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.

After their two-game series against the Padres in Seoul, South Korea, the Dodgers had some immediate questions to answer when they got back home and before the regular season got into the full swing of things.

Since those two games, the Dodgers are 8-3 and are showing why they’re one of the favorites to win the World Series this season. There’s still a long way to go, but let’s take a look at a few things that have stood out in the very early portion of the season.

The offense is for real

Coming into the season, the Dodgers were expected to have one of the best offenses in baseball. All you had to do was take a quick glance at their projected lineup, which includes three recent Most Valuable Player Award winners in Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.

Through 13 games, that offense hasn’t disappointed. The Dodgers opened the season scoring five or more runs in each of their first 10 games, setting a new franchise record. Betts was responsible for a lot of that, starting the season on fire at the plate. Over the last few days, Betts has cooled off a bit, making way for Ohtani to be the hottest hitter on the planet now.

“You expect the ball to come off really hot when he swings the bat and he barrels it,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s something I have never seen. When he’s controlling the strike zone and he’s getting pitches in his nitro zone, there’s just really not a better hitter.”

• Red-hot Ohtani 'pretty awesome to watch'

That’s going to be the biggest strength for the Dodgers all the way through what they expect to be a long run in October. If Betts is off for a few games, Ohtani is more than capable of picking up the slack. If both Betts and Ohtani are off, Freeman and hitters such as Will Smith, Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernández provide more than enough firepower to make up for the lack of production.

Through the first 10 games of the season, the top four hitters in the Dodgers’ order had a combined .394 batting average and a 1.146 OPS. That’s the third-highest batting average by a team’s top four through the first 10 games since at least 1906. It was also the second-highest OPS in the same span since the 2010 Phillies, who posted a 1.217 clip.

What might be even scarier is that everyone at the top of the Dodgers' lineup has not clicked at the same time. When that happens, the runs will pile up quickly.

A little concern at the bottom

As good as the lineup has been, there is some concern towards the bottom of the order. After Smith’s spot in the lineup, there has been a lot of swing and miss for the Dodgers. Of course, that’s sometimes what you have to live with due to the high slugging percentage.

Hernández and Muncy have gotten off to solid starts at the plate, but they entered play Tuesday tied for the Major League lead with 21 strikeouts. James Outman has also really struggled and is tied for 11th in the Majors with 15 strikeouts. Outman, however, did have a key homer in Monday’s win. The Dodgers hope that’s the swing that can begin to turn things around for him.

“It felt good to see a ball land,” Outman said. “It’s still pretty early in the season so it was a little early to freak out, but yeah, it’s a start in the right direction for sure.”

Defense is better, but needs to continue to show improvement

For all the talk about the Dodgers’ defense -- particularly on the infield -- it hasn’t necessarily cost them many games this season. Sunday’s loss against the Cubs (three errors) was the ugliest, but that also came in some pretty awful weather conditions.

Betts has gotten better at shortstop, but there have been some plays he would like to have back. Muncy has gotten a couple errors overturned at third base and has also made some solid stops. Overall, he still needs to show consistent improvement at the position. Gavin Lux, who was moved to second base from shortstop because of some throwing woes in spring, is surprisingly the only infielder without an error this season.

The Dodgers’ pitching staff will only get better as it continues to get healthier. But the team will also benefit from improvement by its defense. To the defense's credit, it hasn’t been as big of a story as anticipated.

“I think it’s considerably better than it was a month ago,” Roberts said Sunday. “And I think it’s only going to get better.”