Champion Dodgers off to historic start, who’s built to challenge them?

• The Los Angeles Dodgers are off to a historic start in 2025. They are the first World Series champs to begin 7-0 since the 1933 New York Yankees.
• The division rival San Diego Padres have also started the season 7-0, a team first.
• Who else is built to challenge the champs? The San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays are hot, too.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers are the first World Series champions to start a season 7-0 since the 1933 New York Yankees. It’s quite an accomplishment, given that the Yankees team featured Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.

Two reasons the Dodgers are off to a hot start

So, how are the Dodgers doing, and is this hot start sustainable? Reason number one: They are getting great pitching, even factoring in rookie Roki Sasaki’s early struggles. The Dodgers team ERA to this point is third in Major League Baseball at 2.25.

Reason number two: The Dodgers offense is as expected. Six of their seven wins have come by two runs or more, and they are outscoring opponents 39-18 so far. Scary to think what things might look like when Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts are fully healthy. Betts already has a walk-off homer this year after losing 20 pounds because of a stomach virus. Newcomer Michael Conforto says there are no weaknesses in the lineup.

“When you have good hitter after good hitter, you know, it can be tiresome for the other team,” Conforto said. “Just constantly taking some good pitches, some good pitchers’ pitches, staying on some fastballs.”

The record for wins in a single season is 116, held by the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who lost to the Yankees in the American League championship series that season. So, even with overwhelming numbers right now, there’s no guarantee that it will lead to a second straight championship for Los Angeles.

Who is best built to challenge LA?

In fact, several teams would like to challenge the champs. Chief among them is their division rival, the San Diego Padres. They are also off to a 7-0 start, the best in team history. The Pads have a team ERA better than the Dodgers at a league-leading 1.57, and they’re outscoring opponents 31-9. They opened the season by sweeping the surprisingly winless Atlanta. Then, they took care of the defending AL Central champion Cleveland Guardians –– a series that included a win for Kyle Hart in his first start since 2020.

“Feels great,” manager Mike Shildt said. “It’s a good ball club off to a good start, clearly, playing really good baseball across the board. Pitching, congratulations to Kyle getting his first big league win. Doing it in all phases, a solid five, the bullpen’s been great, situational hitting, defense, everything has been on point.”

The Dodgers and Padres are not the only two teams dialed in to start the year. The San Francisco Giants, at 5-1 in the same division, are keeping pace. In the American League, the Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers lead the way with 5-2 records, and the Yankees, with their “Torpedo” bats, have scored an MLB-leading 41 runs in their 3-1 start.