Shota Imanaga, Seiya Suzuki beat Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — Both the Cubs and Dodgers made major splashes over the past few offseasons by signing big-name Japanese players. Chicago brought in outfielder Seiya Suzuki ahead of the 2022 season, then signed left-hander Shota Imanaga this past winter, when the Dodgers committed more than $1 billion to two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani and right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That’s part of why the two clubs made sense to open the 2025 season facing each other at the Tokyo Dome.

Fans got a chance to see those stars take each other on stateside on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium. It marked just the second time that four Japanese-born players started in an MLB game — and it hadn’t happened in 17 years, since Ichiro Suzuki and Kenji Johjima suited up for the Mariners against the Yankees’ Hideki Matsui and Kei Igawa on May 4, 2007.

“It’s good for everyone to make it a global game,” said Cubs manager Craig Counsell. “And I think, certainly players like Shota and Yamamoto help that for sure. Games like tonight help that, absolutely.”

Imanaga, Suzuki, Yamamoto and Ohtani were all familiar with each other to some degree, as all four were part of Team Japan during the 2023 World Baseball Classic (although Suzuki did not play due to injury). Their experience against each other in NPB was limited. Yamamoto faced Suzuki in Chicago on April 6 and Imanaga faced Ohtani on April 7, the pitchers missing a head-to-head battle by one day.

In that April start, Imanaga threw four scoreless innings before his day was cut short due to rain. On Tuesday, he took the mound coming off throwing seven hitless innings in the Cubs’ combined no-hitter vs. the Pirates last Wednesday. He once again went seven frames, something he’s done nine times this season, striking out four, walking none and needing just 89 pitches. This time, however, he was tagged for three runs — all on solo homers, two by Tommy Edman. He retired Ohtani all three times they faced, although Ohtani did just miss hitting his 47th homer of the season by one foot in the fifth inning.

“Yu Darvish gave me great words when I was on the national team,” Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “He said, ‘When you’re facing great competition, you kind of lose your limits, and you kind of go past that. You almost feel like there’s another step ahead of that.’ And today, facing Yamamoto, facing Ohtani, facing all those great hitters on the Dodgers, I feel like that’s kind of what happened, where I had a limit, and I kind of went past that.”

Yamamoto had been activated from the injured list to make the start and was working on a short leash, going just four innings. But he provided some stiff competition in that limited time, striking out eight, with Suzuki accounting for two of those punchouts.

Suzuki, though, contributed plenty later. Coming to the plate in the eighth inning with two on and the Cubs down by two, he singled to center field for an RBI, with Dansby Swanson scoring on an error to tie it.

Suzuki then scored the go-ahead run on a fielder’s choice throwing error, part of a five-run rally to put Chicago ahead for good. It ended up being a three-hit night for Suzuki, who also doubled in the sixth and singled in the ninth.

“Every team makes mistakes,” said Suzuki through Stanberry. “When you do, the momentum shifts. I think today, we didn’t have any mistakes. We kept playing well. And once they did, we kind of took that momentum and kept riding it forward. And so I think that was kind of a key.”