By Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Los Angeles Dodgers have an air of invincibility around them after becoming the only reigning champions to start an MLB season 8-0 despite not yet playing their best baseball.
Shohei Ohtani’s walk-off home run on Wednesday night in Los Angeles lifted the Dodgers to a dramatic 5-4 come-from-behind win over the Atlanta Braves and while no one actually expects the Boys in Blue to go 162-0 this year, their deep pool of talent gives them a shot to win every game they play.
“I think each night we’re unbeatable,” manager Dave Roberts said after the game.
“And we’ll see how that works out.”
Roberts, who guided the team to a World Series victory over the New York Yankees last year, called Wednesday’s game the worst the team had played so far this season.
The Dodgers fell into an early 5-0 hole due to a poor start by lefty Blake Snell and sloppy defence including two throwing errors by Max Muncy, and a first loss of the season seemed likely.
“I was dumbfounded with the way we were playing. I didn’t recognize that club in the first couple innings,” Roberts said.
“And then just dumbfounded how we found a way to win that game. We had no business winning that game but to our guys credit, we just kept fighting.”
Muncy, who had been struggling mightily at the plate, broke out of his slump with a game-tying, two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Muncy said he ditched the much-discussed “torpedo” bat that the Yankees have made famous this season for his old trusty lumber prior to his final plate appearance.
“The bat was causing me to be a little bit off, a little bit in and out of the zone,” he said of the torpedo bat, where the barrel sits closer to the hitters’ hands.
“My swing felt really good tonight so in the last at-bat I decided just to go back to my regular bat.”
That set the table for Ohtani in the ninth, who on his bobblehead night sent a first-pitch changeup over the left-center field wall, unleashing pandemonium at Dodger Stadium.
“That’s Shohei being Shohei at the end,” Roberts said.
“What a better way to finish his bobblehead night than a walk-off homer.”
The heroics of reigning NL MVP Ohtani, who last year became the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in the single season, didn’t surprise his teammates.
“I don’t think anybody didn’t expect him to hit a walk-off home run there,” said second baseman Tommy Edman.
“It was just a question of where he’d hit it.”
The Dodgers will look to keep their unbeaten streak going when they begin a six-game road trip against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles)
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