Los Angeles has Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. He went 7-2, with a 3.00 ERA in 2024. Chicago will go with Shota Imanaga on the mound. He went 15-3, with a 2.91 ERA last season. The Dodgers had a 3.90 team ERA last season, and then added two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki to the rotation. Offensively last season, the Dodgers were fourth with a .258 team batting average, third with 233 home runs and second with 842 runs scored. The Dodgers will be without Mookie Betts. Closer Brusdar Graterol is expected to miss the first half of the season The pitching staff posted a 3.78 team ERA last season. The Cubs pen blew 33 saves last season including seven ninth-run leads. Ryan Pressley will take over the closers role. Codyy Bellinger was replaced with Kyle Tucker. Nico Hoerner did not make the trip to Japan. These two met for six games during the 2024 season, with Chicago going 4-2 SU. Imanaga faced the Dodgers twice, going 1-0 with 11 innings. He gave up three earned runs and six hits, but did not give up a walk while striking out seven. Yamamoto, faced Chicago twice, with one win while striking out 16 over nine innings.

The over was 5-1 when these two met in the regular season last year. Yamamoto and Imanaga allowed four runs, only three of them earned, and struck out 24 batters in 20 innings. Imanaga, held Ohtani hitless and won’t have to face Betts. The batters on both sides have not had a complete Spring Training of work yet. I am expecting the hitter to be ahead of the batters in this one.

Play on the UNDER. This is a 4% play