Enthusiasm for Dodgers is downright bubbly

FROM SAN DIEGO — As openers go, it was three hours’ worth of corkscrew.

The Dodgers twisted and twisted their way into the San Diego Padres until . . . Loney . . . Kemp . . . Broxton . . . Pop!

As openers go, it was painstaking and laborious and delightful.

Beginning in April sunshine, ending in October shadows, it was a game that mirrored the Dodgers’ dreams for a season.

They beat a team they must beat -- the downtrodden Padres, 4-1.

They beat an ace they can never beat -- Jake Peavy, who had not lost to them in nearly six years.

They won a game in which Manny Ramirez was hitless -- because he bamboozled them on the bases.

They won a game in which Jonathan Broxton threw four lousy pitches -- because his other seven were science fiction-fast strikes.

On a Monday afternoon and evening that got real quiet, real fast, the Dodgers squashed the Petco Park buzz with a reasonably large, convincingly powerful first step of 2009.

“Man, this is the best lineup I’ve ever been part of,” Orlando Hudson said afterward, staring with a grin at a contented, beer-clanking clubhouse. “This is already exciting.”

Before the game, Manager Joe Torre had that same smile.

“I like this team,” he said. “They seem to have less question in their eye, in their minds, than a year ago.”

Less question? On this day, anyway, there were no questions.

No question about the new top of the order.

That’s where it started, a healthy Rafael Furcal and a hellion Hudson pushing Peavy off his swagger after the season’s first five pitches.

Furcal singled to right on his fourth pitch, Hudson singled to center one pitch later, they pulled off a double steal on their own, and both scored on a two-out, bases-loaded single by Loney.

“Peavy reminds me of Orel Hershiser,” Hudson said. “He’s like a bulldog. We had to be like bulldogs.”

OK, the fact that Hudson not only remembers Hershiser, but cites him in a postgame interview, automatically qualifies him as my new favorite Dodger.

No question about the renewed Ramirez.

The guy barely made contact, yet he created another run after walking in the third inning.

Manny causes such a commotion in the stands -- people screaming at his every move -- that it bleeds to the field. Witness Peavy’s inexplicably attempting to pick him off first base.

Um, Jake, the guy has stolen three bases in three years.

The ball bounced past stunned first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Ramirez ran to second, then scored on Andre Ethier’s single.

No question about the focused Matt Kemp.

Shortly after Kemp probably saved a run with a diving catch of a leadoff liner by Jody Gerut in the sixth, he stepped to the plate in the seventh and hit a ball halfway to Mission Bay.

Guess which play he liked more?

“I liked sliding in the grass, getting dirty,” he said with a grin. “If you’re not dirty, you didn’t do anything. I’ve got grass stains on my pants and a good catch too.”

Whatever, his teammates were impressed with how hard he worked this spring, and how much his skills have been refined.

The team’s leading candidate for a breakout season began his campaign right here, right now.

“I guess we kind of got tired of everybody saying Peavy owns us,” he said. “We knew we had to come out hard.”

No question, even, about the bullpen.

For now, the work in progress is progressing.

The lack of depth was shown when Torre warmed up neither of his left-handers in the sixth inning with the left-handed-hitting Gonzalez batting and two runners on base against a tiring Hiroki Kuroda.

But once Gonzalez walked, Cory Wade returned to last season by retiring Kevin Kouzmanoff to end the inning, then gave up one hit to survive the seventh.

Then the ball was handed to lefty Hong-Chih Kuo, who walked two but also survived.

Finally, it was time for Broxton, in his first appearance as the team’s full-time closer, carrying a question mark nearly as broad as his shoulders.

Said catcher Russell Martin: “You can tell this game meant something to him.”

Said Broxton: “Everybody is going to wonder. . . . All you can do is your best.”

If this wasn’t his best, it was certainly his beast.

He retired Chase Headley on three straight wildly swinging strikes.

He retired Drew Macias on a two-pitch popout.

He retired Luis Rodriguez on a whiff at a full-count fastball that was clocked at 99 mph.

“He was throwing laser balls,” Martin said.

The pop of Martin’s glove on the final pitch sounded like, well, a cork.

That bouquet you smell is hope.

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