This story was excerpted from Juan Toribio’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

LOS ANGELES -- After a middling start to the 2024 season, the Dodgers are looking more and more like the team that came into this year with World Series or bust expectations.

With a perfect 6-0 homestand against the Braves and Marlins, the Dodgers have now won 14 of their last 16 games. They’ve built quite the cushion in the National League West (a 6 1/2-game lead entering Friday’s action), and they have a chance to really dig the rest of the division into a hole with a three-game series against the second-place Padres over the weekend and another against the Giants next week.

• Dodgers unseat Braves atop Power Rankings

But before the Dodgers take the field in San Diego, let’s take a look at why they have flipped the switch. There’s a lot to pick from (that’s how dominant the entire team has been), but let’s focus on three key numbers:

1.91

While the Dodgers’ lineup gets all the attention -- we’ll get to that in a second -- the organization has been built around run prevention over the decade-plus of regular-season dominance. It took some time for the Dodgers to get their staff, particularly their starters, to find their footing. But they have turned the corner and look like one of the best units in the league.

Over the last 15 days, the Dodgers lead the Majors with a 1.91 ERA. They’ve allowed just 84 hits during that span, tied for the second lowest in MLB. Opponents are hitting just .199, which leads the NL over those 15 days.

The starting rotation, in particular, has shined. Since April 21, which is when the Dodgers began their 14-2 stretch, the starting staff has a 2.08 ERA, which is tied with the Cubs coming into Friday’s game. Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are starting to look like the 1-2 punch the Dodgers envisioned when they acquired both of them this winter. Gavin Stone is pitching like the top prospect he was last season. James Paxton had his best start of the season last weekend against the Braves. Walker Buehler is back after a nearly two-year absence.

Even with some injuries in the bullpen, everything is trending in the right direction right now for the Dodgers on the pitching side.

2.109

The Dodgers are getting contributions from just about everyone in the lineup. Andy Pages has been a revelation since debuting. Gavin Lux has looked much better recently. Freddie Freeman is still a .300 hitter. Max Muncy, Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández have carried the offense at different times.

But the real talk of the town is what Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani are doing atop the order. Betts was the best player on the planet in April, giving Ohtani and the rest of his teammates some time to get into form. Now, Betts is having a relatively quiet May, but Ohtani sure isn’t.

Ohtani hit three monster homers during the last homestand, all going for more than 400 feet. With Ohtani on his most recent tear, the numbers at the top of the Dodgers’ offense are scary. If you combined the OPS of Betts and Ohtani (yes, we know you can’t do that), it’d be 2.109. That’s a pretty good player, right?

15

Given what took place in Spring Training, including moving Betts to shortstop for the first time in his career, the Dodgers came into the season with a lot of question marks surrounding their defense. Outside of Betts playing short for the first time, Muncy didn’t look sharp early in the season and Lux had throwing issues during spring.

Now? The Dodgers rank as one of the best defensive teams in the Majors, leading the league with 15 Outs Above Average ahead of the Blue Jays, who came in at second with 14. In May alone, the Dodgers have accumulated 7 OAA, two more than any other team.

Given his defensive versatility, Kiké Hernández leads all Dodgers with 4 OAA. Muncy, Betts and Lux are all rated as plus defenders with 2.