Kiké Hernandez led off the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers a franchise record of one homer hit in each of their first seven games to start the season.
They broke a tie with the 1954 Brooklyn team that opened the season with at least one home run in the first six games. This year’s Dodgers are led by five long balls from Cody Bellinger, which also has him tied with Khris Davis for the Major League lead.
Joc Pederson (three), Kiké Hernandez (three), Austin Barnes (two) are among the Dodgers with multiple home runs this season. Max Muncy, A.J. Pollock, Corey Seager, Chris Taylor and Alex Verdugo have also contributed to the team accomplishing a franchise first with one homer each.
L.A. leads the Majors with 18 home runs. In addition to their consistent power display, the Dodgers are excelling in situational hitting and leading the Majors with a .367 batting average with runners in scoring position.
In addition to breaking multiple franchise records through the first seven games of the season, the Dodgers have rewritten the MLB record book as well. Their eight home runs hit on Opening Day marked the most all time.
The Dodgers’ 16 home runs were the second-most hit by a team through the first five games of a season in MLB history. They trailed only the Detroit Tigers (17 homers in five games at the start of the 2006 season).
If the games thus far are any indication of what’s ahead, the Dodgers are well on their way to exceeding the 235 home runs they belted last season to set a franchise record. It would mark a third straight year that mark was broken, as the 2017 team held the record with 221 homers.
