Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani celebrates as he approaches home plate after hitting a walk-off home run against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
162-0?
Why not?
Shohei Ohtani is rounding the bases with his right fist in the air and Dodger Stadium is shaking with its roar filling the sky and anything is possible.
162-0?
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani points and celebrates as he rounds the bases after hitting a walk off home run against the Atlanta Braves Wednesday at Dodger Stadium. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
It could never happen. But after Wednesday night, are you willing to say it can’t happen?
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The Dodgers were seemingly destroying their season-opening, seven-game win streak with their worst game in several seasons, stumbling to a 5-0 deficit against the Atlanta Braves and apparently ready to pack it in until …
Until Tommy Edman homered in the second inning.
Until Michael Conforto homered in the fourth.
Until Max Muncy clawed back from two errors to blast a game-tying two-run double in the eighth.
Until Ohtani celebrated his bobblehead night with a walk-off home run in the ninth.
Anything is possible? Everything is possible.
Read more: Shohei Ohtani hits walk-off homer on his bobblehead night to keep Dodgers undefeated
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In less than three hours, the Dodgers went from nightmare to history, from tainted to unblemished, from questionable to undeniable, all part of a thrill ride that symbolized the unbelievable start by baseball’s greatest team
162-Oh my Lord.
The Dodgers dramatically showed that the heady beginning of their 2025 season is about more than muscle, there’s also magic. It’s the only explanation for what happened in a 6-5 victory over the Braves that pushed their record to 8-0, the best unbeaten start by a defending champion in baseball history.
They will eventually lose … right? These breaks will surely turn against them one day … yes?
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Maybe. Who knows? For now, they look flat-out unbeatable.
“I think each night we’re unbeatable, and we’ll see how that works out,” said manager Dave Roberts afterward with an amazed smile.
Dodgers third base Max Muncy hits a two-run double in the eighth inning to tie the Atlanta Braves 5-5 Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Working out pretty good so far. It’s not just that the Dodgers are winning games. As Wednesday showed, it’s how they’re winning games, this time triumphing despite three errors and two base-running blunders and one misplayed fly balls.
“Tonight I was a little dumbfounded,” said Roberts. “I was dumbfounded with the way we were playing. I didn’t recognize that club in the first couple innings. And then just dumbfounded we found a way to win that game. We had no business winning that game. But to our guys’ credit, we just kept fighting.”
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Presumptive ace Blake Snell is shaky for a second consecutive start, allowing five unearned runs fueled by four walks, and what happens? He is rescued by a scoreless five innings pieced together by relievers named Ben Casparius, Kirby Yates and Jack Dreyer.
Will somebody please explain just who is Jack Dreyer?
Read more: Plaschke: If Dodgers want to be a dynasty, they must win the World Series again
“Tonight, obviously, was the worst game we’ve played,” said Roberts. “But the ‘pen has been fantastic.”
Then there was Muncy, after two throwing errors and three lousy plate appearances in a season full of them, ditching his new torpedo bat for his old faithful and tying the game with one of his trademark big swings in the eighth.
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“It’s been fun … it feels like this clubhouse is carrying a little bit of the attitude we had last year that we’re never out of a game and we’re resilient, and we’ve been carrying it into this season,” Muncy said, later adding, “The guys don’t give up. Bad things have happened, and no one’s really been down or out on themselves. Everyone’s just all right, here we go, next inning, let’s get after it.”
Don’t forget Michael Conforto, running into an out and killing a rally, but still having the composure to set up Muncy’s big hit with a leadoff single in the eighth.
“Every game, every at-bat matters, every play … the focus doesn’t waiver, the compete,” said Roberts.
Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández congratulates teammate Michael Conforto after he hit a fourth inning home run against the Braves Wednesday at Dodger Stadium. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Finally, of course, there is Ohtani, and there’s only one way to describe a guy who rewarded those fans who lined up five hours before the game for his bobblehead doll with a real live neck- turner.
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“Shohei being Shohei at the end,” Roberts said for the umpteenth time.
So when are they going to lose? You tell me, when are they going to lose?
An obvious spot would be in two games, on Saturday in Philadelphia, when Phillies’ veteran Aaron Nola stares down struggling kid Roki Sasaki. But Nola was hammered by the Washington Nationals in his first game this year and the Dodgers offense has already saved Sasaki once.
After the Phillies’ weekend series the Dodgers play three games against the wretched Nationals and three against the Chicago Cubs, who they’ve already beaten twice in two attempts.
After the Cubs series, they play 20 games against the sorry likes of Colorado, Texas, the Cubs again, Pittsburgh, Miami, Atlanta and Miami again.
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That brings them to a four-game series in Arizona in early May. OK, with the intense history between the two, the Dodgers could lose there.
At that point, they would be 36-0, and would that really shock you?
This is all hyperbole, of course. Two days from now they could already be 8-1 and nobody would blink.
But the point is, they’re good enough to warrant such fantasies. Think about it. They’ve beaten two Cy Young award winners. They’ve won amid the distraction of two opening days. They’ve won with ailing Mookie Betts and injured Freddie Freeman having played together in just two of the eight games. They’ve won with shutout starting pitching. They’ve won with anonymous relievers.
And now they’ve pulled off a big-time comeback win on a night they mostly looked like Little Leaguers.
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“We knew going in we were talented. … I actually like it in the sense that no one’s too high right now,” said Roberts “The pitching has been very good, the defense has been solid but up and down our lineup there’s only a couple guys who are really swinging the bats the way we’re capable, … outside of that …guys are really thinking about how they could get better right now … which is a pretty scary thought for the rest of the league.”
Scary enough that before the game, I actually asked Roberts if they feel unbeatable.
“I guess if you say that if every single night we take the field do I feel like we’re going to win?” he said. “Yeah.”
He added, “I know that the math says that we’re not going to go 162-0, but each night we take the field I feel like we’re going to win, so, whatever that means.”
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Right now, it means he’s been right eight times in eight games, a perfect record, a perfect start, only the beginning.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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