Caleb Wilfinger
After an eventful offseason that featured plenty of moves that shook up the sport, the MLB regular season is finally here. The action gets started on Tuesday overseas with the first of a 2-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, Japan. And while there are plenty of ways to wager on all of the action on the diamond this season, one of the quickest bets you can make is if a run will be scored in the first inning. There is still value to be had in this market, so it’s no wonder that these bets have become very popular over time. If you don’t like sweating out your wagers for 3 hours, this one will take only about 15 minutes.
The NRFI/YRFI market was profitable for our MLB handicapping team last season, so let’s keep that momentum going! But before we dive in, don’t forget to check out our MLB picks for all of today’s Tokyo Series matchup.
Start the new MLB season in style with our Dodgers vs Cubs Same Game Parlay picks at +481 odds!
Los Angeles Dodgers vs Chicago Cubs: YRFI (+105)
Odds available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to +100.
The big news surrounding the Tokyo Series is that Mookie Betts will be missing both games with an illness. This is obviously a massive loss for the Dodgers, 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 a Los Angeles lineup that has great hitters up and down the lineup. That’s where the challenge comes in for Cubs starter Shota Imanaga, who experienced great results in his first season by posting a 15-3 record with a 2.91 ERA in 2024. However, the southpaw’s glaring weakness is his propensity for allowing home runs (allowed 1 HR per 9 innings in 2024), which is not comforting against the likes of Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez and Will Smith at the top of the order.
FanGraphs indicates that the Tokyo Dome generally profiles as a hitter-friendly park, so I’d expect Los Angeles to start quickly, especially since the Dodgers have a bit of experience over the past week from their exhibition games in this ballpark. On the other side, Yoshinobu 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 eventually finding his form, much like we saw in his debut with Los Angeles in Seoul, South Korea a season ago.
Yamamoto was prone to starting off a bit slow in plenty of his starts in 2024, so even if the Dodgers end up going scoreless in the top half of the first, there’s a decent chance the Cubs tally an early run to cash this bet at plus-money odds.
Read our full Los Angeles Dodgers vs Chicago Cubs predictions
