TOKYO — For all of the memorable cultural experiences they’d loved off the sphere, and all of the eye-opening revelations they’d made in regards to the membership’s rising recognition right here in Japan, the baseball facet of the Dodgers’ season-opening journey to Tokyo hadn’t gotten off to a seamless begin.
Mookie Betts was dominated out of motion after arriving in Tokyo battling a abdomen virus, and ultimately compelled to make an early return house to Los Angeles on Monday evening after shedding nearly 15 kilos.
Freddie Freeman was scratched from the Dodgers’ opening day lineup shortly earlier than first pitch Tuesday evening, after experiencing what the workforce termed as left rib discomfort following pregame batting apply.
And, after getting shut out in a Sunday exhibition towards a Japanese workforce on the Tokyo Dome, the Dodgers started their common season with no hit for the primary 4 innings towards Chicago Cubs ace — and star Japanese left-hander — Shota Imanaga, twice developing empty in innings they drew two walks.
However then, the defending World Collection champions began doing precisely what their almost $400-million roster was constructed to this season.
They labored counts, strung collectively hits and manufactured runs. They leaned on dominant beginning pitching, then a revolving door of dependable arms out of the bullpen. They absorbed an early one-run deficit, and flipped it in a matter of moments within the fifth inning.
By the top of the evening, it amounted to an auspicious begin to a 2025 season of bold expectations, the Dodgers beating the Cubs 4-1 earlier than a pro-Dodger crowd on the opposite facet of the globe.
This week’s journey, after all, was at all times destined to be about extra than simply baseball.
It was a end result of types within the Dodgers’ pursuit to “paint Japan blue” — giving them a global platform to showcase their star Japanese trio of Shohei Ohtani, who was enjoying his first profession MLB sport again in his house nation; Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who squared off towards Imanaga within the first all-Japanese opening day pitching matchup in main league historical past; and Roki Sasaki, who will make his massive league debut in Wednesday’s Tokyo Collection finale.
It was a possibility for his or her new-look roster — which spent massive once more this winter in pursuit of a second straight championship — to develop nearer off the sphere in overseas environment, with team-bonding efforts aided by a personal sushi dinner organized by Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki on Sunday evening.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani singles within the fifth inning for the workforce’s first hit of the sport towards the Cubs.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
It was additionally an opportunity for the game to be celebrated on a world stage, with the affect of Japanese gamers within the majors — thanks in small no half to Ohtani, whose three MVPs have raised his movie star degree in Japan to unimaginable magnitudes — seemingly at an all-time excessive.
“I think the last handful of days you could see how excited the fans were, the people of Tokyo were,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned pregame. “The players are ready to get going.”
And although it took the Dodgers 5 innings to get going themselves, they didn’t look again as soon as they did.
Held hitless via the primary 4 frames by Imanaga, who stranded two pairs of walks within the second and fourth innings, the Dodgers instantly jumped on Cubs reliever Ben Brown within the fifth.
After Andy Pages drew a one-out stroll, Ohtani acquired the rally began in earnest, sending a 107-mph line drive buzzing previous Pages and into proper subject for a single. It was the Dodgers’ first hit, and put a jolt of vitality into the sellout crowd, which watched his at-bats Tuesday in eerie silence damaged by sudden gasps each time he took a swing or made contact.
From there, the Dodgers simply saved coming. Tommy Edman tied the rating with a single to left. Teoscar Hernández hit a possible double-play chopper that was as a substitute thrown away by Cubs second baseman Jon Berti, permitting Ohtani to attain the go-ahead run. Will Smith doubled the lead with one other RBI single.
5 batters. Three runs. One game-changing inning.
The three-1 lead was lots for Yamamoto, who adopted up a robust spring camp with a powerful five-inning, one-run begin; and the Dodgers bullpen, which acquired to trot its latest toy, $72-million offseason signing Tanner Scott, out to shut the sport within the ninth inning, after Ohtani generated an insurance coverage run within the high half of the inning by lining a double and scoring on Hernández’s RBI single.
