If there ever was a Rangers man in the dugout, Barry Ferguson is that.
The former midfielder and ambassador was drafted in the take the reins on an interim basis as there was a strong belief he'd be able to galvanise and, in his own words, "put an arm around some players and give some others a clip behind the ear".
It's safe to say so far, he's succeeding.
But former striker Rory Loy believes there's much more to this Rangers revival than simply having "a man who gets it" in charge.
"A lot of people put it down to Barry Ferguson being an ex-Rangers man, someone who knows the club and who has this heart and drive to take the team," Loy said on the Scottish Football Podcast.
"That's all a small added bonus, to me.
"I think he's able to convey clear instructions, that's the difference.
"It's almost like the players know the gameplan now. They know the instruction and they just need to go and carry it out.
"Under the previous manager, the last couple of managers, it was almost like they just didn't know what they were doing.
"The difference now is Barry Ferguson has been able to convey a clear message that players can understand and follow."
TOKYO — Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw five strong innings, Shohei Ohtani had two hits and scored twice, and the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 4-1 on Tuesday in Major League Baseball's season opener at the Tokyo Dome.
Playing in front of their home country, Yamamoto and Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga both pitched well in the first all-Japanese starting pitching matchup on opening day in MLB history. Imanaga threw four scoreless innings, allowing no hits but walking four.
The Dodgers jumped on Cubs reliever Ben Brown (0-1) in the fifth, scoring three runs, partly because of a throwing error by second baseman Jon Berti. Tommy Edman and Will Smith had RBI singles.
Ohtani was part of the rally, delivering a hard-hit single through the right side. He finished 2 for 5 at the plate, including a double to lead off the ninth, eventually scoring another run.
Yamamoto (1-0) gave up one run on three hits and a walk, striking out four. Tanner Scott earned his first save.
Chicago's Miguel Amaya drove in Dansby Swanson with a two-out double that made it 1-0 in the second. The Cubs didn't have a hit after the third.
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman was scratched before the game because of left rib discomfort. Shortstop Mookie Betts will miss both games in Japan because of an illness.
Ohtani's single was the first hit of the game for the Dodgers, helping start a rally that would turn the game in their favor.
Yamamoto, Anthony Banda, Ben Casparius and Blake Treinen combined to retire 16 batters in a row from the third to the eighth innings. The streak ended when Treinen hit Berti with a pitch with one out in the eighth.
Japanese rookie Roki Sasaki will make his MLB debut for the Dodgers while left-hander Justin Steele takes the mound for the Cubs on Wednesday night for the final game in Tokyo.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani goes back to the dugout after scoring on a throwing error by the Cubs. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
For all the memorable cultural experiences they enjoyed off the field, and all their eye-opening revelations they about the club’s growing popularity here in Japan, the baseball side of the Dodgers’ season-opening trip to Tokyo hadn’t gotten off to the most seamless of starts.
Mookie Betts was ruled out of action after arriving in Tokyo battling a stomach virus, and eventually forced to make an early return home to Los Angeles on Monday night after losing almost 15 pounds.
Freddie Freeman was scratched from the opening-day lineup shortly before first pitch Tuesday night, after experiencing discomfort in the same left rib where he suffered broken cartilage during last year’s postseason.
And, after getting shut out in a Sunday exhibition against a Japanese team at the Tokyo Dome, the Dodgers began their season without a hit for the first four innings against Chicago Cubs ace and star Japanese left-hander Shota Imanaga, twice coming up empty in innings they drew two walks.
But then, the defending World Series champions started doing exactly what their nearly $400-million roster was built to do.
They worked counts, strung together hits and manufactured runs. They leaned on dominant starting pitching, then a revolving door of reliable arms out of the bullpen. They absorbed an early one-run deficit and flipped it in a matter of moments in the fifth inning.
By the end of the night, it amounted to an auspicious start to a season of ambitious expectations, the Dodgers beating the Cubs 4-1 before a pro-Dodgers crowd on the other side of the globe.
“It was really cool,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “It’s always cool to experience different baseball cultures. I know we get a little spoiled playing at Dodger Stadium and our atmosphere is always amazing. But it’s just fun to experience different cultures.”
This week’s trip always was destined to be about more than just playing baseball. It was a culmination of sorts in the Dodgers’ pursuit to “paint Japan blue,” and an opportunity to showcase the sport at large at a time the influence of Japanese players in the majors seemingly is at an all-time high.
“I don’t think that there was a Japanese baseball player in Japan that didn’t watch this game tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto squared off against Imanaga in the first all-Japanese opening-day pitching matchup in major league history, giving up just one run in five strong innings while striking out four and averaging almost 97 mph with his fastball.
Another highly anticipated pitching plan awaits in Wednesday’s finale, when Roki Sasaki will make his big league debut barely two months removed from his offseason signing with the Dodgers.
And then there was Shohei Ohtani, who had cameras following his every move during pregame ceremonies and caused a hush to fall over the sold-out crowd when he came to the plate for the first time.
“I usually don’t get nervous hitting,” Ohtani said in Japanese afterward.
But in that at-bat, he acknowledged, “I was nervous for the first time in a while.”
Determined not to walk, Ohtani took a big swing that resulted in a game-opening ground out, setting the tone for Imanaga’s dominant but shortened four-inning start.
Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani singles in the fifth inning for the team's first hit of the game against the Cubs. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Once Imanaga left the game, however, Ohtani played a key role in the Dodgers’ three-run rally in the fifth. He hit a one-out single, the Dodgers’ first hit, that preceded Tommy Edman’s game-tying single. Ohtani then scored the go-ahead run on an errant throw from Cubs second baseman Jon Berti on a potential double play.
Ohtani contributed again in the ninth, roping a double into the right-field corner before scoring an insurance run on Teoscar Hernández’s single.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shohei nervous,” Roberts said. “But one thing I did notice is how emotional he got during the Japanese national anthem. That was really something that was very telling, how emotional he was.”
Once the Dodgers took the lead, however, cruising the rest of the way behind a dominant bullpen performance punctuated by offseason signing Tanner Scott’s first save with the club, Ohtani seemed to loosen up in the dugout, laughing with teammates and soaking in the scene.
“That’s who he is,” Muncy said. “There’s no moment that’s too big for that guy. He hasn’t changed who he is. He’s a really cool guy to be a teammate with. He’s going to be talked about probably when he’s done as being the greatest baseball player ever and he doesn’t act like it. He just likes to have fun in that dugout.”
Someone who was having less fun being stuck in the dugout: Freeman, who said he “felt something” in his ribs during his last round of batting practice, leading to a pregame meeting with Roberts, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes in which they decided it was best to play it safe and sit the reigning World Series most valuable player.
“I got out-ruled,” Freeman joked. “It’s OK. It was probably smart. It’s obviously way better than last year. Last year I needed help getting to my car that first day [I got hurt]. I can walk. I can take deep breaths. Just felt a little something in my rib, and with it being the first game, we didn’t want it to be something lingering.”
Freeman said he has a 75% chance of playing Wednesday, assuming his rib doesn't bother him again during pregame activities. He added that the team’s head physician, Neal ElAttrache, told him the sensation might just have been the result of scar-tissue buildup where his old injury healed, perhaps coinciding with his increased cage work in recent days (Freeman was the only Dodgers position player to hit during Monday’s off-day workout).
“I thought we made the right decision not playing him tonight, and we’ll see how he comes in tomorrow,” Roberts said. “So right now, I’m not too concerned.”
So goes things for the Dodgers. They’ve weathered their first bouts of adversity on the field. They’ve embraced a trip that has put them on an international stage. And on Tuesday they did it while also starting their season with a thorough victory, setting up the opportunity for a two-game sweep.
“How the fans were into the game tonight was just really cool, really fun, really enjoyed it,” Muncy said. “They’re here to watch good baseball and I think they’re enjoying it just as much as we are.”
The Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched five innings of one-run ball on Tuesday against the Cubs at the Tokyo Dome. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
When Roki Sasaki signed with the Dodgers, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman revealed that one of Sasaki’s goals was to become the first Japanese pitcher to win a Cy Young Award.
Another pitcher on the Dodgers could steal that distinction from Sasaki, and the most likely candidate might not even be Shohei Ohtani.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto could beat his two countrymen to the honor, and considering how he pitched in the Dodgers’ season-opening 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome, who’s to say he won’t?
“If he can do that, obviously health [permitting], I see no reason why he won’t be in the Cy Young conversation,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
This wasn’t the pitcher who looked unsure of himself over an up-and-down regular season last year. This was the pitcher who was an October hero.
Yamamoto touched 98 mph with his fastball. He baited hitters with splitters that looked like strikes but weren’t. He limited the Cubs to one run and three hits over five innings.
The performance confirmed what Dodgers players and coaches said in spring training: The 26-year-old Yamamoto returned for his second major league season a different pitcher.
“You know he’s electric when his teammates that are professional pitchers are telling you, ‘Hey, Doc, watch him,’” team physician Neal ElAttrache told Jack Harris and me on The Times’ video podcast Dodgers Debate.
ElAttrache said he complimented rehabilitating veteran Clayton Kershaw after a recent long-toss session, and Kershaw told him, “You want to see something special, watch Yamamoto do this.”
Yamamoto pointed to an improved feel for his pitching mechanics as to why he’s looked the way he has.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto flashed enormous potential during Tuesday's Tokyo Series opener against the Cubs. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“I threw with a good center of gravity, good balance,” Yamamoto said in Japanese. “I wasn’t trying to throw with greater strength than usual, but I thought I was able to throw pitches to which my strength was transferred.”
What made him special Tuesday night was what he did with those pitches.
“Last year to this year, the confidence, the conviction that he has in throwing the fastball in the strike zone, he’s much more convicted,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers’ postseason run that ended with a World Series championship is why, according to Yamamoto.
“What I experienced in that month really made me confident,” Yamamoto said. “If I do this, I’ll get hit. If I feel like this and do this, I’ll be able to hold them. I didn’t have a precise feel for that last season, but I gained that sense in October.”
His average fastball velocity was 96.8 mph against the Cubs, up from his season average of 95.5 last year, according to Major League Baseball’s Statcast system.
The fastball alone troubled the Cubs. Throw in his splitter and they had little to no chance.
“His splits were outstanding tonight,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “They’re 93, 94 on the split-finger. It’s a pitch that you hope to get a couple of free ones on because they’re out of the zone. But he threw so many competitive splits. It’s a really tough pitch to lay off.”
The uncertainty with Yamamoto pertains to whether he can stay healthy. He was sidelined for nearly three months last year because of shoulder problems.
“He had the kind of injury that if you catch it early, you can prevent it from going south,” ElAttrache said. “When that injury goes south, it can be pretty significant.
“When we explained to him what we needed to do and why, he wasn’t happy about sitting for that length of time. He was constantly saying that he felt good enough to come back, but he went along with it.
“I think that you see how he played towards the end of the season. He was really important for us.”
Yamamoto had a disastrous postseason debut, giving up five runs in three innings to the San Diego Padres in the opening game of the National League Division Series. However, counting his victory in Game 5 of that series, he went 2-0 with a 1.72 earned-run average over his next three playoff starts.
“I feel that’s connected to the confidence I have when I take the mound [now],” Yamamoto said.
Standing 5 feet 10, Yamamoto doesn’t have the physical frame of either Ohtani or Sasaki. He doesn’t throw as hard. But he could be a better pitcher than either of them, and that could earn him his own place in history.
After weeks of spring training, MLB teams across the country are gearing up for Opening Day — and two have already played their first game over in Japan. While it may still be chilly in some cities in late March, warmer days are ahead — and baseball is a sure sign of it.
So, when exactly are the first games of the new season? Who is playing on Opening Day? And where can you watch all the games?
Here’s a preview for 2025 MLB Opening Day:
When is MLB Opening Day in 2025?
MLB Opening Day is officially scheduled for March 27, 2025.
Two games will air nationally on Opening Day: Brewers-Yankees and Tigers-Dodgers.
The two pennant winners from last season will both host Central division interleague foes.
First up, the Brewers travel to Yankees Stadium at 3 p.m. ET with Joe Buck on the call alongside Joe Girardi and Bill Schroeder. The “Monday Night Football” broadcaster hasn’t called an MLB game nationally since joining ESPN, but he was formerly the voice of FOX’s World Series coverage continuously from 2000 to 2021.
In the nightcap at 7 p.m. ET, reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal will face the defending World Series winners. The Dodgers picked up a win in Tokyo in their season-opener with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound, but their starting pitcher for Opening Day stateside is still to be announced.
After weeks of spring training, MLB teams across the country are gearing up for Opening Day — and two have already played their first game over in Japan. While it may still be chilly in some cities in late March, warmer days are ahead — and baseball is a sure sign of it.
So, when exactly are the first games of the new season? Who is playing on Opening Day? And where can you watch all the games?
Here’s a preview for 2025 MLB Opening Day:
When is MLB Opening Day in 2025?
MLB Opening Day is officially scheduled for March 27, 2025.
Two games will air nationally on Opening Day: Brewers-Yankees and Tigers-Dodgers.
The two pennant winners from last season will both host Central division interleague foes.
First up, the Brewers travel to Yankees Stadium at 3 p.m. ET with Joe Buck on the call alongside Joe Girardi and Bill Schroeder. The “Monday Night Football” broadcaster hasn’t called an MLB game nationally since joining ESPN, but he was formerly the voice of FOX’s World Series coverage continuously from 2000 to 2021.
In the nightcap at 7 p.m. ET, reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal will face the defending World Series winners. The Dodgers picked up a win in Tokyo in their season-opener with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound, but their starting pitcher for Opening Day stateside is still to be announced.
SCOTTSDALE — Willy Adames’ first home run at Scottsdale Stadium this spring was a towering fly ball that at first looked like it would be caught on the outfield grass. The right fielder lifted his glove before even reaching the warning track, but the ball kept carrying and carrying in the thin air and landed on the Charro Lodge deck as Adames flipped his bat toward the home dugout.
At Oracle Park, it would have been a routine fly ball, and Adames knows that’s what he signed up for. In December, he became the first free-agent position player to ever take a contract of more than $150 million from the Giants, and he’s just the third hitter, period, to sign a nine-figure deal with the organization. The first went to his new boss, Buster Posey, who was drafted by the Giants and would never leave, and the second to Jung Hoo Lee, a bat-control artist and line drive hitter who is an easy fit with Oracle Park’s dimensions.
Adames is coming off a 32-homer, 112 RBI season and has 112 homers since the start of 2021, tied with Corey Seager for the most among MLB shortstops. He brings rare power to the position, but still, he signed up to spend his prime at a pitcher’s park.
And he has no regrets.
Asked about the ballpark on Monday’s “Giants Talk” podcast, Adames smiled and pointed out that Barry Bonds spent much of his career dealing with the dimensions. So did Posey, who had the previous record contract by a Giant before Adames signed for $182 million.
“At the end of the day, it’s just the mentality that you have. If you go with that mentality that I can’t hit here, the ball doesn’t fly and this or that, I think that will eat you up,” Adames said. “I don’t really care about it. If the ball goes, it goes. I’m not trying to hit homers every time. It just happens. I’m just trying to hit the ball hard and put the barrel (on the ball) every time. I don’t really worry about if the ball flies here, I don’t care.
“I just want to win some games and I’ll do my best to help the team win. We’re not going to win by hitting homers at Oracle Park. We’ve just got to play the right baseball.”
So far this spring, Adames has looked like the perfect fit for a team that hopes to surprise outsiders. He’s hitting .361 with an OPS over 1.000 and three homers, including a loud one over the weekend that would have gone out in any park.
Adames, as expected, also has been a game-changer in the clubhouse. He has formed a quick bond with Matt Chapman, his partner on the left side of the infield, and teammates rave about the energy he has brought every morning.
The Giants are in a much better place behind closed doors than in the past two seasons, but if they are to surprise, they will need Adames to bring his usual power to the heart of the lineup. He will hit second for Bob Melvin, right between LaMonte Wade Jr. and Jung Hoo Lee. The hope is that Adames takes full advantage of having Wade, one of the game’s best at reaching base, right in front of him, along with anyone else who happens to be on. Last year, Adames was the only big leaguer with double-digit three-run homers, hitting 13 of them.
Of Adames’ 32 home runs overall, 18 came at American Family Field in Milwaukee, which was ranked eighth by Baseball Savant in terms of best places to hit homers. Oracle Park, of course, was last, but Adames has fared well in 16 career games in San Francisco, posting a .321/.381/.446 slash line with a pair of homers. He said he also is comfortable with the division.
“You don’t play 162 games (at Oracle), the division is great to hit (in),” he said. “You go to the Dodgers’ stadium, the ball flies, and you go to Petco Park and the ball flies there, and then you go to Colorado. For me, you’re going to hit what you’re going to hit at the end of the day.”
That hasn’t been the mindset of most free-agent hitters who have met with the Giants in recent years. Adames was the exception, and even if his numbers take a slight hit from all of those cold, windy nights at Third and King, the Giants know they still are going to have one of the league’s best shortstops. They also have a leader who isn’t afraid of the challenge, whether it’s taking on Oracle’s dimensions or a loaded division.
Adames has played in the postseason in three of the last four years. He signed up to spend his prime in a division that could be dominated by the Los Angeles Dodgers for the rest of the decade, but he’s ready for it.
“The big part about being the underdog is nobody expects you to win, so that’s kind of a motivation thing for the team,” he said on Giants Talk. “Obviously the boys get fired up, like, ‘Okay, let’s show the world what we’re made of.’ I think having that mentality of ‘we’re going to prove everybody wrong’ is a good mentality to have because that way you know you’re going to go every day and handle (your) business. I think we can have some of that.
“At the end of the day, a lot of people are not expecting us to win. The guys acknowledge that and have that as motivation. I think that’s a really cool spot to be in because it motivates you to work even harder and get better every day.”
With just seven days of spring training games to go, the Phillies have nearly reached the end of their stay this year in Clearwater, which means one more week of crossing fingers for manager Rob Thomson.
On Sunday in Sarasota, starting outfielders Max Kepler and Brandon Marsh left early for precautionary reasons. Kepler collided with the wall in left field on a catch, though it didn’t look violent. Marsh exited with a bruised left knee. Both downplayed the injuries to reporters after the game and were back in the lineup Tuesday in Bradenton against the Pirates.
Offensively, the Phillies had one of MLB’s weakest outfields last season. They added to it by signing Kepler to a one-year, $10 million contract to play left field. The thought going into spring training was that Kepler would play left, Nick Castellanos would play right and Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas would platoon in center field. Weston Wilson was in the mix as well in left and potentially center against some left-handers.
Wilson suffered a Grade 2 strain of his oblique, a six-week injury, just before Grapefruit League play began, altering the Phillies’ bench battle and increasing the importance of Edmundo Sosa’s acclimation to the outfield. Sosa has played five innings in center field and 21 in left this spring.
Rojas also has not played the field once this spring because of a shoulder injury suffered on a headfirst slide into second base in winter ball. The Phillies hope he can ramp up his throwing this week.
If Rojas’ injury lingers, Oscar Mercado could become a bigger part of the conversation. Mercado is a veteran, right-handed-hitting center fielder with nearly 1,000 big-league plate appearances, mostly with Cleveland. He played one game with the Phillies late in 2022, spent time in the organizations of the Padres, Dodgers, Cardinals and Tigers over the next two years and then was invited to spring training by the Phils in mid-February.
Neither of the Phillies’ next two center fielders after Marsh and Rojas have hit much this spring. Mercado is 4-for-25 and Cal Stevenson is 4-for-31. Stevenson has a minor-league option remaining and hits from the left side, making him a longer shot to make the Opening Day roster even if Rojas isn’t ready to play the field. Right-handed bats on the bench make more sense for the Phillies than lefties because they wouldn’t realistically pinch-hit for Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto or Nick Castellanos, and if/when they pinch-hit for Rojas, Marsh would be available.
This is also why Sosa’s ability to play a passable center field could be valuable if the Phillies can get him enough reps to feel comfortable. It might allow them to carry a better hitter on their bench. If Sosa can play center, for example, maybe they can open the season carrying right-handed Christian Arroyo, who’s hit .355 this spring with two homers and has had a few solid offensive seasons as a reserve with Boston. Arroyo is a corner infielder but the Phillies have also gotten him 11 innings in left field this month.
This all could be relevant as soon as Opening Day with the Phillies facing Nationals lefty Mackenzie Gore, though Gore has reverse platoon splits. Lefties have hit .297 off him the last two seasons with an OPS in the mid-.800s. The Phillies are starting Zack Wheeler in the opener for the second straight year, not much of a surprise given he’s become their unquestioned ace and currently trails only Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani in per-year salary.
TOKYO — For a moment, it felt like all of Japan held its collective breath. The Tokyo Dome, known throughout the globe for its energy and electric atmosphere, fell silent as the sheeted dead. Then, as Shohei Ohtani’s bat connected on a curveball, the crowd erupted.
Shohei Ohtani, an international megastar playing on his home soil for the first time as a major leaguer, delivered the hit that jolted the Los Angeles Dodgers to life, setting the stage for the team’s thrilling 4-1 comeback over the Chicago Cubs in the opening game of the 2025 MLB season.
The journey to Opening Day was nearly a year in the making as both teams traveled over 6,000 miles for this moment. None of the other 28 teams in Major League Baseball had to travel across the world to play two games before heading all the way back across the Pacific Ocean for more exhibition games.
No one else had to arrive a week early to spring training, break camp early, disrupt their lives and routines for a couple of games on the other side of the world. But nobody else is Shohei Ohtani and the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
In front of a packed house, in a city that is buzzing with baseball fever, two historic franchises clashed under the Tokyo lights. The 2025 MLB Tokyo Series was a celebration of Japanese baseball at its finest. Five Japanese-born players were on the active rosters and will play in the series.
Even though this was a series between two of baseball’s iconic franchises, it was still the Shohei Ohtani show.
Ohtani is more than just famous in his home country. He’s an A-list celebrity, a rock star and a cultural icon all rolled into one. During the two-game series, over a dozen different commercials featuring Ohtani flashed across TV screens in Tokyo. His face is featured on billboards, taxi cabs, subway trains, storefront windows and more.
Each and every time Ohtani stepped to the plate, fans roared and cheered. They all took out their phones to record his every movement and held their collective breath during each pitch. They oohed and aahed at every ball he put into play and gasped when he struck out.
Ohtani finished the game 2-for-5 with a single, a double and two runs scored. His first hit of the 2025 season, a line drive to right field, came in the top of the fifth inning.
That would be all the Dodgers would need as their pitching staff did the rest. Anthony Banda, Ben Casparius, Blake Treinen, and free agent acquisition Tanner Scott combined for four shutout innings with the latter earning his first save in Dodger blue.
Dodgers’ starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto knows what it’s like to travel across the world to pitch in a baseball game. He’s no longer a rookie with the weight of the world on his shoulders. After a dominant postseason in which he was the ace of the Dodgers injury riddled World Series-winning pitching staff, Yamamoto has emerged as the ace of this year’s staff.
TOKYO, JAPAN – MARCH 18: Yoshinobu Yamamoto #18 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after the bottom of the fifth inning during the MLB Tokyo Series game against Chicago Cubs at Tokyo Dome on March 18, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Masterpress/Getty Images)
Yamamoto’s three-pitch mix of fastball, curveball and splitter kept the Cubs hitters off-balance all night long. His only blemish was an RBI double to Miguel Amaya in the bottom of the second.
In a polar opposite performance from his first start of the 2024 season, Yamamoto allowed just one run on three hits with four strikeouts in five innings. He seized the opportunity in his home country and earned the win over his fellow countryman Shota Imanaga in the first all-Japanese Opening Day starting pitching matchup in MLB history.
Both teams will play again tomorrow, but the memories of this game will last a lifetime, and for the 42,635 fans in attendance at Tokyo Dome, they will remember it for years to come.
TOKYO — For a moment, it felt like all of Japan held its collective breath. The Tokyo Dome, known throughout the globe for its energy and electric atmosphere, fell silent as the sheeted dead. Then, as Shohei Ohtani’s bat connected on a curveball, the crowd erupted.
Shohei Ohtani, an international megastar playing on his home soil for the first time as a major leaguer, delivered the hit that jolted the Los Angeles Dodgers to life, setting the stage for the team’s thrilling 4-1 comeback over the Chicago Cubs in the opening game of the 2025 MLB season.
The journey to Opening Day was nearly a year in the making as both teams traveled over 6,000 miles for this moment. None of the other 28 teams in Major League Baseball had to travel across the world to play two games before heading all the way back across the Pacific Ocean for more exhibition games.
No one else had to arrive a week early to spring training, break camp early, disrupt their lives and routines for a couple of games on the other side of the world. But nobody else is Shohei Ohtani and the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
In front of a packed house, in a city that is buzzing with baseball fever, two historic franchises clashed under the Tokyo lights. The 2025 MLB Tokyo Series was a celebration of Japanese baseball at its finest. Five Japanese-born players were on the active rosters and will play in the series.
Even though this was a series between two of baseball’s iconic franchises, it was still the Shohei Ohtani show.
Ohtani is more than just famous in his home country. He’s an A-list celebrity, a rock star and a cultural icon all rolled into one. During the two-game series, over a dozen different commercials featuring Ohtani flashed across TV screens in Tokyo. His face is featured on billboards, taxi cabs, subway trains, storefront windows and more.
Each and every time Ohtani stepped to the plate, fans roared and cheered. They all took out their phones to record his every movement and held their collective breath during each pitch. They oohed and aahed at every ball he put into play and gasped when he struck out.
Ohtani finished the game 2-for-5 with a single, a double and two runs scored. His first hit of the 2025 season, a line drive to right field, came in the top of the fifth inning.
That would be all the Dodgers would need as their pitching staff did the rest. Anthony Banda, Ben Casparius, Blake Treinen, and free agent acquisition Tanner Scott combined for four shutout innings with the latter earning his first save in Dodger blue.
Dodgers’ starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto knows what it’s like to travel across the world to pitch in a baseball game. He’s no longer a rookie with the weight of the world on his shoulders. After a dominant postseason in which he was the ace of the Dodgers injury riddled World Series-winning pitching staff, Yamamoto has emerged as the ace of this year’s staff.
TOKYO, JAPAN – MARCH 18: Yoshinobu Yamamoto #18 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after the bottom of the fifth inning during the MLB Tokyo Series game against Chicago Cubs at Tokyo Dome on March 18, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Masterpress/Getty Images)
Yamamoto’s three-pitch mix of fastball, curveball and splitter kept the Cubs hitters off-balance all night long. His only blemish was an RBI double to Miguel Amaya in the bottom of the second.
In a polar opposite performance from his first start of the 2024 season, Yamamoto allowed just one run on three hits with four strikeouts in five innings. He seized the opportunity in his home country and earned the win over his fellow countryman Shota Imanaga in the first all-Japanese Opening Day starting pitching matchup in MLB history.
Both teams will play again tomorrow, but the memories of this game will last a lifetime, and for the 42,635 fans in attendance at Tokyo Dome, they will remember it for years to come.
CLEARWATER, Fla. — If a fan bought a replica jersey of his favorite Phillies hitter ahead of the 2023 season, there’s a real good chance they’ll be able to wear it while cheering for their guy again at Citizens Bank Park this year.
After being stunned by the Diamondbacks in the ’23 NLCS, the only change in the lineup was replacing Kody Clemens with Johan Rojas. After being ambushed by the Mets in the ’24 NLDS, the projected position players for the upcoming marathon are the same except for Max Kepler instead of Rojas.
Since going all the way to Game 6 of the World Series in 2023, the Phillies have checked out of the postseason dance a little earlier each succeeding year. That’s left a fan base used to changes — often loud, whizbang changes of the nine-figure variety — feeling a little lost. Especially after the biggest plum of the free-agent market, outfielder Juan Soto, signed with the rival Mets.
Earlier this spring, president of baseball operation Dave Dombrowski, who has a reputation as a bit of a gunslinger, sat in his BayCare Ballpark office and discussed what had happened between the early expectations that the Phillies’ roster would undergo a significant makeover and ending up with only a few cosmetic changes.
“We basically said we were open-minded to make changes. We didn’t say we were going to make big changes. That’s a significantly different vernacular,” he said, prefacing his explanation for why the Phillies were far less aggressive than many observers anticipated.
For the third straight year, then, the plan is that the core eight of Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh will remain intact when the new season begins at Nationals Park on March 27.
It’s worth inserting at this point that Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane was famously quoted in “Moneyball” saying, “There can never be a status quo. … You have to always be upgrading. Otherwise, you’re (screwed).”
But also that former Phillies GM Pat Gillick earned the derisive nickname “Stand Pat” early in his career with the Blue Jays by fans who disagreed with what they viewed as an overly slow-and-steady approach. He now has a plaque in the Hall of Fame.
It’s all about the Ws and Ls, right? So it remains to be seen whether or not running it back one more time will work. That answer will only begin to reveal itself beginning at Nationals Park; the final grade won’t be posted until six or seven months later.
Without getting into specifics — rumors that Bohm had one spike out the door were rampant all winter — Dombrowski stressed again that he was willing to shake up the lineup … but was also willing not to.
“A lot of times in the past it might have been, ‘Well, if we can fill in this spot, that’s all we’re doing.’ But we were very open-minded to (aggressive moves),” he said. “Maybe people envisioned that as we were going to make a bunch of changes. Or that we were just going to get rid of players to get rid of them. But that wasn’t the case. Because we had a lot of good players and we had a good team. We won 95 games and we won the division.
“We had a lot of conversations, particularly early, about our players. But we just didn’t feel that any of the deals made sense for us. We weren’t going to make a move just to make a move. So after that, we needed to make some other moves. So we signed Kepler, we signed (righthander Jordan) Romano, we signed (righthander Joe) Ross. We traded for (starter Jesus) Luzardo. And those things started happening quickly because at that point if you don’t start making those moves, players are going to be gone.”
Weren’t going to make a move just to make a move …
Late on the night of October 9, 2024, shortly after being bounced by the Mets in Game 4, several of the position players were already campaigning for another opportunity to get it right with the players already on hand. “I think we’ve got the right guys in here,” Turner said, a sentiment that echoed through the room. “I would hope they keep us together.”
At the time, that seemed unlikely. The Phillies had already tried that and it resulted in an earlier exit rather than a deeper run. It called to mind the overused cliché about the definition of insanity being doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.
Dombrowski wasn’t thinking that way, though. Asked if changing just for the sake of changing ever works, he smiled.
“Ever is a big word, so I’d probably have to say yes,” he said. “But I don’t think I’ve ever made a trade just to make a trade, no. I’ve always gone in with the focus of, ‘We need this. This makes sense.’ And made a deal like that.”
There’s a flip side to that, too. From all outward appearances, the Phillies have had exceptional clubhouse chemistry the past few seasons. Asked if he would shy away from trading certain players or bringing too many new personalities into the mix to avoid upsetting that balance, he shook his head.
Then he told a story about a lesson he learned in 2018 when he was president of the Red Sox baseball operations. Boston won 108 games in the regular season. Won the World Series. “We had a great club and I went to great efforts to keep that team together,” he said.
“And it didn’t work. For a few reasons. Some were injuries. But there were other things. Every club is different. But I don’t think any more I would go back to just saying, ‘I’m keeping that team together from a chemistry perspective.'”
Realmuto and Schwarber are free agents. Castellanos has one more year on his deal. Bohm, Stott and Marsh are all arbitration-eligible, at a point in their careers when tough decisions have to be made about whether to tie them up with long-term, big-bucks deals.
In spring training, the lockers of the once-and-future lineup are grouped in the back left corner of the clubhouse. No matter what happens this season, that most stable neighborhood will almost certainly look different a year from now.
After weeks of spring training, MLB teams across the country are gearing up for Opening Day — and two have already played their first game over in Japan. While it may still be chilly in some cities in late March, warmer days are ahead — and baseball is a sure sign of it.
So, when exactly are the first games of the new season? Who is playing on Opening Day? And where can you watch all the games?
Here’s a preview for 2025 MLB Opening Day:
When is MLB Opening Day in 2025?
MLB Opening Day is officially scheduled for March 27, 2025.
Two games will air nationally on Opening Day: Brewers-Yankees and Tigers-Dodgers.
The two pennant winners from last season will both host Central division interleague foes.
First up, the Brewers travel to Yankees Stadium at 3 p.m. ET with Joe Buck on the call alongside Joe Girardi and Bill Schroeder. The “Monday Night Football” broadcaster hasn’t called an MLB game nationally since joining ESPN, but he was formerly the voice of FOX’s World Series coverage continuously from 2000 to 2021.
In the nightcap at 7 p.m. ET, reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal will face the defending World Series winners. The Dodgers picked up a win in Tokyo in their season-opener with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound, but their starting pitcher for Opening Day stateside is still to be announced.
TOKYO — For a moment, it felt like all of Japan held its collective breath. The Tokyo Dome, known throughout the globe for its energy and electric atmosphere, fell silent as the sheeted dead. Then, as Shohei Ohtani’s bat connected on a curveball, the crowd erupted.
Shohei Ohtani, an international megastar playing on his home soil for the first time as a major leaguer, delivered the hit that jolted the Los Angeles Dodgers to life, setting the stage for the team’s thrilling 4-1 comeback over the Chicago Cubs in the opening game of the 2025 MLB season.
The journey to Opening Day was nearly a year in the making as both teams traveled over 6,000 miles for this moment. None of the other 28 teams in Major League Baseball had to travel across the world to play two games before heading all the way back across the Pacific Ocean for more exhibition games.
No one else had to arrive a week early to spring training, break camp early, disrupt their lives and routines for a couple of games on the other side of the world. But nobody else is Shohei Ohtani and the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
In front of a packed house, in a city that is buzzing with baseball fever, two historic franchises clashed under the Tokyo lights. The 2025 MLB Tokyo Series was a celebration of Japanese baseball at its finest. Five Japanese-born players were on the active rosters and will play in the series.
Even though this was a series between two of baseball’s iconic franchises, it was still the Shohei Ohtani show.
Ohtani is more than just famous in his home country. He’s an A-list celebrity, a rock star and a cultural icon all rolled into one. During the two-game series, over a dozen different commercials featuring Ohtani flashed across TV screens in Tokyo. His face is featured on billboards, taxi cabs, subway trains, storefront windows and more.
Each and every time Ohtani stepped to the plate, fans roared and cheered. They all took out their phones to record his every movement and held their collective breath during each pitch. They oohed and aahed at every ball he put into play and gasped when he struck out.
Ohtani finished the game 2-for-5 with a single, a double and two runs scored. His first hit of the 2025 season, a line drive to right field, came in the top of the fifth inning.
That would be all the Dodgers would need as their pitching staff did the rest. Anthony Banda, Ben Casparius, Blake Treinen, and free agent acquisition Tanner Scott combined for four shutout innings with the latter earning his first save in Dodger blue.
Dodgers’ starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto knows what it’s like to travel across the world to pitch in a baseball game. He’s no longer a rookie with the weight of the world on his shoulders. After a dominant postseason in which he was the ace of the Dodgers injury riddled World Series-winning pitching staff, Yamamoto has emerged as the ace of this year’s staff.
TOKYO, JAPAN – MARCH 18: Yoshinobu Yamamoto #18 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after the bottom of the fifth inning during the MLB Tokyo Series game against Chicago Cubs at Tokyo Dome on March 18, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Masterpress/Getty Images)
Yamamoto’s three-pitch mix of fastball, curveball and splitter kept the Cubs hitters off-balance all night long. His only blemish was an RBI double to Miguel Amaya in the bottom of the second.
In a polar opposite performance from his first start of the 2024 season, Yamamoto allowed just one run on three hits with four strikeouts in five innings. He seized the opportunity in his home country and earned the win over his fellow countryman Shota Imanaga in the first all-Japanese Opening Day starting pitching matchup in MLB history.
Both teams will play again tomorrow, but the memories of this game will last a lifetime, and for the 42,635 fans in attendance at Tokyo Dome, they will remember it for years to come.
“Really good. First time out and he’s already touching 98 [mph], 96, 97 consistently," the Mets' skipper said. "Slider was good. Same guy we saw last year when he was healthy. Another good sign there.”
The right-hander needed just 11 pitches for a 1-2-3 inning, with eight going for strikes, including three called strikes and one whiff. He averaged 88.9 mph on six sliders, which was up from 87.5 mph average last year.
With Opening Day coming up in under two weeks, Mendoza said they are going to be careful with overworking Núñez, but they have to give him a couple more outings to get him ready to start the season.
“We just got to make sure he’s feeling good to go when we break camp and that we feel comfortable with him breaking camp with us,” Mendoza said. “We’ll see what happens in the next few days.”
On Mets’ eighth-inning bullpen plans
Núñez became a big piece of the bullpen for the Mets last campaign -- posting a 2.31 ERA and 0.914 WHIP in 35 innings over 25 outings in his debut season in the big leagues -- and was a big loss when a strained flexor tendon in his right arm kept him out of the postseason.
“We felt it, we felt it when we didn’t have him, because he was a huge part of that bullpen pitching [in] high-leverage [situations],” Mendoza said. “It was, I’m not gonna say easier, but knowing that you had him available, piecing it together it gave us another weapon there to get to [Edwin] Diaz in the ninth.
“And then when he went down, some of the guys step up, but it was a big difference there.”
The 28-year-old Núñez will be a candidate for that role in the eighth this year, but Mendoza has lots of options at his disposal.
“We got a few options,” the skipper said about the final guy to bridge the gap to sounding the trumpets. “That’s what makes our bullpen part of our strength of our team.
“When you’re talking about whether it’s Núñez healthy, [A.J.] Minter healthy, [Ryne] Stanek, Reed Garrett. There’s a lot of options there. We just gotta keep them healthy.”
New York pitchers led MLB with 214 strikeouts in late and close situations but pitched to a 1.26 WHIP (136 hits and 79 walks) in 170.1 innings in that scenario (16th in baseball) with a .222 opponent batting average (12th).
And, of course, the right-hander on two occasions had to run to cover first base causing the manager’s heart to skip a beat.
“A hundred percent,” Mendoza said when asked about the heart-in-mouth moment, adding he turned to assistant pitching coach Desi Druschel to say, “Of course, this is gonna happen [today] a guy was dealing with a minor [injury] and then he’s got to cover first base twice.”
“I’m glad he checked that box,” he said of Butto moving around the field. “And I checked with him after that inning and he said he was feeling good.”
Butto allowed one hit and got a strikeout, throwing 14 pitches (nine strikes) and getting three whiffs on seven swings with two called strikes. He averaged 94.6 mph on seven fastballs
Nimmo, who has been dealing with a knee injury got the start Monday in left field for his first action in the outfield since Feb. 28. With the Mets having an off day on Tuesday there won't be a chance for the 31-year-old to play consecutive days in the outfield, but that's not something the skipper needs to see before Opening Day.
"I don't think I need to see it," Mendoza said after shaking his head and shrugging. "He's going to continue to play, he's gonna continue to get some time off when he needs to. And I think today was a good step.
"Off day tomorrow, back at it on Wednesday."
Nimmo told SNY's Michelle Margaux his knee is "doing well" and he is "really happy to get back to this spot."
"Was a little iffy there for a week and wasn't sure if I would be able to get back out there," he told Margaux. "Felt really good the last few days and today it felt great so I'm really happy to be back in the field."
The outfielder added later that they "pushed a little bit more" to be able to play in the day's game and the knee is "making really good progress and I'm very happy with the last three days."
"We'll see how it reacts tomorrow," he continued. "... We're kind of getting down to the end here and decisions need to be made on playing the field and DHing and all that."
There wasn't too much action out there for him -- especially as Griffin Canning retired nine Rays via the strikeout -- but Nimmo was glad to be out there as "that's part of getting back out there... just the time on the feet and in the cleats and ramping up for the at-bats."
"I'm just gonna try and get as much as I can," Nimmo said about the number of at-bats he's looking to get in the final week to get back on track. "Whether it's backfield at-bats or whether it's in the game, I'm gonna try and get three or four every day to try and start treating it a little more normal."
He added he is "optimistic" that the injury is on the "downhill side of this" and once the knee quiets down he won't have to deal with this injury during the year.
"Good timing for Opening Day," Nimmo said, "but I do think that its something that we should be able to put in our rearview mirror once it's taken care of."
