The Chicago Cubs kicked off their 2025 regular season with a 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Tokyo. Walks were really the story of the day for the Cubs. Shota Imanaga threw did not allow a hit in four scoreless innings. However, he did walk four batters. That helped push his pitch count to 69 through four. Craig Counsell decided that was enough for Opening Day and turned to Ben Brown in the fifth inning. Brown struggled in his first inning of work allowing two hits and a walk. That led to three runs for the Dodgers which turned out to be all they would need on the day. To Brown’s credit, he did settle down after that inning and threw the next inning and a third without allowing another run.

Loas Angeles added an insurance run in the top of the ninth when Teoscar Hernandez singled to drive in Shohei Ohtani who had doubled to lead off the inning.

On offense, the Cubs struggled to get anything going. They did get on the board first when Miguel Amaya doubled home Dansby Swanson who had singled earlier in the inning. It was good to see Amaya start off hot after he looked to have made some big strides at the plate in the second half of the 2024 season. Outside of that, the Cubs managed just one more hit – an infield single from Ian Happ.

Matt Shaw made his Major League debut and went 0-4 with two strikeouts.

The Cubs will take on the Dodgers again tomorrow from Tokyo with Justin Steele on the mound against rookie Roki Sasaki.