The Braves, meanwhile, dropped to 0-7 after blowing a 5-0 lead
No defending World Series champion has ever had a better start to the season than the 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers. Wednesday night, the Dodgers improved to a perfect 8-0 thanks to Shohei Ohtani’s ninth inning walk-off home run against the Atlanta Braves (LA 6, ATL 5). Ohtani fittingly hit the walk-off home run on his bobblehead night.
Los Angeles fell behind 5-0 early, then rallied against Atlanta’s bullpen to tie and eventually win. Ohtani’s walk-off homer was already the second of the season for the Dodgers. Mookie Betts hit a walk-off homer against the Detroit Tigers last Friday to improve the team to 4-0. Here is Ohtani’s walk-off Wednesday:
The 8-0 start is the best ever by a defending World Series champion and also the best by the Dodgers since they won a franchise record 10 straight games to open 1955. That was their third to last season in Brooklyn. Here are the longest winning streaks to start a season by a defending champion:
- 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers: 8-0 (and counting)
- 1933 New York Yankees: 7-0
- 1985 Detroit Tigers: 6-0
- 1934 New York Giants: 5-0
- Several tied at 4-0 (most recently 1976 Cincinnati Reds)
As for the Braves, Wednesday was a new low in what has been a wretched start to the 2025 season. Atlanta is now 0-7 and remains baseball’s only winless team. No team has ever reached the postseason after starting the season 0-7, though there were not three wild-card spots for most of baseball history, so the Braves have that going for them.
Atlanta built its early 5-0 lead Wednesday on two Max Muncy’s throwing errors, Andy Pages dropping a line drive in center field, and Matt Olson lining a two-out, two-strike, two-run double to left in the second inning. Two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell walked four in four innings in his second Dodgers start. He was charged with five runs, all unearned because of Muncy’s errors.
Tommy Edman (two-run) and Michael Conforto (solo) went deep in the middle innings to get the Dodgers back into the game. The crushing blow was Muncy’s two-out, two-strike, two-run tying double in the eighth. With the Braves desperate for a win, manager Brian Snitker went to closer Raisel Iglesias for the five-out save, and it backfired.
Muncy, it should be noted, used one of the new torpedo bats in his first three at-bats Wednesday. He went 0 for 3 with a strikeout, switched back to his regular bat, then doubled home two runs to tie the game. They were his first two RBI of the season. An inning later in the bottom of the ninth, Ohtani sent everyone home with his walk-off shot off Iglesias.
The 0-7 start is Atlanta’s worst since an 0-9 start to 2016, the second year of the rebuild that led to their 2022 World Series title. The Braves finished 68-93 that year. They had not had a seven-game losing streak at any point in the season since August 2016.
Mercifully, the Braves, who are hitting .122 (6 for 49) with runners in scoring position, are done with their season-opening West Coast trip. Thursday is a team off-day, then they will play their home opener against the Miami Marlins at Truist Park on Friday. The Dodgers are heading out on their first road trip of 2025. They’ll face the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Friday.
The San Diego Padres, who swept four games from the Braves last weekend, are the only other undefeated team in baseball. They are 7-0 following Wednesday’s win. That is the longest winning streak to begin a season in franchise history.
