Sunday, March 23

Welcome back to the Cubs Beat newsletter. Jordan Bastian has covered baseball for MLB.com since 2005, including the Cubs since the 2019 season.

TOKYO -- The Cubs did not leave Tokyo with their first win of the season, but the team did return home having just gone through an incredible week in Japan. The Tokyo Series against the Dodgers was a massive event with a global audience and Chicago believes it will be better for all that took place over the past week.

“Look, we had a great experience,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “The games didn’t go the way we wanted to, but I think we had an experience of a lifetime.”

Here are five of the most memorable moments from the trip to Japan:

1. Shota vs. Shohei

The audience inside the Tokyo Dome went quiet with anticipation as Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga prepared to fire the first pitch of the ‘25 season to Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani. The crowd reacted to every moment with audible awe, understanding the moment at hand and treating it with the respect it warranted.

And in the heavyweight matchup on Opening Day, Imanaga emerged victorious in his two rounds with Ohtani. He induced a groundout in that first meeting and then Ohtani lined out in their next battle in the third. Imanaga walked off the mound having logged four no-hit innings in his season debut in Chicago’s 4-1 loss.

“When all is said and done,” Imanaga said via his interpreter, Edwin Stanberry, “when I’m done with my career, when I take off my jersey, I think I really want to think about this moment. So I want to do well, so that memory can be a good one.”

2. Cubs begin building bond

Away from the stadium, this trip was a chance for the Cubs to start the process of building their team chemistry for the long season ahead. It began with Imanaga and Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki playing host for a team dinner that showed off Japanese culture and featured a feast that included having players help slice open a giant tuna.

Counsell cited the Japanese word, “kizuna,” meaning a bond between people. The journey overseas offered an opportunity to really bond away from the field for the players, staff and the family members. That is an important piece of the equation for any ballclub hoping to play deep into October.

“I feel like it kind of fast-forwards or microwaves that process for the team,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “We get a solid week here with events and breakfast together, lunch together. I think all that speeds up that process. … Hopefully as we get going, that creates some cohesiveness with this unit.”

3. PCA’s international fans

The chants could be heard faintly in the Cubs exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers on Saturday. They grew in volume the next night, when Chicago faced the Yomiuri Giants. Throughout the Tokyo Series against the Dodgers, they were present again and even louder. A contingent of fans in Tokyo were belting out, “P-C-A!” and it was something the young center fielder will never forget.

“The coolest,” Pete Crow-Armstrong said. “Coming across the world to hear that was arguably the most special thing that’s happened to me in baseball to this point. It’s a real love for baseball that they have out here. I wasn’t coming in here expecting that and that was the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of.”

4. Shaw’s MLB debut

Matt Shaw soared up the Cubs’ farm system since the 2023 Draft and entered this season as MLB Pipeline’s top Cubs prospect and No. 19 overall. The young third baseman is poised to shed his “prospect” status soon enough, as he is now officially a Major Leaguer for the North Siders.

Shaw made his MLB debut on Opening Day, hitting fifth and manning third. And once he got that initial taste of the big leagues under his belt, he collected his first hit (an infield single) and made a stellar diving play in Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to Los Angeles.

5. Dansby’s defense

Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson delivered the team’s first hit of ‘25 (a second-inning single on Opening Day) and came through with an RBI double in Game 2, but it was a play in the exhibition round that stole the show. In the first inning against the Yomiuri Giants, Swanson ranged to his left, made an acrobatic diving stop on a sharp grounder and fired in time to first for the out. The video game-like replay on the broadcast from the Tokyo Dome made it look especially slick.

Cubs lefty Justin Steele’s four-inning season debut in Wednesday’s loss to the Dodgers checked off another country on his career list. The start in Japan came after Steele also pitched at London Stadium in the Cubs’ trip to England to face the Cardinals in 2023. He has also, of course, logged outings in the United States and Canada as a big leaguer.

“It’s awesome. It’s something a lot of people can’t really say they’ve done,” Steele said. “I don’t know how many countries I’ve pitched in now, but it’s got to be getting up there. It’s something I don’t take lightly. It’s something that means a lot to me. I don’t take any of these moments for granted. I’ve played baseball my whole life, and to be able to play it on a stage like this really means the world to me.” 

• Top moments from Opening Day at the Tokyo Dome. Read more >>

• Top moments from Game 2 of the Tokyo Series. Read more >>

• On a historic moment for Imanaga, Yoshinobu Yamamamoto. Read more >>

• Derrek Lee, Kosuke Fukudome met with kids at a Tokyo school. Read more >>

• MLB.com’s Michael Clair sat down with legend Sadaharu Oh. Read more >>

“He’s a uniquely confident person. It’s not right in your face, but I think he believes in himself as a player. I think he does things a little bit unconventionally, and maybe that’s why he’s very confident. People have probably been telling him to change throughout his life, and he’s like, ‘No, I’m pretty good at this. I’m going to keep doing it.’ Give him credit for having that conviction. I do think he has a lot of confidence in himself. In the way he plays, I think it shows.” -- Hoyer, on Shaw

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