The reigning World Series champions grinded through the first four innings of the 2026 MLB season with just one hit to show.

The Los Angeles Dodgers — aiming to become the first National League team in history to win three straight World Series — kicked off Opening Day festivities at Dodger Stadium on Thursday inauspiciously.

They were aggressive against Arizona Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen — swinging early in counts and making solid contact — but outside of a leadoff single from Shohei Ohtani and a second-inning walk to Max Muncy, there wasn’t much to write home about.

But that’s the thing about this supreme Dodgers lineup. Face it a third time through at your own risk. It won’t stay quiet for long. It’s far too potent, much too experienced to not come to life — especially in front of a blue and white sold-out crowd of 53,712 Opening Day enthusiasts.

“I think the word to say is relentless,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s a relentless lineup.”

Muncy led off the fifth with a single to right. Teoscar Hernández’s swinging bunt single won’t do much for exit velocity, but it got the job done. And when Gallen hung a 2-2 knuckle-curve to Andy Pages, the budding center fielder did not miss it, and promptly sent it 400 feet over the left-center fence — planting the Dodgers on the scoreboard with a lead they would not relinquish.

Homers from Pages and Will Smith will steal the headlines in the Dodgers’ 8-2 rout of the D-backs on Opening Day, but it’s their savage lineup that should carry them through another 162-game slate and into what they hope will be another lengthy October run.

The Dodgers’ starting nine includes a combined 19 Silver Sluggers. They signed the top free-agent available in Kyle Tucker over the winter and promptly made him their No. 2 hitter. They again boast one of the most dynamic offenses in baseball. On Thursday, they picked right back up where they left off.

Andy for the lead! pic.twitter.com/uUhvg76ish

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 27, 2026

“Everyone, one through nine, even guys who come off the bench, just continue to put up good at-bats,” Tucker said. “Whether they get a hit or not, just continue to grind out at-bats. get walks.

“Everyone can hit a homer here. Everyone can slug. Everyone can move runners over when they need to. Everyone, just as an overall group, has really good at-bats.”

That was evident in the bottom of the seventh, when the Dodgers tagged the D-backs’ bullpen for four runs. The rally didn’t start ideally. Reliever Taylor Clarke dinged Ohtani on the hand with a first-pitch cutter to start the frame. Tucker followed by lacing a double — his first hit in a Dodgers uniform — to score Ohtani, and Mookie Betts drove in Tucker with an RBI single. Freddie Freeman’s high drive to left looked like it could clear the fence on contact, but a stellar grab from left-fielder Jordan Lawlar kept the ball in the yard.

No matter. Smith pummeled a changeup inside for a two-run home run a few pitches later.

“I’ve been a part of some really good lineups, but from top to bottom, it’s tough to get through, especially three times,” Betts said.

From Game 7 of the World Series to Game 1 of the 2026 season. Hello, Will Smith! pic.twitter.com/ocnlxyzMHB

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 27, 2026

The Dodgers’ commanding offense has created a dream scenario for Roberts, who acknowledged that the bottom of his order would likely hit in the middle for most other clubs.

“When you face a lineup like ours, it certainly has to be taxing when you’re facing our guys, and when you feel like you have to be perfect,” Roberts said. “Just to continue to keep executing and executing, it’s tough mentally, physically. As long as we can be disciplined like we were tonight, we should have opportunities to put up big numbers.

“I do think that pitchers spend so much energy into navigating the first five or six hitters, so there’s a cost to that.”

That’s where the Dodgers have an opportunity to capitalize on what could be their most dominating offense yet. The addition of Tucker created a trickle-down effect, where Hernández — a four-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger winner — is now batting seventh.

Pages, who will hit eighth most games, would likely be a household name with a different organization. That he’s not more recognizable within the game, at least not yet, is a testament to the talent level of his teammates.

Pages seems to have put last year’s brutal postseason slump behind him, an important development as the Dodgers plan to have him play a pivotal role in their quest for a three-peat.

“I feel good. My confidence has been high,” Pages said. “(The slump) is something that happened last season. The postseason’s what the postseason was, and I’m not really focused on that. I’m focused on what I’m doing right now, and my confidence is really high.”

It’s hard not to be confident when you’re the Dodgers. Los Angeles is once again the World Series favorites and is projected to have the most wins in MLB. They’ve heard the narratives that they are baseball’s bad guys and that they’re ruining the sport. They don’t seem to care.

As they showed Thursday night, their only cares are tearing the covers off baseballs and high-fiving their way off the field.