LOS ANGELES -- The first seven games of the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2025 season have seen them play in two continents, face two reigning Cy Young Award winners and navigate two elaborate pregame ceremonies.

Major League Baseball's traditional Opening Day was only five days ago, and yet it seems as if the Dodgers have already done it all -- except lose.

On Tuesday night, they came from behind to beat the languishing Atlanta Braves 3-1 and improve to 7-0, tying the 1933 New York Yankees of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig for the best start to a season for a reigning champion. Only two Dodgers teams have started a season on a longer winning streak, and both instances -- in 1940 and 1955 -- occurred when the franchise was still in Brooklyn.

The current Dodgers did it by overcoming both Tarik Skubal and Chris Sale. They did it despite beginning their season more than 5,000 miles away, in Japan. They did it with either Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman or -- as was the case from the Tokyo Dome -- both absent from the lineup more than half the time. And they did it while shouldering the pressure and expectations of one of the most star-studded rosters in their sport's history.

"All that stuff. It's tough to win a handful of ballgames, let alone all of them," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, whose team has stayed just ahead of the 6-0 San Diego Padres in the National League West. "I think we just do a really good job of resetting."

The Dodgers have yet to fully click. But a theme has developed through their first seven contests: solid pitching and timely hitting. Their .864 OPS with runners in scoring position is the seventh highest in the majors, despite not yet unveiling their best lineup. Their 2.25 ERA ranks fourth, even though Roki Sasaki and Tanner Scott -- two of their biggest offseason pitching acquisitions -- have dealt with early struggles.

On Tuesday, Dustin May took the mound for the first time in more than 22 months and set the tone early, limiting the Braves to only an unearned run -- on an errant throw from Betts while attempting to turn a double play -- through five innings.

May, 27, grabbed the fifth spot in the Dodgers' rotation largely because Tony Gonsolin was beset by a back injury late in spring training. Not long ago, May wasn't sure if he'd ever make it back. In July, May was roughly a month away from returning from flexor tendon surgery and a Tommy John revision. Then a piece of lettuce got stuck in his throat at an Arizona restaurant, a freak occurrence that caused a serious tear in his esophagus, sent him to the emergency room, necessitated abdominal surgery and ended his 2024 season before it began.

May started Tuesday's outing by striking out each of the first three batters he faced. The Braves, who have scored just nine runs while starting their season 0-6, didn't do much else over the next four innings. By the end of it, May felt gratified to learn that his devastating arsenal -- a hellacious sweeper, a bowling ball sinker and an upper-90s fastball -- still plays against major league hitters.

Mostly, though, he felt relief.

May had experienced nerves while making his major league debut in 2019 and pitching in the World Series in 2020, but this one, he said, felt "way more heavy."

"The debut, the World Series and all that stuff is -- not expected, but you're there in the moment, and everything is going on, you know it's coming," May said. "This -- I didn't know if I was going to come back, so it was a huge, huge sigh of relief."

May departed after 81 pitches with a 1-0 deficit, but the Dodgers finally broke through against Sale an inning later. And the decisive blow was once again provided by Betts, who teamed with Sale to win the World Series as a member of the Boston Red Sox in 2018. With one on and none out in the bottom of the sixth, Betts got a 1-1 slider out over the plate and lofted it over the left-field fence for his third homer in four games, all of which have driven in the go-ahead run.

Three Dodgers relievers -- Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen and Scott, who pitched an encouraging ninth inning -- did the rest, making the Braves MLB's lone winless team.

Betts has joined the likes of Freeman and Shohei Ohtani, among others, in setting an early tone for these Dodgers, either through their words or their actions. The messaging has been consistent since the onset of spring training: What they accomplished last fall, claiming the franchise's first full-season championship since 1988, did not matter. Chasing the regular-season wins record of 117 is irrelevant. All that matters, Betts and others have consistently preached, is maximizing each day. And for the first seven games of 162, the Dodgers have.

"They're not settling for just the one ring," first-year Dodgers outfielder Michael Conforto said. "They're hungry. I think it's just engrained in the group of guys they had last year. They made it a point, for the new guys that are here, to just understand the mindset to go out there and win every single day, not take any days off, and just be able to get after it. That's the expectation."