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On Thursday and Friday night at Dodger Stadium, a common refrain echoed from the home plate escalators as the crowd was filing out.

“One-hundred-sixty-two and 0!” one fan shouted Thursday, while administering two-handed high-fives to passers-by.

“One-hundred-sixty-two and 0!” another yelled Friday, soliciting a chorus of cheers back in response.

In a 162-game baseball season, such perfection is virtually unattainable. But for now, Dodgers fans can keep on dreaming.

Because six games in, their team has been, well, perfect.

Read more:Shower ‘mishap’ sidelines Freddie Freeman; Dodgers ‘interested’ in torpedo bats 

In a 6-1 win over the Atlanta Braves on Monday, the Dodgers continued their unbeaten start to this year’s World Series title defense — going wire-to-wire in a game dominated by starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow, who threw five scoreless innings with eight strikeouts; and a Dodgers lineup that, despite missing Freddie Freeman after he slipped in the shower this weekend and aggravated his surgically repaired right ankle, struck for four early runs and never looked back.

“I didn't know what to expect going into spring, but it just seemed like the atmosphere was even hungrier than last year,” Glasnow said. “I think it's been from Day 1, everyone has just been super motivated to come out strong and win it again. The focus, it's very high this year. It's really good."

Making his first start of 2025, and his first outing overall since sustaining a season-ending elbow injury last August, Glasnow set that tone from the start Monday.

He struck out the first two batters he faced, snapping off a nasty curveball to Michael Harris II before blowing a 98-mph fastball by Austin Riley. He worked around a temporary lapse of command in the second, stranding a pair of leadoff walks without further stress. And he didn’t give up his first hit until the fifth inning, flashing the same overpowering arsenal that had him on track to be the Dodgers’ postseason ace last year before elbow tendinitis sidelined him for all of October.

"He's one of the best pitchers in the game,” catcher Will Smith said. “We're fortunate to have him. He gave us five really good innings. He was really good."

Glasnow probably could have kept going after the fifth, having thrown just 79 pitches.

But by then, the team was already leading 5-0, giving manager Dave Roberts a chance to ride a rested bullpen coming off of Sunday’s off-day.

“I thought he had a good rhythm throughout the night,” Roberts said of Glasnow. “You can see the conviction of the breaking ball today. There's a lot of bad swings with that pitch. And then the fastball played. So, yeah, I think tonight was a good stepping stone going forward.”

Teoscar Hernández opened the scoring for the Dodgers with a two-run home run in the first, giving him eight RBIs already on the young season, tied for second in the National League.

Michael Conforto helped double the lead in the third, smashing an RBI double off the wall two at-bats before Tommy Edman lifted a near-grand slam to the warning track in center for a sacrifice fly.

Will Smith, off to a blistering start with a team-best .467 batting average, tacked on an RBI single in the fifth.

And Kiké Hernández — who replaced Freeman at first base in his first game since the team’s season-opening Tokyo trip, having missed last weekend’s series against Detroit while recovering from a stomach illness — ripped a solo home run to left in the sixth for superfluous insurance.

“It certainly speaks to the depth,” Roberts said of his offense, which is averaging six runs per game even though Freeman (who also missed the Tokyo games because of rib discomfort) and Betts (who has sat three times while getting over a stomach virus) have each only played in half the games. 

“Teo started us off tonight with the big hit ... Kiké hadn’t played in a while and comes in, hits a homer. So it's just really nice when you can look up and down the roster and plug in some guys that are certainly formidable.”

Put it all together, and the Dodgers have made some notable history.

Though their opening five-game win streak was hardly flawless, requiring them to come from behind in four games, they nonetheless achieved 30 runs, 20-plus walks (21), 10-plus home runs (12) and 55 strikeouts (59) without committing an error; something no team had ever done over any five-game stretch in major league history.

They have matched the best start to a season in the organization’s Los Angeles history, equaling the 6-0 mark set by the 1981 World Series championship team.

And now, they have their sights set on more milestones, trying to eclipse the franchise’s all-time best start to a season of 10-0 set by the 1955 “Boys of Summer” title team in Brooklyn.

As for 162-0, Roberts was asked…

“No, I’ve got the under on that one,” he joked. “We’re still not really playing great. We haven’t synced things up. But we’re still finding ways to win. And it’s good our guys are focusing on each night and trying to win a ball game.”

Read more:'You want your chance to win one.' New Dodgers feel World Series hunger during celebrations

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Mets' bats woke up and scored a 10-4 win over the Miami Marlins to open up the second series of the 2025 MLB season. But Monday night's game wasn't the only thing on Carlos Mendoza's mind as New York's manager spoke about the big topic around baseball and gave some updates on a pair of pitchers working their way back from injury.

Torpedo bats no surprise

It is the hottest topic around the league right now, but the manager said the torpedo bats are “nothing new for us.”

“This is something that every team, every player continues to look for: an edge,” the manager said before Monday’s win. “And [to] find ways to improve in the margin,s and this is a perfect example.

“But this has been going on for years where guys are going to these hitting labs and getting bats custom to what they’re like. Whether it’s a thicker handle, bigger barrel.”

Mendoza called it “just a funny-looking bat” that just happened to go viral in the season’s first weekend and wasn’t a big deal when it became a big talking point.

He noted that Francisco Lindor used a torpedo bat in the first series against Houston – images from Friday’s game show a bat that appears torpedoe-like – and the manager believes the shortstop got his model bat toward the end of spring training. (Of course, Lindor's bat blended in with the crowd more than Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s, which could explain the hubub around the Yankees second baseman's lumber.)

“I’m pretty sure guys will at least continue to test it,” Mendoza said of the new bats, “because this is not something [you can] grab it and go try it in the game. You gotta get a feel for it and see what it’s like. But we’ll see how it goes.”

Of course, when asked what kind of advantage the torpedo bat could present, Mendoza said he wasn’t sure if the benefits of the bat “apply to everyone.”

Speaking of Lindor...

Shortstop back with club

Mendoza “knew right away” that Lindor wanted to be with the club after the birth of his third child, Koa, after hearing everyone was “doing well.”

“Perfect timing, on an off-day,” the manager said with a laugh about Lindor's son's Sunday afternoon birth.

Lindor, who is loath to take a day off during the season, was in the dugout during the first inning of Monday's game. And his wanting to be back as soon as possible was nothing new to the manager.

“This is a guy that wants to show and wants to perform and help the team,” he said. “Even when his wife is having a new baby, he’s still thinking about the team.

“That’s who he is. He’s a leader, special person, special guy, special player.”

The shorstop, who was available during the game but not needed in the rout, told The New York Post's Mike Puma that his wife, Katia, "said it was OK to leave, and I left.”

Huascar Brazobán continues to impress

The right-hander extended his scoreless innings run to start the season to 4.1 innings with his second appearance of the campaign on Monday.

“Attacking. We know the stuff is real,” Mendoza said. “It’s a power sinker, the changeup is a pretty good pitch because he can throw it not only to lefties but right on right."

He threw eight changeups on Monday and got three whiffs on four swings. The sinker was better, as he got two whiffs on five swings plus two called strikes on seven deliveries.

“His ability to give us multiple innings to save the bullpen when we need to, you can pitch him when you’re down, you’re up. And he did that today again," the manager added.

Brazobán allowed a hit plus a hit batter in two innings of work against the Marlins, collecting two strikeouts on 28 pitches (19 strikes).

Paul Blackburn and Dedniel Núñez progressing

Núñez threw an inning plus one batter as he works to get properly built up to go in potential four- or five-out situations after he was optioned to start the season at Triple-A Syracuse, Mendoza said before the game Monday.

The Mets felt it was important the right-hander get a “second up” even though it was just the one batter, and he will now have three days off before pitching again Thursday.

“The plan for him is to go two ups again on Thursday, and then he’ll get two days off after that,” Mendoza said. “So far, everything is trending in the right direction.” 

Before Monday’s game, Blackburn threw in the outfield, the first time he has done so since receiving an injection in his right knee to deal with inflammation.

“He continues to say he feels better,” Mendoza said.

The right-hander was targeting Monday as the first day for him to throw, and he is expected to be ready to return from the IL in April.

David Peterson’s first start of the season for the Mets didn’t start out too well: He threw three straight out of the zone. But he followed it up with three straight strikes to tally his first strikeout. Two pitches after his first rebound, Peterson would be looking to bouncing-back once again as Otto Lopez collected the first hit and first run off the left-hander when he drilled a 93 mph sinker 385 feet off the facade of the second deck in right field. 

But that was the theme of the night: Peterson would get into a spot of bother but would recover and not allow much further damage as he kept the Marlins to just two runs in six innings of work in the Mets’ 10-4 win in Miami.

“Solid day,” the left-hander graded his nine-strikeout debut in a “great team win.”

In all, the tall 29-year-old had rough patches – like issuing back-to-back walks to start the second – but followed it up with good stuff – like fielding a sacrifice bunt cleanly before striking out the next two to close that frame. And in the fourth, Miami had runners at the corners, but an 0-1 slider to Liam Hicks got the job done aided by a nifty 3-6-3 double-play.

“I thought he was pretty good,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “Even though he didn’t have the [sinker]. Missing arm side, but I thought the slider was really good. The changeup was good, and [he] made pitches when needed.

“... Strinking out nine? On a day when the sinker wasn’t there, as you want it. Gave us six solid innings, got the win.”

Peterson felt the sinker was “fine” but is going to require some tightening up ahead of his next start – as he got just eight called strikes and whiffs on 28 offerings. (For his part, he said it will be an "easy adjustment" to make.) Of course, that was not the case with his slider, which was whiffed six times on seven Marlins swings.

The lefty credited the work he had put in to the slider, which gave him the “shape he wanted to see” and allowed him to “put it where we wanted to and get those swings and misses.”

Overall, Peterson threw 57 strikes out of 89 pitches and managed to keep his pitch count down, even with congestion on the basepaths from five hits and three walks.

“He’s a guy that continues to find a way, especially when he gets in trouble, there’s traffic, there’s an ability to slow the game down and continue to make pitches,” Mendoza said of his starter. “He did that today… he was not getting ahead early in the game and then some walks, but was able to manage his pitch count.”

And after the Mets’ bats broke the game up with seven runs in the fifth frame, the left-hander came out with 10 straight strikes to start the home half.

“That’s what you want to see, especially when we had an inning the way we had it, you want your pitchers to attack,” Mendoza said. “Give us a shutdown inning, get the offense back in the dugout.”

In that fifth, after allowing a one-out double, Peterson showed off his smarts fielding a comebacker and quickly pivoting to get the runner in a rundown to eliminate the scoring chance.

“It was awesome to watch our offense do their thing and have a huge inning like that,” he said. “I think for me, it’s about being ready when that inning's over to go back out and keep the lead.”