ANAHEIM -- At long last, the Dodgers have made it to one of their most anticipated seasons in franchise history.

It’s been a whirlwind of a month for a Dodgers team that went 14-7 in Cactus League play, while also splitting a two-game regular-season set against the Padres in the Seoul Series last week.

• Opening Day FAQ: Cardinals vs. Dodgers

Now, the Dodgers’ attention turns to the Cardinals, who they’ll host in the home opener on Thursday at Dodger Stadium. Luckily for the Dodgers, they were able to use their final exhibition game to work out some last minute kinks -- especially for their starting pitcher.

James Paxton -- who will likely pitch in the series opener vs. the Giants next Monday -- labored through the first few innings of his outing before turning it around in the Dodgers' 4-3 loss to the Angels at Angel Stadium on Tuesday. After allowing three runs in the first two innings, Paxton didn’t allow a run in his final three frames. He pretty much passed his final test.

“Tonight, the plan is to get him to five innings and get that pitch count up,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said about Paxton before the game. “We want to get him ready for the fifth game of the season.”

The left-hander threw 80 pitches, mainly relying on his four-seam fastball (52 percent) and knuckle curveball (37 percent). It’s worth noting that Paxton’s fastball velocity was down 2.2 mph from last year (93 mph on Tuesday) but that could have been a byproduct of a starter just trying to make it to the regular season healthy.

Injuries have frequently popped up for Paxton -- he hasn’t cleared 100 innings in a season since 2019 -- so keeping the lefty healthy and effective will be an important task for the Dodgers. In 96 innings for the Red Sox last season, Paxton had a 4.50 ERA and 3.77 expected ERA.

The 35-year-old lefty could play a big role for the Dodgers rotation in the early going. As the club awaits the eventual returns of Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Emmet Sheehan and Dustin May, Paxton will be relied on as a rotation mainstay to start the year.

Ohtani honored by Angels
Tuesday marked the first time that Shohei Ohtani played a game at Angel Stadium after signing a 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers over the offseason. In fact, the last time Ohtani played in Anaheim (Aug. 23) was the same day he tore the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) on his throwing arm.

Ohtani -- who will strictly DH this season while recovering from elbow surgery -- stepped to the plate in the first inning while a minute-long video tribute appeared on the Angel Stadium scoreboard. In his time with the Angels, Ohtani was a two-time AL MVP winner (2021 and ‘23), three-time All-Star and the 2018 Rookie of the Year.

Ohtani struck out in each of his two plate appearances against Angels starter Chase Silseth. Like many of the other Dodgers regulars, Ohtani only received a few plate appearances before his night ended.