The 2025 MLB season has officially begun, as Game 1 of the highly anticipated Tokyo Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs took place Tuesday in front of a sold out Tokyo Dome crowd of more than 42,000.
After being no-hit through the first four frames, the Dodgers calmly recovered to claim a 4-1 victory, a humble first step in their grand defense of their World Series title.
Here are six takeaways from the first regular-season game of 2025:
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No surprises here. The club that spent all winter spending money and ticking off 29 other fan bases with its canyon-deep pockets looks like … quite a good baseball club. Wrapping up win No. 1 before 6 a.m. PT Tuesday was just a ruthless bonus.
And it was a to-the-script victory for L.A.: Wait out the other team’s talented starter, pounce on the bullpen underbelly with a combo of patience and timely hitting, roll out a carousel of flamethrowing relievers, sell millions in merchandise, hit the streets of Tokyo for some yakitori. All in a day’s work.
Dodgers superstar and Japanese tea spokesman Mookie Betts was sent back to the United States on Monday after contracting a serious illness that reportedly caused him to lose 15 pounds. Betts made the trip to Japan but didn’t feature in any of the exhibition games over the weekend. On Tuesday’s broadcast, Dodgers play-by-play announcer Joe Davis mentioned that Betts is currently 161 pounds, well below his playing weight. That sudden, concerning level of weight loss raises doubts about whether Betts will be ready for stateside Opening Day on March 27.
Freeman’s absence was more of a surprise. About a half-hour before first pitch, the Dodgers scratched the 2024 World Series MVP from the starting lineup. The team later announced that Freeman was pulled because of rib discomfort, an issue he played through during his heroic run in the Fall Classic. Considering that the veteran first baseman played in both of Los Angeles’ warm-up games against NPB teams, going a combined 0-for-6 with two strikeouts, his removal was very unexpected.
Freeman wasn’t visible in the dugout on the TV broadcast Tuesday, and his status for Tokyo Series Game 2 is uncertain.
Let’s be clear: The Cubs lost this ballgame because they didn’t manage a run after the third inning, but taking out starter Shota Imanaga after four innings, 69 pitches and zero hits allowed was something of an eyebrow-raiser and a vibe-harsher. Granted, it’s March 18. The season is long and full of terrors, and Imanaga walked four batters and didn’t look particularly sharp. The dangerous Dodgers offense easily could’ve pulverized him the third time through the order.
But the reality of an Opening Day starter — one who finished fifth in Cy Young voting last season and was making the start of a lifetime in his native country — being yanked after just four frames? That’s less than ideal. People want to watch the guy on the poster for longer than that. Sure, strategically, it made some sense for Cubs skipper Craig Counsell to pull Imanaga, even if reliever Ben Brown immediately surrendered three runs. But from an entertainment perspective, Imanaga’s departure was … suboptimal.
MLB has been vocal about finding a way to incentivize teams to let starters work deeper into games. One potential idea is the “Double Hook,” in which a team would lose its designated hitter if the starting pitcher is removed before five innings of work. Amid the celebratory pageantry of this series, Imanaga going four innings instead of five or six isn’t the biggest deal in the world, but his early exit was undeniably a storyline of Game 1.
A year ago, Yamamoto made his MLB debut in Game 2 of the Seoul Series against the Padres, and it wasn’t the most encouraging introduction, as he allowed five runs and completed just one inning before being replaced. A stellar rookie season then followed, punctuated by a fantastic performance in World Series Game 2 that helped validate Los Angeles’ historic investment in him the winter prior.
Yamamoto’s inaugural start of his second season went much more smoothly, as the righty comfortably cruised through five innings of one-run ball against the Cubs, matching fellow Japanese ace Imanaga’s strong effort in the early frames. Yamamoto’s splendid splitter was the star of the show, as the pitch coaxed nine whiffs from Cubs hitters and averaged 92.4 mph, two ticks harder than the 90.2 mark he averaged on the pitch in 2024. His four-seam fastball was up to 98 mph and commanded quite well, meaning Yamamoto didn’t need to rely much on his other offerings to keep the Cubs’ bats quiet.
The Dodgers obviously have plenty of star power in the rotation beyond Yamamoto, but the 26-year-old could find himself in the NL Cy Young conversation if he can make 30-plus starts this season.
In a game that didn’t feature a lot of inspiring offensive moments, it was Ohtani — of course — who stood out with the bat as the only player for either team to notch multiple hits or score multiple runs.
After Imanaga kept him in check in his first two-at bats, Ohtani laced a line-drive single to right field for the Dodgers’ first hit of the game in the top of the fifth, which helped spark the rally that took the lead for L.A. He later lined a double into the right-field corner for his first extra-base hit of the season.
With Betts and Freeman out of the lineup, it was on Ohtani to deliver the goods as the MVP atop the Dodgers’ lineup, and it was no surprise to see him come through in front of the Tokyo crowd.
The Dodgers’ announcement of their Opening Day roster included the team’s injured list to start the season, which featured a whopping nine pitchers whose projected recovery timelines vary from just a few weeks to several months to possibly longer. And yet, even with a wealth of talent unavailable, ranging from relievers Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips to starters Tony Gonsolin and Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers still demonstrated their remarkable depth on the mound in the season opener once Yamamoto departed.
Lefty Anthony Banda fired a scoreless sixth inning that included a strikeout of Seiya Suzuki. Rookie Ben Casparius followed with a scoreless seventh, touching 98.5 mph — a career high in the big leagues after he maxed out at 97.9 mph in his big-league cameo down the stretch last season. Mainstay Blake Treinen collected two strikeouts in a scoreless eighth. And finally, Tanner Scott made his Dodgers debut, recording his first save for his new team and ending the night with a 98 mph heater to strike out Cubs rookie Matt Shaw.
The Cubs produced just one baserunner after Ian Happ’s single to lead off the third inning — on a Jon Berti hit-by-pitch in the eighth. After a comprehensive effort by the Dodgers arms in Game 1, we’ll see how Roki Sasaki follows it up in his MLB debut on Wednesday. Even if he struggles, the Dodgers clearly have ample options to cover the remainder of a game.
