The 2025 Dodgers are off to their best regular season start in LA franchise history at 7-0. In fact, the only two other Dodgers teams off to a better start were the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers at 10-0 and the 1940 Brooklyn Dodgers at 9-0.
But Tuesday’s eventual 3-1 Dodgers win over the (now) 0-6 Atlanta Braves in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 50,182 wasn’t an easy one – a game in which they were down 1-0 to begin the bottom of the sixth inning. In fact, the Dodgers had only one hit to that point, an infield single to short by Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernández to lead off the bottom of the second inning. Although Teo advanced to second on a hit by pitch of Dodgers catcher Will Smith, he was left stranded there.
Enter international superstar Shohei Ohtani and fellow future first-ballot Hall of Famer Mookie Betts.
With no outs and on a 0-2 count in the bottom of the sixth inning, Ohtani yanked a 79 mph slider from eight-time All-Star, 2024 Cy Young Award winner and fellow future Hall of Famer Chris Sale into right field for the Dodgers second base hit of the game. This was followed by a 369-foot home run into the Left Field Pavilion by Betts to give the Dodgers a then 2-1 lead, but not for long.
(SportsNet LA)
As he seems to do almost every game, fan-favorite utility infielder/outfielder Tommy Edman followed Betts’ blast with a single to center. He then stole his first of what figures to be many bases this season and took third on a throwing error by Braves rookie catcher Drake Baldwin.
“He’s a guy who rises to the occasion,” former Dodgers outfielder and current broadcaster Rick Monday said of Edman on the AM 570 radio broadcast of the game.
After a foul tip strike out by Teo for the first out of that prosperous sixth inning, Smith gave the Dodgers an insurance run with a single to center, scoring Edman to make it 3-1 Dodgers and the eventual final score.
Very worth of mention is the stellar pitching performance by 27-year-old Dodgers right-hander Dustin May making his 2025 season debut, this following Tommy John surgery in 2021, flexor tendon surgery in 2023, and life-threatening esophageal surgery in 2024. May allowed only one unearned run and only one hit with three walks and six strikeouts (including striking out the side in the top of the first inning) in his 5.0 season debut. Unfortunately for the extremely popular Justin,TX native and Dodgers third-round draft pick in 2016 out of Northwest High School in Justin, the Dodgers didn’t do their scoring until after May had been replaced by 32-year-old Dodgers left-hander Anthony Banda, who was credited with the win.
(SportsNet LA)
“There was definitely a lot of emotions that got let out after the first hitter in the first inning,” May (whose Twitter handle is @d_maydabeast) told SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson postgame. “Definitely, like I said, after my first outing in Spring Training, that was a huge weight lifted off my shoulder. It was just super great to be back out there.”
(SportsNet LA)
“What really stood out is I just think the stuff tonight was really good, filled up the strike zone, the sinker, the slider, the pace, the rhythm of the game for him, really managed his emotions really well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of May’s season debut. “I thought there was going to be a lot more anxiousness, nerves that might reflect some pitch execution, but he bottled it up really well and just really happy to see him get a win and complete five innings,” Roberts added, although technically he did not get the win, but the team did because of him.
With Tuesday’s win, the Dodgers are now an MLB-best 7-0 on the young season.
Play Ball!
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