The 2024-2025 Major League Baseball offseason was dominated by discussion around the Los Angeles Dodgers and their willingness to build a better roster after winning the 2024 World Series.
They brought back Teoscar Hernandez, Enrique Hernandez, Blake Treinen and extended Tommy Edman. Then they added Tanner Scott, Blake Snell, Kirby Yates, Roki Sasaki and Michael Conforto. To a roster that already had Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Baseball fans, furious that one of baseball’s best teams in one of its biggest markets is actually trying to win, went ballistic.
Social media was dominated by discussion of the Dodgers “ruining baseball,” that the season shouldn’t even be played, that there’s no way to beat the Los Angeles juggernaut. When just two short years ago, those same fans were labeling the Dodgers postseason “chokers” with a “Mickey Mouse ring” after losing in the 2022 NLDS to the San Diego Padres after a 111-win regular season.
Well, maybe they were right after all, as the Dodgers won the first regular season game of 2025 4-1 over the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.
Dodgers Dominate Game One With Elite Pitching
Fans who paid exorbitant prices to see the Dodgers and Cubs didn’t exactly see an offensive showcase.
READ: Dodgers-Cubs Tokyo Series Tickets Going For Thousands After Japan Bans Scalping
Shohei Ohtani once again led the Dodgers with two hits in his return to Japan, while scoring two of the Dodgers’ runs. Will Smith reached base four times on three walks and an RBI single, and Teoscar Hernandez drove in a run with a ninth-inning single.
Meanwhile, the Cubs offense was completely stymied by starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a parade of relievers. Yamamoto struck out four in five innings of work, allowing just three hits and one walk. Then Anthony Banda, Ben Casparius, Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott pitched four shutout innings with five strikeouts to close out the game.
Not a single Cubs hitter reached base after a leadoff single by Ian Happ in the bottom of the third inning. That’s pretty ugly. And might be a sign of things to come.
This is an exaggeration of course; it’s one game, it’s a weird situation in an unfamiliar stadium in the middle of spring training, and the Dodgers’ injury problems are already obvious with Mookie Betts home in LA and Freddie Freeman a late scratch.
But this is why Andrew Friedman and GM Brandon Gomes built the roster the way they did. They wanted depth and quality to withstand injuries, a long season, and the inevitable postseason push. They spoke frequently about not wanting to buy at the trade deadline. And even with all their depth, there’s no guarantee they won’t need to anyway.
The Dodgers were “lucky” to win the World Series in 2024 after their pitching staff was decimated by injury. They’re trying to win it this year with overwhelming talent. And they’re off to a flying start.
