Dustin May returns after 22 months while the dodgers start season 7-0

LOS Angeles – The first seven games of the 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers season saw them playing in two continents, facing two reigning laureates of Cy Young Award and navigating in two pre -matching developed ceremonies.

The traditional opening day of the major baseball league was only five days ago, and yet it seems that the dodgers have already done everything – except to lose.

Tuesday evening, they came from behind to beat the brave of the languid 3-1 Atlanta and improve at 7-0, equaling the New York Yankees of 1933 of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig for the best start of a season for a reigning champion. Only two Dodgers teams began a season on a sequence of longer victories, and both cases – in 1940 and 1955 – took place when the franchise was still in Brooklyn.

The current dodgers did it by overcoming Tarik Skubal and Chris Sale. They did it despite the start of their season at more than 5,000 miles in Japan. They did it with Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman or – as was the case with the Tokyo Dome – both absent from the range more than half of the time. And they did it while experiencing the pressure and expectations of one of the most starred lists in the history of their sport.

“All that. It is difficult to win a handful of ball games, not to mention everyone,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, whose team remained just in front of the 6-0 San Diego Padres in the West National League. “I think we just do a very good work of reset.”

The Dodgers have not yet completely clicked. But a theme has developed through their first seven competitions: a solid pitch and a timely strike. Their op .864 with runners in the rating position are the highest seventh of the majors, despite not yet revealing their best programming. Their ERA of 2.25 ranks fourth, even if Roki Sasaki and Tanner Scott – two of their largest intersaison acquisitions – have dealt with early difficulties.

On Tuesday, Dustin May took the mound for the first time in more than 22 months and set the tone early, limiting the brave to an unprecedented race – on an errant launch of Betts while trying to shoot a double game – in five rounds.

May 27 seized fifth place in the rotation of the Dodgers in large part because Tony Gonsolin was assaulted by a back injury at the end of spring. Not long ago, May did not know if he would come back. In July, May was about a month to return from the flexor tendons surgery and a revision of Tommy John. Then, a piece of lettuce remained stuck in his throat in an Arizona restaurant, an animated event that caused a serious tear in its esophagus, sent it to the emergency room, required abdominal surgery and ended its 2024 season before its start.

May started Tuesday’s release by removing each of the first three strikers he faced. The Braves, who only scored nine points while starting their 0-6 season, did not do much else in the next four innings. In the end, may feel satisfied to learn that its devastating arsenal – an infernal sweeper, a bowling ball lead and a quick ball from the 90s – still plays against the strikers of the major league.

Above all, however, he felt relief.

May had known nerves while doing its major league debut in 2019 and launching in the World Series in 2020, but this one, he said, felt “much heavier”.

“The beginnings, the World Series and all this is expected, but you are there in the moment, and everything is happening, you know that happens,” said May. “This – I didn’t know if I was going to come back, so it was a huge and huge sigh of relief.”

May left after 81 fields with a deficit of 1-0, but the dodgers finally pierced against the sale a round later. And the decisive blow was again provided by Betts, who team up with Sale to win the World Series as a member of the Boston Red Sox in 2018. With one on and none at the bottom of the sixth, Betts obtained a 1-1 cursor above the plate and launched it on the fence of the left field for its third circuit in four games, which all driven into the lip track.

Three dodgers raised – Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen and Scott, who launched an encouraging ninth round – did the rest, making the Loneless Lone team of Braves MLB.

Betts joined Freeman and Shohei Ohtani, among others, to give an early tone for these Dodgers, whether by their words or their actions. The message has been consistent since the start of spring training: what they accomplished last fall, saying that the first franchise championship in the middle of season since 1988, did not matter. Hunting the record for victories in the regular season of 117 is unimportant. Everything that matters, Betts and others have always preached is maximizing every day. And for the first seven games of 162, the Dodgers did.

“They are not satisfied with the only ring,” said the other -year -old dodgers from the first -year Dodgers Michael Conforto. “They are hungry. I think it is simply rooted in the group of guys they had last year. They made a point, for the new guys who are here, to simply understand the state of mind to go there and win every day, not take leave of leave, and be able to go after. It is the wait.”