Kershaw King of Opening Day

Kershaw was masterful in his first start of the 2014 season (NESN)

Clayton Kershaw asserted his dominance throughout yesterday's season opener in Australia. Kershaw, the reigning NL Cy Young winner and now the most expensive pitcher in baseball history, stymied the Arizona Diamondbacks with six and two-thirds innings of one-run. The lefty was in top form, surrendering just five hits--only one of which went for extra bases (a Paul Goldschmidt double)--and one walk while fanning seven. It didn't hurt that LA put three runs on the board for him relatively early, thanks to Andre Ethier's RBI groundout and Scott Van Slyke's two-run bomb (both of which scored Adrian Gonzalez).

Wade Miley, while repsectable in his own right (three runs and eight K's in five innings), was no match for baseball's top hurler. Arizona's bullpen kept Los Angeles at bay over the final four frames, but the D-Backs were unable to mount a comeback. Chris Perez, new setup man Brian Wilson and killer closer Kenley Jensen allowed no hits in relief of Kershaw, thereby suffocating any hopes for an Arizona rally.

The home team's lone run came in the bottom of the sixth, when Goldschmidt led off with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch during Martin Prado's at-bat. Mark Trumbo, in his Diamondbacks debut, plated Goldschmidt by grounding out to second baseman Justin Turner.

But it was too little, too late for Arizona--held hitless in the final three innings. They'll look to get the bats going tonight against Hyun-jin Ryu, who's making the first start of his sophomore season. The D-Backs hope to get their first win of 2014 behind Trevor Cahill, who needs to put a rough spring training behind him.