The Tokyo Series is here! Starting tomorrow, the Los Angeles Dodgers, featuring Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki, will open the 2025 regular season against Seiya Suzuki, Shota Imanaga, and the Chicago Cubs.
I was recently featured on MLB’s video Baseball Around the World: JAPAN, which was filmed during the 2024 Premier12. Please check it out if you’re interested in some of what makes Japanese baseball culture so unique.
For the second consecutive year, the Dodgers are starting their season in Asia, having kicked off the 2024 campaign in Seoul against the San Diego Padres. The Cubs previously opened the 2000 MLB season in Tokyo against the New York Mets.
But before the regular season opens on Tuesday, both teams played a pair of exhibition games over the weekend against Nippon Professional Baseball’s most storied franchises: the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers. Let’s see how things went.
Game 1: Hanshin Tigers 3, Chicago Cubs 0
20-year-old top prospect Keito Mombetsu set the tone with five perfect innings on just 59 pitches, striking out two. Koji Chikamoto’s RBI double broke a scoreless tie in the third, and Ukyo Maegawa extended Hanshin’s lead in the fourth on an RBI double. Teruaki Sato’s RBI single in the fifth made it 3-0, and the Tigers bullpen held the lead the rest of the way as the Cubs managed just three hits against the 2023 Japan Series champions.
Game 2: Los Angeles Dodgers 5, Yomiuri Giants 1
A five-run third inning, highlighted by big home runs from Michael Conforto, Shohei Ohtani (of course), and Teoscar Hernandez, powered Los Angeles past Yomiuri. Giants ace Shosei Togo settled down after the rough frame, completing six innings with four strikeouts. Naoki Yoshikawa’s RBI single in the sixth accounted for Yomiuri’s lone run, as the Dodgers kept the Giants offense quiet in a strong bullpen-game effort.
Game 3: Hanshin Tigers 3, Los Angeles Dodgers 0
The Tigers secured another shutout victory as ace Hiroto Saiki ambushed the defending World Series champions with five innings of one-hit ball, striking out seven, relying on his world-class high-spin four-seamer. Two-time Cy Young Winner Blake Snell cruised through three perfect innings, but star slugger Teruaki Sato shifted the momentum with one swing in the fourth, launching a three-run homer into the right field seats. Tyler Glasnow pitched four innings in relief, striking out seven. The Tigers’ pen was outstanding once again, combining for four scoreless frames with five punchouts.
Game 4: Chicago Cubs 4, Yomiuri Giants 2
Starters Jameson Taillon and Foster Griffin both pitched effectively early on, keeping the game scoreless through four innings. The Cubs broke through in the fifth with four runs off Griffin, highlighted by a Pete Crow-Armstrong leadoff double and a two-run single from top prospect Matt Shaw. The Giants answered back in the bottom half on superstar Kazuma Okamoto’s two-run double, but couldn’t make up the rest of the deficit. Matthew Boyd’s four shutout innings and six strikeouts in relief gave him the save for Chicago. Notably, Masahiro Tanaka did not appear for the Giants despite pregame speculation that he may follow Griffin.
One interesting note about these matchups is that NPB pitchers used their own ball, which has subtle differences in size and seams, while MLB pitchers went with the much livelier MLB version. Statcast was also deployed at the Tokyo Dome, providing NPB fans a rare look into the underlying data of some of their favorite players.
The exhibitions drew packed crowds across all four games, showcased contrasting styles of play, and emphasized how competitive NPB teams can be even against the world’s best squads.
Now, it’s time for the MLB Tokyo Series.
- NPB Standings
- Central League Hitting Leaders
- Central League Pitching Leaders
- Pacific League Hitting Leaders
- Pacific League Pitching Leaders
- Yakyu Cosmopolitan’s Website
