“Strike!” That was the very first pitch of the 2025 baseball season. The matchup was the Chicago Cubs’ Shota Imanaga versus the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinubo Yamamoto. The Tokyo Series lasted for two games from March 18 to March 19, and both games started at 6:00 AM EST, but 7:00 PM in Japan.
The first game set a record, as this was the first time in MLB history that both pitchers to start a season were Japanese born. The first run was scored by Dansby Swanson, who hit a single and made it home thanks to Miguel Amaya. The Dodgers won 4-1, the game ending with Tanner Scott striking out Matt Shaw.
Imanaga pitched four hitless and scoreless innings, with two strikeouts and a career high four walks. Yamamoto was almost as good, completing five innings, allowing one walk, one run, and three hits with four strikeouts.
The second game was more high scoring, with the pitching matchup Cubs’ Justin Steele versus Roki Sasaki.
Max Muncy made history in the second inning, becoming just the fourth player in MLB to record a hit in five different countries.
In the top of the third on a 3-2 count, Tommy Edman smashed the first home run of the season, making the score 3-0 Dodgers. Then in the fifth inning, the NL MVP Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run.
Roki Sasaki made his MLB debut, and in three innings he had three strikeouts and an eye-opening five walks. His only run given up was a walk with the bases loaded.
Alex Vesia got the save for the Dodgers, with Miguel Rojas throwing out Matt Shaw on a groundout to give the Dodgers a 6-3 win.
Now that the Tokyo Series is over, baseball fans have to wait until March 27th for the next official baseball game.