TOKYO -- The saying goes that seeing is believing, and the display on the mound on Opening Day at Tokyo Dome could have a ripple effect far beyond the box score.
The Cubs' Shota Imanaga and the Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto took center stage in Major League Baseball's first Opening Day matchup between two Japanese starting pitchers on Tuesday night -- and both rose to the occasion of making history on home soil.
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The season-opening Tokyo Series, which concludes Wednesday, features five Japanese players -- Chicago's Seiya Suzuki and Los Angeles' Shohei Ohtani and Roki Sasaki round out the quintet -- giving their countrymen with Major League dreams something tangible to aspire toward.
"I don't think that there was a Japanese baseball player in Japan that didn't watch this game tonight," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team's 4-1 win. "Right now is as good as the Japanese players as a whole have been compared to Major League Baseball. Certainly, watching Yoshinobu and Imanaga tonight, I'm sure they envision themselves in that same position."
Coming off impressive rookie years in the Majors, both Imanaga and Yamamoto set a strong tone for their sophomore seasons.
Imanaga, who had an All-Star first half in 2024 and finished in the top five in both NL Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Award balloting, struck out two across four hitless innings. The 31-year-old lefty had to work around four walks -- a career high for him in MLB -- but the reigning World Series champions could not get anything going against the Cubs until Imanaga was out of the game.
"Facing Yamamoto," Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry, "he¡¯s the type of pitcher who can build up momentum, especially when the team scores a run. So I was really focusing on keeping the zero runs."
Yamamoto, who was solid last season but really came into his own during the Dodgers' World Series run, picked up where he left off. The 26-year-old righty struck out four against one walk and allowed one run on three hits, showcasing some electric stuff across five innings.
"I always consider him as a reliable staff in the pitching squad. That hasn't changed," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. "But just the demeanor that he has on the mound, even though he may give up a run, he has the ability to make sure that he's calm and collected. That's something that I felt like he was able to sustain and grow into."
There's one more Japanese pitcher waiting in the wings this series: Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki, who is ranked as MLB Pipeline's No. 1 overall prospect. He is set to start for L.A. in Game 2, which will make for one of the more anticipated big league debuts in recent memory.
"It¡¯s a big start for him, obviously," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. "Imanaga and Yamamoto did a really good job handling the nerves of the start of the game. I think we¡¯ve got to put pressure on Sasaki early in the game."
Before this edition of the Tokyo Series, only three Japanese-born pitchers had appeared in a regular-season Major League game at Tokyo Dome: Daisuke Matsuzaka (2008), Hideki Okajima ('08) and Yusei Kikuchi ('19).
Once Sasaki takes the mound on Wednesday, that number will have doubled. And in all likelihood, should Major League Baseball return to Tokyo in the future, Japanese big leaguers getting the chance to play at the highest level of the game on home soil will be much less of a rarity.