The sight of the Dodgers opening their MLB season with the Cubs on Tuesday morning was difficult, and there was no Freddie Freeman. They didn't even have Mookie Betts. Shohei Ohtani hasn't pitched in the game since 2023.
But they were there, using two hits and two runs from Ohatani, five shutout innings from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and two RBIs from Tescar Hernandez, and a save from new all-starting Nursecott to secure a 4-1 victory. Popular Japanese ace Kinosaki Castle, whose sweepstakes ended with a victory for the Dodgers, began Wednesday morning. As regular season rhythm begins at the end of March, Blakesnell and Tyler Glasnow start the game, Freeman and Betts return to the lineup, Kirby Yates pitching at a high leverage spot, Otani is the ultimate variable and ultimately returns to his role as a two-way player. Incidentally, their manager, Dave Roberts, also signed a record-breaking management agreement.
If there was a team that looked invincible in recent baseball history, it was the Dodgers. And now they continue to be the Mets benchmark, the obstacles they need to overcome, the new standard officially set when the NLC's magical run to Game 6 ended at Dodger Stadium. For example, if the Dodgers either win 110 games or even the 1906 Cubs and the 2001 Mariners find a way to win a record 117th game, two teams in baseball history to win 106, that might seem like an impossible task.
But what the Mets have to do is figure out the formula for beating the Dodgers four times in seven games when the calendar flips into October. They are worth a full season to experiment before them. Perhaps there will be a trading deadline for Dylan to stop or add someone like Sandy Alcantara. They have six months for the current injury issues to go away and the new ones sink. The Mets don't need to grasp the Dodgers when teams they met three times in May and three times in June meet. As they learned last year, it's not necessarily an accurate measure of how teams match up in the postseason series.
