The 2025 Major League Baseball season got underway today with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto combining to give the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers a 4-1 win against the Chicago Cubs.
Yamamoto gave up one run on three hits and a walk in five innings as part of a pitching duel against fellow Japanese Shota Imanaga that thrilled the Tokyo crowd.
Imanaga threw four scoreless innings but his exit saw the Cubs lose control with Jon Berti’s throwing error enabling the Dodgers to score three runs off reliever Ben Brown.
A three-run inning for the lead! pic.twitter.com/eduUy41Rxj
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 18, 2025
Ohtani contributed one of the hits off Brown and the Japanese superstar also led off the ninth with a double to score again.
Miguel Amaya had an RBI for the Cubs, driving in Dansby Swanson, but that was as good as it got for Chicago, who missed the postseason last year after compiling an 83-79 record.
The second of the two-game series in Tokyo takes place tomorrow with another Japanese star, the Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki, taking the mound against Justin Steele.
MLB’s Opening Day is Thursday, March 27.
