Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers at Tokyo preview, Tuesday 3/18, 5:10 a.m. CT

The 2025 MLB season opens with a terrific pitching matchup in Japan.

TOKYO — ICYMI, today’s Cubs roster moves are here.

Opening Day in Japan notes…

• CUBS OPENING DAY HISTORY: This Opening Day game will be the Cubs’: Second outside the United States, both at Tokyo… First outside the U.S. as the home team… First as the home team at any ballpark for the first time since April 11, 1917, when they beat the Pirates, 5-3, at Weeghman Park, today’s Wrigley Field… Fifth at any park as the home team (they won the previous four)… First against the Dodgers since April 9, 1963, when they lost, 5-1, at Wrigley Field. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• CHECK YOUR CALENDARS: This is the 60th season since 1876, first of the National League, in which the Cubs will play their first game on a Tuesday. That is twice as many times as on any other day of the week. They have opened 30 seasons on Thursdays, including last year; 20 on Mondays, 18 on Wednesdays, 13 on Fridays, seven on Saturdays and two on Sundays. The last on Saturday was in 1972; on Sunday, in 2017. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• UNDER THE LIGHTS: The game against the Dodgers will be only the 14th time that the Cubs’ season debut has been at night. The first was on April 15, 1958, when the Cubs won at St. Louis, 4-0. Their first at home was a 3-0 loss to the Cardinals on April 5, 2015. Their only other night opener as host was a 3-0 win over the Brewers on July 24, 2020. They have had one more Opening Night since then, on March 28 of last year, when they lost at Texas, 4-3, in 10 innings. The Cubs are 6-7 in all openers under the lights, with half the wins shutouts: the two cited above a 9-0 at Anaheim in 2016. Besides the 2015 game, they failed to score only in a 5-0 loss at St. Louis in 1976. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• OPENING DAY STARTING PITCHERS: Shōta Imanaga will be the 76th different Cubs pitcher to start on Opening Day. He will be the fourth different starter in the last four seasons, following Kyle Hendricks in 2022, Marcus Stroman in 2023 and Justin Steele last year. Hendricks’ start was his third. He won his first, in 2020, as did Stroman. Steele had no decision. The last Cub to lose his first Opening Day start was Jon Lester, in 2015. In all first Opening Day starts, Cubs pitchers have 39 wins, 27 losses and 10 no decisions. In all Opening Day starts, they are 65-54-10. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• DEBUTING CUB: Matt Shaw will make his MLB debut in Tuesday’s game. He will become the third Cubs player to make his MLB debut in Japan. Tarrik Brock made his MLB debut in Tokyo March 29, 2000 and Danny Young made his MLB debut in Tokyo March 30, 2000. Neither one of those players played in MLB after 2000. I’m pretty sure Matt Shaw will have a more successful MLB career.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Dodgers lineup:

Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, RHP

Shōta Imanaga, as you know, had a terrific rookie season in MLB in 2024. About the only thing that didn’t go well was his propensity to give up the long ball, something that will have to be watched this year, especially if weather patterns turn out to be different at Wrigley Field. (Although, his HR rate on the road was just a bit worse than at home, not significant.)

Against the Dodgers in 2024, Imanaga made two starts and posted a 2.45 ERA. The Cubs won both of the games, though Shōta didn’t get a decision April 7 at Wrigley Field, since he had to leave after four shutout innings due to a long rain delay. On Sept. 10 at Dodger Stadium, he allowed three solo homers, two to Tommy Edman and one to Max Muncy.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw nine innings against the Cubs last year and allowed one unearned run. These two pitchers have matched up previously, in that Sept. 10 game, and the Cubs managed to win that one because Yamamoto was coming back from three months on the IL and was limited to four innings.

That won’t be the case tonight, as Yamamoto is 100 percent healthy. He posted a 4.15 ERA in four spring starts, but you know how meaningful/meaningless that can be.

Here’s hoping for a good night for Cubs hitters against him.

Both these pitchers have quite the pitch arsenal, as you see below. These charts are from their 2024 starts.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here. It’s also on Fox-TV (full national broadcast, no blackouts).

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Dodgers site True Blue LA. If you do go there to interact with Dodgers fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2025 Game Thread procedure will be identical to last year’s.

You’ll find the game preview posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.