Shōta Imanaga pitched four no-hit innings and Miguel Amaya drove in a run with an RBI-double in the second inning, but the Cubs fell short on Opening Day, losing to the Dodgers 4-1 in Tokyo. If you look at the box score you’ll probably assume that Ben Brown’s outing was a lot worse than it actually was and honestly his 65-pitching appearance was the biggest takeaway from Opening Day on the Cubs side.
Brown came in to start the fifth inning after Imanaga walked four batters that ballooned his pitch count to 69 through four innings. Brown, who had not pitched in the majors since last June because of a neck injury, ended up taking the loss after giving up three runs in his first inning of work.
The hard-throwing righty ended his day with five strikeouts in 2.2 innings, but three ill-timed walks and some bad defense hurt Brown and the Cubs.
BAD BENNY IS BACK pic.twitter.com/s5mdGR2AX8
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) March 18, 2025
Still, seeing that Craig Counsell went to Brown following Imanaga may hint that the Cubs are lining up the righty to become the fifth starter to begin the regular season. He threw 65 pitches, which keeps him fully stretched out as a starter.
Late last week ESPN’s Jeff Passan wrote about the Cubs leaning toward Brown as the fifth starter. Javier Assad was officially placed on the 15-day injured list prior to Tuesday’s game. It appears as though veteran Colin Rea will be in the bullpen as a swingman to start off the year.
Brown posted a 3.58 ERA in 55.1 innings during his rookie season with the Cubs last year.
That fifth inning sure was a bummer as Brown walked the No. 9 hitter in the Dodgers’ lineup Andy Pages with Shohei Ohtani on deck. Ohtani then followed up with a single to right field that put runners on first and third. Still, it appeared as though Brown could have escaped with minimal damage as Tommy Edman hit a ball to Ian Happ in left field.
Unfortunately, Happ had trouble locating the ball and had it glance off his glove, allowing the tying run to score and Edman to reach safely.
Tommy Edman ties up the ballgame! #TokyoSeries pic.twitter.com/o6nwIkVLrq
— MLB (@MLB) March 18, 2025
That could have been the second out, but it wasn’t and then Teoscar Hernandez reached safely on a fielder’s choice that was made worse by Jon Berti’s throwing error, which allowed Ohtani to come around to score and Hernandez to move up to second base.
Dodgers’ catcher Will Smith followed up with an RBI-single that gave Los Angeles a 3-1 lead and really made the Cubs pay for their bad defense. So yeah, the walk in front of Ohtani was certainly bad, but Brown was really hurt by a couple defensive lapses behind him.
You could do a lot worse than Brown as your fifth starter.
Ben Brown: 13 whiffs on 24 swings from his curve ball https://t.co/yfTxAJo4bT
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) March 18, 2025
The Dodgers added a fourth run in the top of the ninth inning off Ryan Brasier.
As for the Cubs offense, well it wasn’t pretty. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was absolutely nasty with his splitter and only got into trouble once. Dansby Swanson singled with one out in the second inning and then scored on Amaya’s double to right-center field.
This was some great hitting from the Cubs catcher.
Miguel Amaya RBI-double and the Cubs lead 1-0! pic.twitter.com/kfcIum446n
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) March 18, 2025
After that the only other Cubs hit came on a Happ infield single to lead off the third inning. That was it for the Cubs, one run on three hits. Following Happ’s third-inning hit the Cubs offense was 0-for-21 at the plate and the only other runner to reach base was Berti, who was hit by a pitch in the eighth inning.
I’m just not going to freak out about the offense after one game or even these two games in Japan. Hell, it might be rough against that rotation the Diamondbacks have put together, too.
These games against the Dodgers are just never going to be fun to watch when you’re rooting for the other side. They really make you earn it at the plate and when you give them extra outs and bases they’ll make you pay. Oh and by the way that was the Dodgers without Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman on Opening Day.
Rōki Sasaki and Justin Steele is the pitching matchup for game two of the Tokyo series on Wednesday.
