Dodgers' Quest for Three in a Row Gets Off to Hot Start
The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series, and then they won the offseason that followed by signing Edwin Diaz and Kyle Tucker. Rarely does winning the offseason truly translate to the regular season in any sport. However, when you were already the best team and won the offseason, things tend to go well. For the Dodgers, they have.
Dodgers throttle Diamondbacks in exact fashion we expected
The Los Angeles Dodgers boast, with ease, the best roster in baseball. Now, that doesn't mean they're going to win every game. In fact, they're likely to lose more than a third of their contests over the long, grueling, 162-game season. That's the nature of baseball.
But we saw in the opening game exactly what the Dodgers want to look like this year. The new addition of Kyle Tucker was a brilliant move that paid off well in the opener, and everything hummed along just as it was supposed to in an 8-2 comeback win over the rival Arizona Diamondbacks.
Though they initially fell behind and the bats were strangely silent against Zac Gallen, things eventually tipped back in their favor. Perhaps scarily, it wasn't the biggest bats in their vaunted lineup that sparked the comeback and propelled them to a big win.
Andy Pages' three-run home run helped push them in front, and the Dodgers never looked back. Eventually, after three hard-hit outs, Tucker broke through with an RBI hit in his fourth at-bat. It's exactly what LA had hoped to see.
Dave Roberts reveals challenge with Dodgers lineup
If Andy Pages has evolved to be a threat, then the deepest lineup in baseball just got even deeper. Even if he hasn't, there are just so few holes in the order. Opposing pitchers just don't have any breathing room, as the Diamondbacks learned on Opening Day.
Four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani leads things off, and there's no harder leadoff hitter to face in the sport. It doesn't get much easier from there. He's followed by Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Max Muncy, and Teoscar Hernandez before Pages and Miguel Rojas round it out as the "weak links."
"It certainly has to be taxing when you're facing our guys, and when you feel like you have to be perfect," manager Dave Roberts said. "Just to continue to keep executing and executing, it's tough mentally, physically. As long as we can be disciplined like we were tonight, we should have opportunities to put up big numbers."
That's what Zac Gallen experienced. He cruised for a while, but they eventually wore him down. What started as a promising outing ended with four innings, five hits, four runs, two walks, and two strikeouts. Pages breaking the Dodgers out proves the mental struggle Roberts mentioned.
Threepeat?
The Dodgers are the favorite to win a third consecutive World Series, and after one game, it's very easy to see why. But this team, as deep and star-studded as it is, is not resting on its laurels. The players aren't taking anything for granted.
"The biggest thing that we talked about is that last year has nothing to do with this year," general manager Brandon Gomes said, "just like it had nothing to do with the year before." They were able to win last year with that same focus, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the MLB.
"We obviously enjoyed going back-to-back," shortstop Mookie Betts said, "but it's almost like it's old news. We're not really focused on that anymore. Now we're focused on Game 2. We do a really good job here of just taking it day by day. We know we have a big goal, but the only way to get there is just one step at a time."
Taking it a step at a time, they showcased exactly why they are the team to beat.
