Dodgers hit the big 5-0

Everything was grand for the Dodgers on an opening day that comes around every half-century, from the wildly cheered pregame festivities that concluded with ceremonial first pitches simultaneously thrown by Sandy Koufax, Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine, to the result of the game itself, a 5-0 thumping of the San Francisco Giants that awarded Manager Joe Torre his first victory with his new club in front of 56,000 fans at Dodger Stadium.

A day that started with a reliving of past glories to mark the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers’ move from Brooklyn ended with a glimpse of what could be in the team’s immediate future, as Brad Penny pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings, Jeff Kent hit a home run and leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal showed in a three-for-four performance that he was completely healed after a sprained ankle hobbled him last year.

But the even-tempered manager was quick to warn that there were 161 games remaining on the regular-season schedule.

“I’d like to believe we can take it all the way,” Torre said, “but we have to take it a step at a time because we have young players.”

None younger than Blake DeWitt, the 22-year-old who was thrust into starting at third base because the Dodgers couldn’t land a suitable replacement for the ailing trio of Nomar Garciaparra, Andy LaRoche and Tony Abreu. Torre started four others in their early to mid-20s, including Andre Ethier, whose nine innings in left field ended the longest active consecutive games streak in the majors that had belonged to veteran Juan Pierre at 434.

However promising the Dodgers’ youth, Torre insisted from the start of spring training that pitching would determine how far the club would go, a theory that seemed to gain validity on this day.

But Penny had trouble with his command early, walking two and throwing three balls in the dirt in the first three innings. Catcher Russell Martin guessed that Penny might have been nervous making his first opening-day start, taking over a duty that was Derek Lowe’s in the previous three seasons.

Penny didn’t make any excuses for his control problems but acknowledged that the 15-minute pregame ceremony that included appearances by almost 40 former Dodgers affected his warmup. With the past players using the bullpen as an entrance to the field, Penny had to start throwing on flat ground in left field. Told that the game would start at 1:27 p.m., Penny adjusted his timing accordingly. When he was done, he was told he had six minutes left.

But the end result, he said, was what mattered. The Dodgers went ahead, 3-0, in the first inning on a two-run home run against Barry Zito by Kent, who has battled a strained right hamstring for the last month, and added a run an inning later when Furcal singled in DeWitt.

“It’s nice to get started on the right foot and get Joe his first win,” said Penny, who faced a lineup the Giants hadn’t used the entire spring.

Scott Proctor, Joe Beimel and Takashi Saito combined to give up only one hit over the last 2 2/3 innings, with Saito coming out of a renovated bullpen with newly installed grass on the ground and ivy on the walls to deliver a perfect ninth.

Saito said he was inspired by seeing fellow Japanese pitcher Keiichi Yabu post a scoreless seventh for the Giants. The game was the first in the big leagues in two years for the 39-year-old Yabu, who pitched in Mexico in 2006 and trained by himself last year.

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com