Kenta Maeda
The Dodgers began the 2016 season at Petco Park against the San Diego Padres on April 4. Clayton Kershaw made his sixth straight opening day start for the Dodgers and allowed only one hit in seven innings with nine strikeouts. The offense erupted as well, as the Dodgers started the season with a 15–0 rout. It was the best ever margin of victory in franchise history and also the first time they had won six straight opening day games. The 15 runs was one short of the franchise opening day record of 16 set against the Houston Astros in 1983. Scott Kazmir made his Dodgers debut the following night, pitching six scoreless innings while also allowing only one hit, as the Dodgers, with a 3–0 victory, got back-to-back-shutouts to open a season for the first time since 1974. The Dodgers finished the series out with a 7–0 win the next day, joining the 1963 Cardinals as the only MLB teams to open the season with three straight shutouts. Kenta Maeda made his major league debut with six scoreless innings and also hit a home run in his second at bat, the first Dodger pitcher to homer in his debut since Dan Bankhead in 1947. The Dodgers also set a new team record with 27 scoreless innings to start the season, surpassing the 23 innings mark set by the 1974 team. The Dodgers traveled to AT&amp;T Park for the next series against the San Francisco Giants. Behind Alex Wood they fell one inning short of the Cardinals season opening shutout streak of 32 when the Giants scored three in the fifth. The Dodger bullpen then allowed a bunch of runs, including a grand slam by Hunter Pence to pull away and the Giants won 12–6. Ross Stripling made his major league debut in the second game of the series. He pitched a no-hitter for innings but was taken out of the game with a two-run lead after walking a batter and reaching his 100th pitch. The relief pitcher, Chris Hatcher, gave up a two-run homer to the very next batter, Trevor Brown, to tie the game. Brandon Crawford hit a walk-off homer in the 10th as the Giants won 3–2. Kershaw pitched eight innings for the Dodgers in the following game, but allowed two solo homer and got a no-decision. The Dodgers came back to win the game on an RBI double by Charlie Culberson in the 10th inning, 3–2. In the final game of the road trip, the Dodgers scored five runs in the top of the first but saw the lead quickly disappear as Scott Kazmir allowed three homers and six total runs in only four innings. He was the first Dodgers pitcher to allow three homers to the Giants at San Francisco since Ismael Valdez in 1997. A two-run double by Joe Panik off reliever J. P. Howell in the sixth put the Giants up and they won 9–6.