TOKYO — Shota Imanaga shook his head in frustration.
The Chicago Cubs left-hander, known for his elite command, watched the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Max Muncy head to first base following two consecutive walks to open the second inning. Free passes were a rarity for Imanaga in his rookie season, owning the best strikeout-to-walk rate in the league.
Imanaga worked around the back-to-back walks to retire the next three batters, but his lack of crispness was mirrored in the Cubs play on opening day in a 4-1 loss to Los Angeles in front of an overwhelmingly pro-Dodgers crowd among the 42,365 fans at the Tokyo Dome.
Imanaga finished with a career-high four walks but avoided them coming back to hurt him during four shutout innings. In a much-anticipated matchup against Shohei Ohtani, Imanaga bested the slugger by retiring him twice; Ohtani is 0-for-7 in his career versus Imanaga.
Walks rarely burned Imanaga last year. In 29 starts, the lefty recorded only two starts in which he walked more than two batters. Right-hander Ben Brown had moments where he also struggled with his command in relief of Imanaga. Brown walked three batters in 2 ⅔ innings while surrendering three runs (two earned) and striking out five.
Miguel Amaya’s two-out double to center field scored Dansby Swanson to put the Cubs ahead in the second. The Cubs didn’t muster much beyond that offensively, managing only one more hit the rest of the game.
The Dodgers retired 16 consecutive hitters after Ian Happ’s leadoff single in the third until Jon Berti was hit by a pitch with one out in the eighth. The Cubs managed just three hits and five base runners in the loss.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s fastball-splitter combination challenged Cubs hitters, who were frozen by the Dodgers pitcher’s four-seamer (nine called strikes) and couldn’t create contact versus the splitter (nine whiffs).
The Dodgers erased the Cubs’ advantage with a three-run fifth. A one-out walk followed by consecutive singles by Ohtani and Tommy Edman tied the game, and a throwing error by Berti as he attempted to turn a double play at second base brought home the go-ahead run. Will Smith’s two-out single to left field brought home an unearned run to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.
Brown worked around a fifth-inning jam to keep it a two-run game. A throwing error by third baseman Matt Shaw allowed Miguel Rojas to advance to second on his infield single, and Brown walked the next hitter, Andy Pages, on four pitches. He recovered, though, to end it on a strikeout of Ohtani, who whiffed at a curveball down and out of the zone.
The Cubs turn to left-hander Justin Steele to try to earn the Tokyo Series split in Wednesday’s finale.
