Los Angeles Dodgers vs Chicago Cubs Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 03/18/25

After a long and eventful offseason, it’s finally time for baseball once again. And just like a year ago, the 2025 MLB season will get underway in Asia, this time with the opening 2 games taking place in Tokyo between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs. It’s fitting that this game is taking place in Tokyo given the big name players from both teams that hail from Japan, especially a Dodgers team that has signed the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki over the last 18 months. As for Chicago, the Cubs will bring a bit of hometown flavor to the game in their own right with Seiya Suzuki in the outfield and Shota Imanaga getting the start on the mound in this game. Following their World Series title a season ago and a dominant offseason that featured multiple massive free agent acquisitions, the Dodgers are the rightful favorite to repeat as world champions. However, instead of targeting a side in this contest, I’ll be looking at the total in the 2025 season opener.

The first thing that’s important to note about these games is that Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts has come down ill and will miss both games. It goes without saying that Betts’ loss will seriously impact their lineup, although if there was any team across baseball that could afford to lose one of its superstars for a couple of games, it would be the Dodgers. Los Angeles is a machine and the Dodgers have players that can produce in big spots up and down the lineup, which is part of what will make them so hard to beat this season. That’s where the challenge comes in for Imanaga, who made the move stateside following an eight-year career in Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, and experienced great results in his first season to the tune of a 15-3 record with a 2.91 ERA. However, the left-hander’s only weakness is his propensity for allowing home runs (1 HR per 9 innings), which is not comforting against the likes of Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith and the rest of this lineup. FranGraphs generally plays as a hitter-friendly park, so I expect Los Angeles to scratch across at least 4 or 5 runs against Imanaga and the Cubs bullpen. On the other side, Yamamoto will get the start in his home country for the Dodgers, and while his spring training outings have been very encouraging, it wouldn’t surprise me if he got out to a slow start in the first couple of innings before finding his form, much like we saw in plenty of his starts a season ago. All things considered, I’m a bit more bullish on both offenses in this game compared to the market, so I’ll back the over at the current number.

Dodgers vs Cubs prediction: Over 7.5 (-115) available at time of publishing. Playable t0 8 (+100).

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