Dodger fans are going to have very little patience for games like tonight’s when the season starts. And they’ll come, as they always do. But if they come early and often, it’s going to get very ugly, very quickly.

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Angels 5, Dodgers 1

Highlights:

  • Rod Barajas hit his third homer in the third inning.
  • Juan Uribe hit his team-high seventh double.
  • Hiroki Kuroda picked off Torii Hunter, and walked none while striking out four in four innings.
  • Michael Antonini, acquired in December for Chin-Lung Hu, pitched two shutout innings.

Lowlights:

  • Kuroda allowed three runs on seven hits.
  • Scott Elbert gave up a two-run homer to Hunter in his only inning – he faced six batters and allowed four baserunners.

Sidelights:

  • Spotlight man Andre Ethier went 1 for 3.
  • Molly Knight of ESPN the Magazine on Twitter: “When told of Ethier’s comments that he could be non-tendered after 2011, a visibly agitated Ned Colletti shook his head.”
  • Steve Mason and John Ireland of ESPN AM 710 had Chad Billingsley on today, then later, me. Mason and Ireland called me “the most mellow guy in the world.” If they only knew …
  • From The Associated Press: “Dodgers head trainer Stan Conte was not with the team, having spent Tuesday in San Francisco testifying in Barry Bonds’ perjury trial. The former Giants slugger is charged with lying to a grand jury when he denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs. Conte, the Giants’ head trainer during seven of his 15 years with them, gave detailed and damaging accounts of Bonds’ daily activities with his personal trainers, Greg Anderson and Harvey Shields – whom Conte had attempted to ban from the clubhouse.”