Dodgers look in midseason form with familiar M.O. to start Tokyo Series

This offseason, reading about the Dodgers, and their constant additions, made you feel like they had constructed a modern-day Murderer¡¯s Row. Their roster loomed like an overwhelming, monolithic monster that would bludgeon whichever poor team happened to cross their path, like they were the Harlem Globetrotters and the rest of baseball was the Washington Generals.

But if you watched the Dodgers win the World Series last year, they didn¡¯t do it by blasting their opponents into submission. They did it in a way that¡¯s almost old-fashioned: They grinded everybody down. The Dodgers have some of the greatest players in the world, but more than anything else, they have a whole bunch of good (and versatile) players -- and they keep throwing them at you until you look up and realize the game is over.

In other words, the way the Dodgers won their Tokyo Series opener, 4-1, against the Cubs on Tuesday morning was quite familiar. This team has some shiny new pieces, but the formula on Day 1 was nothing new.

With two MVPs out of the lineup -- Mookie Betts back in Los Angeles with an illness and Freddie Freeman a late scratch with left rib discomfort -- the Dodgers simply plugged in high-quality reserves. Miguel Rojas played shortstop, Kik¨¦ Hern¨¢ndez played first base and the Dodgers just kept on rolling. More than that, they did it in very Dodgers fashion: by grinding out at-bats, giving nothing away, and then pouncing when the opportunity arose.

Cubs starter Shota Imanaga was excellent through four innings, giving up no hits. But with that hitless performance, he walked four guys, pushing his pitch count up to 69, which, with this game happening so early in the calendar, was enough to get him pulled. That got the Cubs into their bullpen sooner than they would have liked, and the Dodgers instantly took advantage, scoring three runs off reliever Ben Brown, a talented pitcher, but one with only 55 1/3 big league innings under his belt.

It¡¯s not that they bombarded Brown, who had good stuff, striking out five in 2 2/3 innings. But he also walked three, and the Dodgers, as they do, took full advantage of their opponent¡¯s mistake, scoring another run on a throwing error by Cubs second baseman Jon Berti. Ask the Yankees how good the Dodgers are at making you pay for mistakes -- we saw that throughout the 2024 World Series.

After that, the Dodgers¡¯ bullpen took over. For all the talk about the Dodgers¡¯ endless cavalcade of superstars, a big reason they won the World Series was their bullpen. When you are walking around Dodger Stadium this year, you are unlikely to see a lot of Anthony Banda or Ben Casparius jerseys ¡­ or even Blake Treinen or Tanner Scott jerseys. But those are the types of pitchers who keep winning games for the Dodgers.

That quartet combined for four scoreless innings, striking out five and allowing only one baserunner, when Treinen hit Berti with a pitch. Otherwise, the Cubs were entirely shut down. After Ian Happ¡¯s single to lead off the top of the third, Berti was the only baserunner the rest of the game. It wasn¡¯t electrifying, it wasn¡¯t dominant, it wasn¡¯t full of fireworks and explosions. It was just the Dodgers deploying all of their quietly excellent players at exactly the right time to suffocate any hope the Cubs might have had at making a comeback.

And when in doubt? Well, the Dodgers have a Shohei Ohtani to fall back on. The reigning NL MVP had two hits and scored two runs in a game that almost felt quiet for him.

The Dodgers were missing Betts and Freeman, yet they still looked like the best team on the field by a wide margin. Like winning was the easiest and most natural thing in the world. Like it¡¯s so simple that you barely even noticed how little trouble they had beating you until the game was already over.

It¡¯s obviously -- obviously -- very early in the year. There are 2,429 games left in this regular season, with dozens more come postseason time. But the Dodgers already look in midseason form. They wear down starting pitchers, they pounce when you make a mistake, they shut down any hope your offense might have at coming back. The Dodgers have Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and all the stars we¡¯ve come to know, love and fear.

But why are they clear favorites to win their second consecutive World Series? Because they win games like they did Tuesday morning. They do it in the World Series. They do it in Tokyo. They do it all the time.