The Dodgers Simply Cannot Stop Dingering

The Los Angeles Dodgers went crazy on Opening Day, setting a record by becoming the first team to mash eight home runs in the first game of the season. We’re now one week removed from that historic performance, and the Dodgers have played six more games. They have not stopped bashing balls out of the park.

Kiké Hernandez batted leadoff for the Dodgers yesterday and homered in his first at-bat of the game, bringing Los Angeles’ season home run total to 18.

The Dodgers are 5-2, and this early season power surge has put some hilariously engorged numbers on their Baseball Reference page that are, if nothing else, fun to gawk at for the moment. They currently have four players on the roster with an OPS over 1.300, and the highest mark somehow doesn’t belong to Cody Bellinger, who leads the team with five taters. That honor goes to Joc Pederson, who has three homers, a double, and four walks in 23 plate appearances, giving him a 1.565 OPS. As a team, the Dodgers are currently slugging .557. The most impressive moment of their season probably belongs to Bellinger, who crushed a grand slam to straightaway center during Tuesday night’s game against the Giants:

The Dodgers have spent the last few seasons assembling a brawny squadron of power hitters, often by summoning them seemingly out of thin air. The rest of the league has gotten somewhat lucky, though, in that injuries and slumps have repeatedly prevented all those hitters from being in the lineup and at full capacity at the same time. It’s scary to imagine what might happen if the Dodgers finally enjoy a season not so cursed by injuries or other misfortunes. What happens if Corey Seager comes back strong and Bellinger keeps rising and Max Muncy stays on track and Justin Turner returns to form and Joc Pederson has a breakout season? The results might look a lot like what we’ve seen through the first seven games.