The Los Angeles Dodgers refuse to lose. The Atlanta Braves can’t muster a win.
These storylines collaborated to produce a memorable three-game set this week at Dodger Stadium, where the defending champs looked mightier than ever and their formerly formidable opponents looked positively helpless.
Here are six takeaways from an eye-opening series in the earliest stages of the 2025 season.
The Sho goes on for the Dodgers; the struggles continue for the Braves
Of course, Shohei Ohtani hit a walk-off home run on his bobblehead night to complete the sweep of Atlanta. Dodgers broadcaster Joe Davis’ “Ohtani, inevitable!” call as the ball sailed over the center-field fence was perfectly apt. On Wednesday, Freddie Freeman didn’t play, No. 2 and No. 3 hitters Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez went 0-for-8, Blake Snell lasted just four innings, and the L.A. defense made three errors … yet the Dodgers won anyway because that’s just what they do. Meanwhile, the Braves’ shocking skid reached unthinkable lows, with Ohtani’s walk-off dinger the punctuating gut punch.
After looking largely noncompetitive against San Diego and in the first two games of this series, Atlanta jumped to a 5-0 lead through two innings Wednesday. The five runs already marked a season high for the club, seemingly suggesting the offense had awoken from its weeklong slumber. But the Braves were unable to add on after the first two frames, including failing to capitalize on a bases-loaded, nobody-out situation in the sixth with Marcell Ozuna, Austin Riley and Matt Olson scheduled to bat. Those shortcomings with runners in scoring position loomed large as the Dodgers mounted their dramatic comeback and epitomized what has been an epic collective struggle at the plate for Atlanta over the first week.
The Braves rank last or close to it in nearly every offensive category thus far, a stunning reality considering the personnel involved. This offense disappointed last year relative to the outrageous standard set in 2023, but the current struggles are infinitely more confounding and troubling.
Don’t forget about Dustin May
Dustin May made his triumphant return to the mound Tuesday, nearly two full years removed from his most recent major-league appearance. Since he starred as a 22-year-old rookie in 2020 — including a scoreless outing in Game 6 of the World Series — May’s career has been derailed multiple times, limiting him to 20 starts over the previous four seasons. His injury history includes Tommy John surgery in 2021, another elbow surgery in 2023 and a terrifying incident last summer that resulted in a torn esophagus and necessitated emergency surgery.
As such, it was an emotional return to action for May, and it was all the more remarkable to see him excel right away considering the lengthy layoff. On Tuesday, the red-headed flame-thrower allowed just one hit across five scoreless innings with six strikeouts, showcasing wicked movement on both his two-seam fastball and his sweeper.
Drafted out of a Texas high school back in 2016, May is one the longest tenured members of the Dodgers organization, and he’s now in the final year of his contract. With a strong season in the rotation, May could hit free agency as not just one of the higher-upside arms available but also one of the youngest, as he’ll turn 28 in September. That said, it remains to be seen how cautious the Dodgers will be with his innings; 2019 was the last time May threw more than 100 in a season.
With that in mind — plus a wealth of internal alternatives expected to be available in the coming months — it’ll be interesting to see how long May sticks in the rotation. For now, all we know for sure is that if May keeps pitching like he did in his season debut, the Dodgers will want him throwing important innings down the stretch.
The Braves need reinforcements before the reinforcements
The pending returns of ace Spencer Strider and former NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. from injury carry even more weight now, considering Atlanta’s brutal beginning to the season. But the Braves can’t wait around for those two stars to save them, especially when the depth chart suffered two more brutal blows in recent days, with the news that Jurickson Profar was suspended 80 games for PEDs and right-hander Reynaldo Lopez needs arthroscopic shoulder surgery that is expected to keep him on the shelf for several months.
Rookie Drake Baldwin has filled in admirably for the injured Sean Murphy behind the dish. Don’t be fooled by his .056 batting average; he has been hitting the ball quite hard and has been the unluckiest hitter in baseball so far this year. But the Braves need several others to step up big-time in Profar’s and Lopez’s absence. That means March signing Alex Verdugo once he’s ready and more production from the likes of Jarred Kelenic and Bryan De La Cruz.
On the mound, the Braves might lean more on talented but inexperienced right-handers AJ Smith-Shawver and Hurston Waldrep, at least until Strider is back. This might be a lot to ask of these players, but if the stars continue to underperform, unlikely heroes will need to emerge for Atlanta to get back into the mix.
We haven’t yet seen the Dodgers at full strength
Maybe the most remarkable part of Los Angeles’ 8-0 start is that just one of those games has featured the MVP trio of Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman atop the lineup. Each superstar has delivered individual heroics along the way, with Ohtani and Betts notching walk-off dingers already, but Betts’ severe illness that kept him from playing in Tokyo and Freeman’s recent aggravation of his ankle injury have left Ohtani as the lone constant atop the lineup thus far.
The silver lining of these early absences from Betts and Freeman has been the emergence of other offensive stars, whether that’s Tommy Edman as the surprise team leader in homers with four, catcher Will Smith sitting tops in the NL with a .607 OBP or free-agent signing Michael Conforto (1.237 OPS) fitting in seamlessly as yet another impact bat in Dodger blue. All of which is to say: It’s scary to think how productive this unit will be once guys such as Teoscar Hernandez and Max Muncy heat up and Betts and Freeman are back in the every-day mix.
To make the postseason, the Braves need to make history
No team has ever started 0-7 and rebounded to qualify for the postseason. The most recent team to start 0-7 and finish with a winning record was the 1983 Astros, who were 0-9 out of the gate but finished 85-77. As dire as things seem right now, perhaps last year’s Houston club can also provide some solace regarding the Braves’ ominous start to the season.
Like Atlanta, Houston entered the 2024 season as a no-doubt, upper-echelon contender but stumbled badly in the early going, falling to 7-19 and sitting in last at the end of April. That awful first month had many questioning if the Astros’ run as annual postseason certainties had ended, but Houston eventually figured it out and posted the best record in the American League from May 1 through the end of the season, winning yet another division title.
Perhaps a similar trajectory is in store for Atlanta once Acuña and Strider return, but the competition in the NL East feels far less likely to capitulate and enable a Braves surge up the standings the way Houston’s AL West rivals did in 2024. No matter how you slice it, Atlanta’s path to an eighth consecutive postseason berth is already much more harrowing than it was on Opening Day.
Challenges loom on the road ahead
The Dodgers now embark on their first traditional road trip of the season, as they’ll take on two more NL East opponents in Philadelphia and Washington over the next week. From a travel standpoint, this cross-country jaunt might seem like a piece of cake compared to their transpacific trek to Tokyo, but the Phillies do represent a daunting opponent in the Dodgers’ quest to stay undefeated. And even if the dream of 162-0 evaporates in the coming days, the Dodgers should have every motivation to maintain their high standard of play, considering the ultra-competitive state of the NL West, which features the lone other undefeated team in San Diego and two more squads off to strong starts in Arizona and San Francisco.
The Braves, meanwhile, will retreat to Atlanta for a home opener Friday against Miami that might have unusually uneasy vibes. Maybe a series against the rebuilding Marlins will serve as a soft landing after Atlanta’s nightmare visit to Southern California, but the Fish have been reasonably competitive so far and might not be the pushovers we expected. It won’t get any easier for Atlanta after that, as the Phillies will come to town for three games next week looking to bury their rivals further at the bottom of the NL East.
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