor Blanco led off the inning with a single to shallow right and then Brandon Crawford followed that up with a double to shallow right field, advancing Blanco to third. Lincecum grounded out to shortstop, with the Dodgers conceding the tying run and allowing Crawford to advance to third. Angel Pagan then hit a grounder to second baseman Schumacher, who failed to make the play and Pagan reached first on the fielding error, allowing Crawford to score. Scutaro flied out to Ethier in right field for the second out of the inning. However, Pablo Sandoval hit a home run over the right field fence, giving the Giants their fourth run of the inning and a 4 to 1 lead in the game. Beckett walked Posey before finally striking out Hunter Pence to end the inning.

Lincecum retired Adrian Gonzalez, Andre Ethier and Luis Cruz in order in the Dodgers’ half of the third, making short work of them.

Beckett faced the minimum number of batters in the top of the fourth inning.  He gave up a leadoff single to Hector Sanchez then struck out Blanco before inducing an inning-ending double play by Crawford.

Juan Uribe led off the bottom of the fourth inning for the Dodgers but struck out swinging. A.J. Ellis drew a walk and was sacrificed to second by Josh Beckett. Carl Crawford drew a walk, giving the Dodgers runners on first and second with two out for Schumacher. The second baseman grounded out to end the inning.

Beckett tossed a perfect top of the fifth inning, striking out Lincecum before getting Pagan and Scutaro to ground out.

Matt Kemp led off the bottom of the fifth by drawing a walk and Adrian Gonzalez followed that up by reaching first safely on Buster Posey‘s fielding error at first. Ethier flew out to deep center, advancing Kemp to third base. Luis Cruz followed that up with another sacrifice fly, this time allowing Matt Kemp to score and bringing the Dodgers a run closer. After Juan Uribe surprised most Dodger fans by drawing a walk and advancing Gonzalez into scoring position, A.J. Ellis hit a routine fly ball to right field, ending the inning. At the end of five, the Giants held a 4 to 2 lead.

The top of the sixth saw the Giants extend that lead to 5 to 2 after Hunter Pence hit a two out home run, his first of the season before Beckett got Sanchez to hit a comeback to him and tossing him out at first.

Lincecum was replaced by Jose Mijares to start off the bottom of the sixth against the Dodgers and Mark Ellis was brought in to pinch hit for Beckett to lead off the inning.  He hit a bloop single to left field, followed by Carl Crawford hitting a single to center, giving the Dodgers runners on first and second with no outs for Schumacher, who was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With bases loaded and no outs, the Dodgers were looking to score a big inning with Matt Kemp coming up to bat. Giants skipper Bruce Bochy called on his bullpen once again and brought in George Kontos to face Kemp. The crowd was up on their feet for Kemp in anticipation of something big. However, Kemp’s slow start continued by grounding into a double play, scoring a run in the process. Jose Lopez relieved Kontos and struck out Adrian Gonzalez to end the inning and preserving the 5 to 3 lead.

J.P. Howell relieved Beckett to start the seventh inning and had a 1-2-3 inning in relative ease, retiring Blanco, Crawford and Arias.

Andre Ethier led off the bottom of the seventh with a double forcing Bochy to make another pitching change. He brought in Chad Gaudin who then forced back-to-back foul outs to first base by Cruz and Uribe. He got A.J. Ellis to fly out to short right field to end the inning.

Howell had another perfect inning in the top of the eighth by getting Pagan to ground out to shortstop, striking out Scutaro and then getting Sandoval to hit a comeback to himself for the easy toss out at first.

Lopez got the first two outs of the Dodgers’ eighth with relative ease and Nick Punto was called upon to pinch hit for Howell. Punto singled to shallow left to give Dodger fans hope with Matt Kemp stepping up tp the plate as the potential tying run. However, Kemp failed to get the job done once again, striking out with his bat on his shoulder.

Dodgers closer Brandon League came in for a non-save situation to give him some work, facing the minimum three batters for the inning. Posey led it off by reaching on a throwing error. League didn’t seem fazed by it and got Pence to hit into a double play, negating that error. Nick Noonan pinch hit for Lopez and promptly grounded out in his major league debut.

With three outs to go, Sergio Romo was called to save the game for the iants for the second consecutive night. For the second night in a row, he succeeded in doing so, recording his eleventh straight save opportunity dating back to last season. He pitched a perfect ninth, retiring Gonzalez and Ethier on fly balls to center field and left field, respectively before getting Cruz to strike out swinging to end the game.

In the end, Lincecum was fortunate in the fact that Sandoval and Pence each homered to bail him out of a mediocre showing that consisted of tossing 91 pitchers and yielding two runs, both unearned.

”You never really expect to get seven walks and come out with a win, but I was fortunate to be on the winning end of that,” Lincecum said. ”I felt like I could have pitched a lot better.”

Beckett, in hopes of re-establishing himself as a dominant pitcher in the majors, also has a lot of work to do. He gave up five runs, three of which were earned in six innings while giving up six hits.

After struggling in Boston, Beckett came over to the Dodgers last August in one the largest blockbuster trades in baseball history and the Dodgers are hopeful the change of scenery will turn him around.

”I don’t look at it like that,” manager Don Mattingly said. ”Ever since we’ve seen Josh over here, he’s been throwing the ball good. Last year he pretty much kept us in every game that he pitched, and he could have had a lot better record better luck if we had put some runs on the board for him. He had a good camp and he’s healthy, so we have no reservations about Josh.”

Crawford stepped up to the plate next and doubled to left field. Mark Ellis followed with a bunt single, advancing Crawford to third. Kontos was replaced by Santiago Casilla, who threw a wild pitch allowing Crawford to score and Ellis to advance to second. After walking Matt Kemp, Jeremy Affeldt replaced Casilla only to hit Adrian Gonzalez with a pitch to load the bases for Andre Ethier, who grounded out to second but plating Mark Ellis. Affeldt walked Luis Cruz intentionally only to allow A.J. Ellis to plate another run on a ground out to third. He finally got out of the inning by getting Justin Sellers to strike out swinging. When all the dust cleared, the Dodgers had a 4-0 lead.

Kershaw took the mound to start the ninth. He gave up the fourth hit of the night to Marco Scutaro, but completed the game and getting the first win of the season.

After the game, A.J. Ellis said it best: ”He gave us seven chances to take care of it, and finally he said, ‘That’s enough. I’m going to take care of it”’

”What an awesome feeling,” said Kershaw, “I probably wasn’t feeling my feet hitting the ground.”

In the end, Kershaw struck out seven, walked none and retired World Series MVP Pablo Sandoval on a grounder to record his sixth career shutout, three of which have been against the Giants.

A big reason for today’s success was his masterful curveball that seemed to be at mid-season form.

”I was able to throw it for strikes, which is key,” said Kershaw. ”That made it easier for them to chase. They were swinging early in counts.”

When asked about his home run and what he was thinking in the dugout he said, ”As soon as I sat down, I had to think about getting three outs.”

”To see that joy on his face when he was rounding third, it was great to see because usually he’s so focused,” A.J. Ellis said. ”Everyone is going to say they were at the Kershaw home run game, even though only 53,000 were here.”

Kershaw became the first Dodger pitcher to homer on opening day since Hall of Famer Don Drysdale in 1965 and the first in the majors since 1988 when St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joe Magrane.

While Kershaw had never hit a home run in his career, he did knock one out in Spring Training back in 2009.

”I never knew what that felt like,” said Kershaw.

”He was the best left-handed pitcher ever,” Kershaw said. ”I’m honored with the comparisons, but I don’t put any merit into it because I got a long way to go.”

Kershaw only needed 94 pitches to close out his third, and best, consecutive opening day start. He has led the majors in ERA each of the last two seasons, and this performance only reminds the Dodgers ownership team that he is one of the best pitchers in the major leagues and deserves a long-term contract.

While there have been a lot of speculation that he would soon be rewarded with a contract in the $200 million range.

When asked if he had asked about such a contract following the game when owner Mark Walter embraced him in a hug, he said it hadn’t crossed his mind.
”Opening day was everything I could hope for,” Kershaw said. ”Hopefully we got 161 more of those coming up.”

In his three opening day starts combined, Kershaw hasn’t allowed a single run. He has struck out a total of 19 batters over the course of 19 innings against the Giants this year, the Padres last year and the Giants in 2011.

This was the first career opening day start for Matt Cain and he showed exactly why he is considered the staff ace on the Giants and a Cy Young contender by many baseball analysts.

In the end, he also gave up four hits in six scoreless innings, while striking out eight and walking one. He threw 93 pitches, including 32 in the first inning alone when he hit Mark Ellis.

”That was a tough one, but Kershaw never gave us a chance to do much at all,” Cain said, ”and that’s typical of him and what you expect from him.”