On Thursday and Friday night at Dodger Stadium, a common refrain echoed from the home plate escalators as the crowd filed out.
“One-hundred-sixty-two and oh!” one fan shouted Thursday while administering two-handed high-fives to passersby.
“One-hundred-sixty-two and oh!” another yelled Friday, soliciting a chorus of cheers in response.
In a 162-game season, such perfection is virtually unattainable. But for the first six games, Dodgers fans could keep dreaming. Because six games in, their team had been perfect.
In a 6-1 win over the Atlanta Braves on Monday, the Dodgers continued the unbeaten start to their World Series title defense. They led wire to wire in a game dominated by pitcher Tyler Glasnow, who threw five scoreless innings with eight strikeouts, and a lineup that, despite missing Freddie Freeman after he slipped in the shower last weekend and aggravated his surgically repaired right ankle, struck for four early runs and never looked back.
“I didn’t know what to expect going into spring, but it just seemed like the atmosphere was even hungrier than last year,” Glasnow said. “I think it’s been from Day 1, everyone has just been super motivated to come out strong and win it again. The focus, it’s very high this year. It’s really good.”
Making his first start sustaining a season-ending elbow injury last August, Glasnow set the tone. He struck out the first two batters, snapping off a nasty curveball to Michael Harris II before blowing a 98-mph fastball by Austin Riley. Glasnow worked around a temporary lapse of command in the second, stranding a pair of leadoff walks without further stress. And he didn’t give up his first hit until the fifth inning, flashing the same overpowering arsenal that had him on track to be the Dodgers’ postseason ace last year before elbow tendinitis sidelined him for all of October.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game,” catcher Will Smith said. “We’re fortunate to have him. He gave us five really good innings.”
Glasnow probably could have kept going, having thrown just 79 pitches. But the team was leading 5-0, giving manager Dave Roberts a chance to ride a rested bullpen coming off a day off.
“He had a good rhythm throughout the night,” Roberts said. “You can see the conviction of the breaking ball today. There’s a lot of bad swings with that pitch. And then the fastball played. So, yeah, I think tonight was a good steppingstone.”
Teoscar Hernández, right, celebrates with Shohei Ohtani after hitting a two-run home run in the first inning Monday.
Teoscar Hernández opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the first, giving him eight RBIs on the young season, which were tied for second in the National League entering Tuesday.
Michael Conforto helped double the lead in the third, smashing an RBI double off the wall two at-bats before Tommy Edman lifted a near-grand slam to the warning track in center for a sacrifice fly.
Smith, off to a blistering start with a team-best .467 batting average entering Tuesday, tacked on an RBI single in the fifth.
And Kiké Hernández — who replaced Freeman at first base in his first game since the season-opening Tokyo trip, having missed last weekend’s series against Detroit while recovering from a stomach illness — ripped a solo home run to left in the sixth for insurance.
“It certainly speaks to the depth,” Roberts said of his offense, which is averaging six runs per game even though Freeman (who also missed the Tokyo games because of rib discomfort) and shortstop Mookie Betts (who has sat three times while getting over a stomach virus) both have played only half the games.
“Teo started us off tonight with the big hit … Kiké hadn’t played in a while and comes in, hits a homer. So it’s just really nice when you can look up and down the roster and plug in some guys that are certainly formidable.”
Put it all together, and the Dodgers have made history. Though their opening five-game win streak hardly was flawless, requiring them to come from behind in four games, they nonetheless had put together 30 runs, 21 walks and 12 home runs without committing an error, something no team had done over any five-game stretch in history.
The Dodgers matched the best start in Los Angeles history, equaling the 6-0 mark set by the 1981 World Series champions. And entering Tuesday they had their sights set on more milestones, trying to eclipse the franchise’s best start of 10-0 by the 1955 “Boys of Summer” title team in Brooklyn.
As for 162-0, Roberts was asked…
“No, I’ve got the under on that one,” he joked. “We’re still not really playing great. We haven’t synced things up. But we’re still finding ways to win. And it’s good our guys are focusing on each night and trying to win a ballgame.”
