Dodgers’ Unbeaten Streak: A Historic Start to the 2025 Season
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers have kicked off their 2025 season with a bang, and it’s been nothing short of a whirlwind. In just seven games, they’ve managed to play across two continents, face off against two reigning Cy Young Award winners, and participate in two elaborate pregame ceremonies. It’s been a busy start, but the Dodgers have handled it all with aplomb, remaining undefeated in the process.
Major League Baseball’s traditional Opening Day was only five days ago, yet the Dodgers have already accomplished so much — except for losing, that is. On Tuesday night, they staged a comeback to defeat the struggling Atlanta Braves 3-1, improving their record to 7-0. This ties them with the legendary 1933 New York Yankees, featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, for the best start to a season by a reigning champion. Only two Dodgers teams have started a season with a longer winning streak, and both of those instances — in 1940 and 1955 — occurred when the franchise was still based in Brooklyn.
The current Dodgers have achieved this remarkable start by overcoming challenges such as facing Tarik Skubal and Chris Sale, beginning their season over 5,000 miles away in Japan, and dealing with the absence of key players like Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman from the lineup more than half the time. All of this while carrying the weight of expectations that come with having one of the most star-studded rosters in baseball history.
“All that stuff. It’s tough to win a handful of ballgames, let alone all of them,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. His team has managed to stay just ahead of the 6-0 San Diego Padres in the National League West. “I think we just do a really good job of resetting.”
Despite their success, the Dodgers have yet to fully hit their stride. However, a consistent theme has emerged through their first seven games: solid pitching and timely hitting. Their .864 OPS with runners in scoring position ranks as the seventh highest in the majors, even though they haven’t yet fielded their best lineup. Their 2.25 ERA ranks fourth, despite early struggles from offseason pitching acquisitions Roki Sasaki and Tanner Scott.
On Tuesday, Dustin May took the mound for the first time in over 22 months and set the tone early, limiting the Braves to just an unearned run through five innings. May, 27, secured the fifth spot in the Dodgers’ rotation largely due to Tony Gonsolin’s back injury late in spring training. May’s journey back to the mound has been anything but ordinary. Last July, he was close to returning from flexor tendon surgery and a Tommy John revision when a freak accident involving a piece of lettuce led to a serious tear in his esophagus, ending his 2024 season before it even began.
May began Tuesday’s outing by striking out the first three batters he faced. The Braves, who have scored just nine runs while starting their season 0-6, struggled to make any headway against him. By the end of it, May was relieved to find that his devastating arsenal — a hellacious sweeper, a bowling ball sinker, and an upper-90s fastball — still played well against major league hitters.
May departed after 81 pitches with a 1-0 deficit, but the Dodgers finally broke through against Sale an inning later. The decisive blow came from Betts, who teamed with Sale to win the World Series as a member of the Boston Red Sox in 2018. With one on and none out in the bottom of the sixth, Betts got a 1-1 slider out over the plate and lofted it over the left-field fence for his third homer in four games, all of which have driven in the go-ahead run.
- Three Dodgers relievers — Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, and Scott, who pitched an encouraging ninth inning — did the rest, making the Braves MLB’s lone winless team.
- Betts has joined the likes of Freeman and Shohei Ohtani in setting an early tone for these Dodgers, either through their words or their actions.
- The messaging has been consistent since the onset of spring training: What they accomplished last fall, claiming the franchise’s first full-season championship since 1988, did not matter.
- Chasing the regular-season wins record of 117 is irrelevant. All that matters, Betts and others have consistently preached, is maximizing each day.
For the first seven of 162 games, the Dodgers have done just that. “They’re not settling for just the one ring,” said first-year Dodgers outfielder Michael Conforto. “They’re hungry. I think it’s just engrained in the group of guys they had last year. They made it a point, for the new guys that are here, to just understand the mindset to go out there and win every single day, not take any days off, and just be able to get after it. That’s the expectation.”
Originally Written by: Alden Gonzalez
