Shohei Ohtani had two hits and two runs and fellow Japanese star Yoshinobu Yamamoto tossed five strong innings, fueling the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday in the opener of the Tokyo Series.
Ohtani had a single and scored on a throwing error as part of a three-run fifth inning. He then ripped a double to lead off the ninth before crossing the plate on Teoscar Hernandez’s single to left field.
Tommy Edman and Will Smith each had an RBI single in the fifth inning for the reigning World Series champion Dodgers, who benefited from eight walks in the season opener.
Yamamoto (1-0) settled down after an uneven start by allowing one run on three hits with four strikeouts. He retired the final nine batters he faced.
Anthony Banda, Ben Casparius and Blake Treinen combined to strike out four batters without surrendering a hit over three scoreless innings. Tanner Scott retired the side in order in the ninth inning to secure the save.
Chicago’s Miguel Amaya ripped an RBI double with two outs in the second inning to open the scoring.
Seiya Suzuki, who went 0-for-4, lined out while representing the tying run with two outs in the eighth inning.
Fellow Japan native Shota Imanaga issued a career-high four walks to drive up his pitch count, leading to the latter’s exit after four scoreless innings. Ben Brown (0-1) came on in relief and promptly ran into trouble.
Andy Pages worked a one-out walk, advanced to third base on Ohtani’s single and came around to score and forge a 1-1 tie after Edman’s line-drive single landed in shallow left field.
Ohtani scored after Edman’s slide into second base in a bid to prevent a double play forced an errant throw by Chicago second baseman Jon Berti. Hernandez advanced to second on the throw and scored on Smith’s single to left field.
Brown took the loss after permitting three runs (two earned) on four hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
Chicago got the early jump on Yamamoto by scratching for the first run of the season.
Dansby Swanson slapped a one-out single in the second inning, advanced to second on a groundout by Pete Crow-Armstrong and scored on Amaya’s double to right-center field.
