SEOUL — The Dodgers’ offseason was one of many talked about in baseball historic previous. Not solely did they sign Shohei Ohtani, arguably the best experience the sport has ever seen, nonetheless as well as they spent over $1 billion in contracts this winter.

Over the course of some weeks, the Dodgers grew to change into baseball’s mannequin of a superb group. They now have three former Most Useful Players atop their lineup in Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Ohtani, and the highest-paid pitcher throughout the historic previous of the sport in Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They shortly grew to change into the main target.

With all that spending and a star-studded roster comes heightened expectations and stress. Going into the season, the Dodgers know they’ll get every opponent’s most interesting punch.

Throughout the first probability to level out off their loaded 2024 lineup, the Dodgers displayed exactly what will make them a difficult group to beat, erupting for 4 runs throughout the eighth inning en path to a season-opening 5-2 win over the Padres on Wednesday on the Gocheok SkyDome in Seoul, South Korea.

“A very powerful issue is that we acquired that W and the best way wherein we acquired it,” Ohtani said by way of interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. “Coming once more late throughout the recreation like that proves that we’re an excellent group.”

Via seven innings, the Dodgers had been knocking on the door nonetheless struggling to interrupt by way of. In opposition to Yu Darvish, Los Angeles had a couple of run-scoring alternate options, significantly throughout the third inning. Darvish, nonetheless, struck out Max Muncy swinging to complete the physique and strand the bases loaded. The Dodgers started the game 0-for-7 with runners in scoring place and left 9 males on base by way of seven.

Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow saved L.A. throughout the recreation, allowing two runs over 5 innings in his group debut. That gave ample time for the Dodgers to ultimately mount their comeback. Retaining this lineup down for 9 innings ensures to be a hard course of for opponents this season.

Down a run with six outs to play with, Muncy opened the eighth with a leadoff stroll in direction of left-hander Wandy Peralta. Teoscar Hernández and James Outman then adopted with a single and a stroll, respectively, to set the tone for the best of the lineup.

After getting a lucky break on a ball that truly broke by way of Jake Cronenworth’s glove, which put Los Angeles ahead for good, the Dodgers’ superstars weren’t leaving something as a lot as probability. Mookie Betts made it 4-2 with an RBI single. On the following pitch, Ohtani added an RBI knock of his private. In his first recreation as a Dodger, Ohtani went 2-for-5 with two singles and a stolen base.

“I felt like we might have scored way more runs if I’d [have] gotten on earlier or gotten on after Mookie,” Ohtani said. “I really feel there have been a great deal of possibilities to realize additional runs than we did at current.”

Whereas that’s true, finally, seven of the 9 starters reached base safely a minimal of as quickly as on Wednesday. Jason Heyward, who was considered one of many two who didn’t, contributed with a sacrifice fly throughout the fourth. Lux, the alternative participant who didn’t file profitable, carried out a key place throughout the eighth-inning rally by hitting the ball that broke by way of Cronenworth’s glove webbing.

“I merely suppose there’s no give,” Lux said. “One by way of 9, everyone’s going to supply you a difficult at-bat. We are going to grind you down, grind you out, and plus you may have acquired guys that will do hurt up and down the lineup, too. Within the current day was an excellent [example that] we’re not going to give up, not going to supply in, and one by way of 9, we’ll grind you down.”

All the attention could be on the Dodgers’ offense this season. It’s a lineup that will strike at any second. It took just one recreation to level out your full baseball world how relentless the bats is likely to be.

“There’s way more eyeballs on the Dodgers and on Fundamental League Baseball,” Roberts said. “I wouldn’t say tonight was a marquee recreation, nonetheless I believed Tyler saved us throughout the ballgame and the offense acquired right here alive on the end. It was an excellent ballgame, and I depend on way more video video games like this.”