Opening Day! Dodgers 8, Dbacks 2
Mar 26, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zac Gallen (23) leaves the mound during a pitching change as manager Torey Lovullo (17), infielder Carlos Santana (41) and catcher Gabriel Moreno (14) look on against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fifth inning at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images I want to start this recap by saying how grateful I am to be back for another season of Arizona Diamondbacks baseball with all of you. Today brought back all those familiar feelings from my childhood.
Opening Day is always the best day of the year—a fresh wave of hope and optimism, the first sign of the dog days of summer ahead, and a welcome reunion with the friends we share this team with. For D-backs fans, though, this nationally televised Opening Day felt more like a Dodgers home broadcast. Through the first three innings, we witnessed a classic pitchers’ duel between Zac Gallen and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The two matched each other inning for inning, with Gallen actually holding a slight edge in pitch count and efficiency. The highlight for Arizona came in the top of the fourth, when last season’s team MVP Geraldo Perdomo launched a two-run homer to put the D-backs up 2-0. Sadly, the national announcers were so focused on the Dodgers that they sounded almost surprised by the blast—and the broadcast barely captured it, with just one replay and a poor camera angle.
The momentum shifted in the bottom of the fifth. With a lead in hand, Gallen hung a knuckle curve to the Dodgers’ eighth-hole hitter, Andy Pages, who crushed a three-run homer to give Los Angeles a 3-2 advantage. It was an all-too-familiar scene for Gallen on Opening Day.
As Jesse Friedman of Snakes Territory pointed out, Gallen posted the exact same line last year: four innings pitched and four earned runs allowed. That one pitch aside, Gallen actually looked quite sharp, showing excellent command of his four-seamer and generating good downward movement on his hard cutter/slider. It was a frustrating end to what had been a solid start.