by Megan Garcia
The Dodgers have adopted a core belief that they should be able to win every game. Mathematically, it may not happen, but the Dodgers fought off the inevitable for another day in a grand way on Wednesday.
Shohei Ohtani was the finisher in the Dodgers’ sixth comeback win in eight games. On his first bobblehead night of the season — which commemorated his 2024 MVP season — Ohtani blasted a walk-off homer to center field to beat the Braves, 6–5. It also put the Dodgers in the history books.
Their 8–0 record is the best start in Major League history by a reigning World Series champion. They bested the 1933 Yankees who owned the record with a 7–0 start.
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“I‘m going to say my same answer every night. I feel like we’re going to win,” said manager Dave Roberts. “It looked bleak early with Blake. He wasn’t sharp, just missing the walks in there. But our guys persevered. And I think each night we’re unbeatable, and we’ll see how that works out.”
The game, however, didn’t start with the Dodgers embodying that sentiment. Blake Snell couldn’t find a rhythm early in his second start of the season and the usually sure-handed Dodger defense struggled. Max Muncy made errors in each of the first two innings, and the Dodgers made three errors in the game.
Snell pitched four innings, allowed five hits, five unearned runs, four walks and recorded two strikeouts. He landed 45 strikes.
“I just have to establish the fastball more,” Snell said about his pitch execution. “After the first couple of innings, I just kind of noticed their game plan. Usually, I can figure it out a lot quicker. Once I figured out their game plan, it allowed for quicker innings.”
The Dodgers trailed 5–0 heading into the bottom of the second.
They chipped away at the lead.
Tommy Edman’s two-run homer in the second made him the team’s home-run leader with four in eight games.
Michael Conforto went 2-for-2 with two walks, three runs scored, a single and his first home run in a Dodger uniform — a fourth-inning solo shot.
It kept the line moving for Muncy in the eighth inning, who was searching for a way to redeem himself.
Muncy was hitless entering the eighth. He swapped out the torpedo bat for his regular bat when he stepped up to the plate against reliever Zach Thompson. Then on a 1–2 changeup, Muncy doubled to center to score Conforto and Will Smith and tie the score at 5–5. The Dodgers had a new ballgame.
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Then, when the ninth rolled around, Ohtani was queued up for his moment.
“The credit goes to Max Muncy to be able to pull through and tie the game,” Ohtani said. “For me, coming into the game tied during that at-bat, it just really felt like we had a really good shot to win.”
Ohtani hit the first pitch he saw in the ninth inning from Braves closer Raisel Iglesias over the wall for the walk-off win.
It wasn’t just the offense.
Dodger relievers Ben Casparius, Kirby Yates and Jack Dreyer combined for five scoreless innings.
“I was dumbfounded with the way we were playing. I didn’t recognize that club in the first couple of innings,” Roberts said. “And then [I was] just dumbfounded how we found a way to win that game. We had no business winning that game, but to our guys’ credit, we just kept fighting.”
Shohei Ohtani finishes the Dodgers’ comeback in historic streak was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.