One down, 161 to go.
In the same way that the first game or two of spring training prompts the temptation to overanalyze, the first look at games that actually count can lead to feelings of optimism or doom for the rest of the season.
Game one of the Cubs‘ 2025 season was under atypical circumstances; they opened Tuesday morning in Tokyo against the Dodgers, nine days before the regular season starts domestically. But despite the unusual time of day and setting of the first game, there was a lot about the Cubs’ opener that felt familiar, at least in terms of what went wrong on the way to a 4-1 loss to the Dodgers. The offense struggled, the pitching staff issued too many walks, and when the defense made mistakes, Los Angeles capitalized.
That said, even in a loss, there’s good and bad, so let’s take a look at both:
Starting pitching
This wasn’t necessarily a “piggyback” start in the conventional sense, but I think it’s noteworthy that Ben Brown was called upon to pitch 2 2/3 innings when Shota Imanaga was pulled after just four frames. It could be argued that Imanaga had another inning in him — he had thrown just under 70 pitches — but I understand the thinking. In game one, pushing your starter’s pitch count up much higher than that isn’t worth it in the long run. And having Brown start the fifth inning made sense in the moment because the first two batters he faced were the Dodgers’ eight and nine hitters.
Of course, that didn’t quite go according to plan. Brown struck out Miguel Rojas but then made the costly mistake of walking Andy Pages ahead of Shohei Ohtani. That set up Ohtani’s single that moved Pages to third, who eventually scored to tie the game. A Jon Berti throwing error and a Will Smith RBI single gave the Dodgers two more runs before Brown could get out of the inning.
On the whole, Imanaga looked pretty good. He struck out two and didn’t give up a hit, but he flirted with trouble by walking four. The Dodgers were putting up lengthy at bats throughout the game; they also got three from Brown and their eighth free pass of the game from Ryan Brasier in the ninth inning. As for Brown, I was mostly happy with his outing. It wasn’t great either — he put way too many runners on base — but I liked seeing how sharp his curveball looked at times, and it’s always good to see five strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings.
Brown will inevitably factor into the rotation at some point this season, so early on he will probably pitch some long relief like he did Tuesday. Coming off of an injury-shortened 2024 campaign, the Cubs will likely be taking it slow with him at first.
On a quick positive note, Eli Morgan looked great, tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings and notching a crucial strikeout against Pages in the eighth to keep Ohtani from coming to the plate.
Three hits?
The only uglier thing on the box score than eight walks and two defensive errors might have been the three measly hits.
This was the part of Tuesday’s game that might have felt most hair-pullingly familiar. The Cubs had a 17th-ranked offense in batting average last season, and though they ranked 12th in runs scored in 2024, the collective quiet of the bats on Tuesday mirrors a problem that has plagued them for the past two years. When they’re hot, they can put up double digits in a game with ease, but for as often as that happens, the offense can slump as a group for long stretches.
That was the trouble on Tuesday. Not much more can be asked of leadoff man Ian Happ; he reached twice with a single and a walk, but after Miguel Amaya‘s second inning double, the bats went quiet to the tune of 16 straight outs and if not for Berti stealing second base in the eighth inning, they weren’t getting runners in scoring position in the high leverage innings.
In an effort to address this problem, the Cubs traded for outfielder Kyle Tucker in December, which leads to the final takeaway:
What’s eating Kyle Tucker?
Tucker went 0-for-4 on Tuesday, and he has just one hit — a home run — in spring training, which has understandably led to some trepidation among Cubs fans. Tucker’s struggles to find it on offense in Arizona this spring aren’t necessarily a sign that he will have a bad year at the plate, but it would be encouraging to see him start stringing hits together.
At the same time, it’s worth remembering that there is a lot that might be factoring into Tucker’s slow start. On Monday’s Cubs podcast, Ben Zobrist spoke to the mental challenges of moving from one organization to another and what spring training means to every player:
It may take some time for Tucker to settle in and get comfortable, which might mean seeing results will take a while longer. For what it’s worth, Tucker made some decent contact on Tuesday. He grounded out against Yoshinobu Yamamoto twice, but flew out to left against Anthony Banda in the sixth and then roped a liner with an almost 96 mile per hour exit velocity off of Tanner Scott in the ninth that missed being an extra base hit by an inch or so. More of that and Tucker will be back on track by the time the Cubs are playing stateside again.
