Opening Day, Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Copyrighted by Sarah Morris, 2025
No Mookie Betts. No Freddie Freeman. The Los Angeles Dodgers had no problem beating the Chicago Cubs 4-to-1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Anthony Banda, Ben Casparius, Blake Treinen, and Tanner Scott were brilliant. Shohei Ohtani and Tommy Edman played important roles in the three-run fifth inning.
Mookie Betts went to LA yesterday since he couldn’t play due to his mysterious illness. Since a week ago from Sunday, Betts hadn’t been in a Dodger lineup. Reportedly, Betts has lost 15 pounds. The Dodgers hope he can regain his strength before the domestic Opening Day on March 27th.
Freddie Freeman was scratched from the lineup.He has left rib discomfort. During the postseason, he had a broken left rib, and the Dodgers didn’t have a long offseason after winning the World Series.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga are the first Japan-born pitchers to start Opening Day in MLB.
Imanaga retired the Dodgers in order on nine pitches.
Yamamoto walked the lead-off batter, and the runner advanced to second on a comebacker. Yamamoto didn’t allow anything else.
Will Smith and Max Muncy walked to open the second, but the Dodgers didn’t score.
Yamamoto allowed a single to Dansby Swanson , and Swanson scored on a double. Yamamoto didn’t allow anything else.
Imanaga was perfect in the third.
Yamamoto allowed an infield single to Ian Happ to open the third but escaped the jam scorelessly.
Teoscar Hernández walked to begin the fourth, and Muncy walked. The Dodgers couldn’t capitalize on the scoring opportunity.
Yamamoto was perfect in the fourth.
Ben Brown issued a walk to Andy Pages. Shohei Ohtani singled Pages to third. Tommy Edman singled in Pages and moved Ohtani to second. Teoscar Hernández reached on a throwing error, and Ohtani scored. Smith singled in Teoscar Hernández.
Yamamoto relied on his splitter about 50% of the time. He was perfect in the fifth.
With two outs in the sixth, Miguel Rojas had an infield single and went to second on a throwing error. Pages walked. The Dodgers wasted a scoring opportunity.
Anthony Banda relieved Yamamoto in the sixth and was perfect.
With two outs in the seventh, Smith walked, and the Cubs changed their pitcher to Eli Morgan. Muncy’s ground out ended the inning.
Ben Casparius relieved Banda in the seventh and pitched a perfect seventh inning.
In the eighth with an out, Michael Conforto doubled and advanced to third on Rojas’ grounder. The Dodgers stranded Conforto on third.
Blake Treinen relieved Casparius in the eighth but plunked a batter with an out. The runner stole second. Treinen escaped the jam scorelessly.
To start the ninth, Ohtani doubled and moved to third on Edman’s grounder. Teoscar Hernández singled him in, and Smith walked. The Dodgers wasted another scoring opportunity.
Tanner Scott closed his first Dodger victory.
