Category: Sports News

MLB Tokyo Series: Ohtani and Yamamoto lead Dodgers to 4-1 win over Cubs in opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

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.

So, after the flags were unfurled and the national anthems, played by Japanese musician Yoshiki, were completed, after the Pokemon introductions and the plethora of Pikachu’s danced across the diamond, there was finally baseball being played in 2025.

For the first time since the Dodgers defeated the Yankees in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, the games actually counted, and LA’s title defense has officially begun.

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. 

Tommy Edman tied the game with a line drive to left field, and Ohtani scored the go-ahead run on an errant throw by Cubs second baseman Jon Berti. 

Teoscar Hernandez added an insurance run in the top of the ninth.

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.

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.

MLB Tokyo Series: Ohtani and Yamamoto lead Dodgers to 4-1 win over Cubs in opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

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.

So, after the flags were unfurled and the national anthems, played by Japanese musician Yoshiki, were completed, after the Pokemon introductions and the plethora of Pikachu’s danced across the diamond, there was finally baseball being played in 2025.

For the first time since the Dodgers defeated the Yankees in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, the games actually counted, and LA’s title defense has officially begun.

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. 

Tommy Edman tied the game with a line drive to left field, and Ohtani scored the go-ahead run on an errant throw by Cubs second baseman Jon Berti. 

Teoscar Hernandez added an insurance run in the top of the ninth.

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.

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.

Phils went shopping, came back with only small change originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

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.

MLB Opening Day 2025: Full schedule, dates, times and matchups originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

It’s officially baseball season.

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.

The defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs got a head start on the action with the MLB Tokyo Series in Japan, starting on March 18 with the Dodgers’ victory.

What teams are playing on Opening Day in 2025?

Twenty-eight of the 30 teams will be playing on Opening Day, including the Dodgers and Cubs.

The Tampa Bay Rays and Colorado Rockies are the only two teams who won’t suit up on March 27. Their opening series will begin the following day at the Rays’ temporary home of George M. Steinbrenner Field.

2025 MLB Opening Day schedule, games and probable starters

Here are the 14 matchups and probable starting pitchers for Opening Day:

Away team	Home team	Pitching matchup	First pitch time
Milwaukee Brewers	New York Yankees	Freddy Peralta vs. Carlos Rodon	3 p.m. ET
Baltimore Orioles	Toronto Blue Jays	Zach Eflin vs. Jose Berrios	3:07 p.m. ET
Philadelphia Phillies	Washington Nationals	Zack Wheeler vs. MacKenzie Gore	4:05 p.m. ET
Boston Red Sox	Texas Rangers	Garrett Crochet vs. Nathan Eovaldi	4:05 p.m. ET
Pittsburgh Pirates	Miami Marlins	Paul Skenes vs. Sandy Alcantara	4:10 p.m. ET
San Francisco Giants	Cincinnati Reds	Logan Webb vs. Hunter Greene	4:10 p.m. ET
Los Angeles Angels	Chicago White Sox	Yusei Kikuchi vs. Sean Burke	4:10 p.m. ET
Cleveland Guardians	Kansas City Royals	TBA vs. Cole Ragans	4:10 p.m. ET
New York Mets	Houston Astros	Clay Holmes vs. Framber Valdez	4:10 p.m. ET
Atlanta Braves	San Diego Padres	Chris Sale vs. Michael King	4:10 p.m. ET
Minnesota Twins	St. Louis Cardinals	Pablo Lopez vs. Sonny Gray	4:10 p.m. ET
Detroit Tigers	Los Angeles Dodgers	Tarik Skubal vs. TBA	7 p.m. ET
Chicago Cubs	Arizona Diamondbacks	TBA vs. TBA	10:10 p.m. ET
Athletics	Seattle Mariners	Luis Severino vs. Logan Gilbert	10:10 p.m. ET

How to watch MLB Opening Day 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.

MLB Tokyo Series: Ohtani and Yamamoto lead Dodgers to 4-1 win over Cubs in opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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.

So, after the flags were unfurled and the national anthems, played by Japanese musician Yoshiki, were completed, after the Pokemon introductions and the plethora of Pikachu’s danced across the diamond, there was finally baseball being played in 2025.

For the first time since the Dodgers defeated the Yankees in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 30, the games actually counted, and LA’s title defense has officially begun.

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. 

Tommy Edman tied the game with a line drive to left field, and Ohtani scored the go-ahead run on an errant throw by Cubs second baseman Jon Berti. 

Teoscar Hernandez added an insurance run in the top of the ninth.

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.

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.