Since 1901, no Dodgers starting pitcher has accumulated more Opening Day wins than Don Drysdale and his five. The Hall of Fame right-hander owed some of that success to the Cubs, whom he bested in both 1960 and 1963. Drysdale went the distance in both of the victories, with the more thunderous of the two coming in the first year of the decade. On April 12 that year, he surrendered a couple of early runs but was rescued by a two-run double from Wally Moon in the fifth. From there, Drysdale upshifted into full stingy mode, striking out nine while keeping Chicago off the board frame after frame. When Chuck Essegian pinch-hit for the workhorse in the bottom of the 11th, an electric ending to the most electric of days came to a conclusion: walk-off homer, a win for Drysdale as part of a 14-strikeout effort. Across all these decades, Drysdale had held another claim – he was the only Dodgers starter to record an Opening Day win against the Cubs. Now he has company.
In the first-ever Opening Day matchup between a pair of Japanese-born starting pitchers, Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto got the best of (at least in terms of wins and losses) Cubs southpaw Shota Imanaga. With Los Angeles’ 4-1 victory, Yamamoto became the 34th different Dodgers starter in the modern era to pocket a win on Opening Day and the third Japanese-born hurler with the franchise to make the claim, after Hideo Nomo in 2003 and Hiroki Kuroda in 2009. Aside from this trio, Masahiro Tanaka (for the Yankees in 2019) is the only other starting pitcher born in Japan to record an Opening Day win (Nomo also did this while taking the mound for the Tigers in 2000).
Imanaga completed his day with four innings of no-hit, no-run ball. The effort made him the sixth Opening Day starter since 1901 to end his outing with zeroes in both the hits and runs columns. In 1940, Cleveland’s Bob Feller went the distance for the only Opening Day no-no, while the rest came up short in that regard:
1990: Nolan Ryan throws five innings and gets the win in a 4-2 Texas victory
1995: Kevin Appier throws 6.2 innings and picks up the win in a Royals 5-1 victory
2016: Chris Tillman throws two innings for a no-decision in his Orioles 3-2 win
2022: Yu Darvish throws six innings with a no-decision as his Padres lose, 4-2
Imanaga now owns a 2.84 ERA in 177.1 innings over 30 career starts. For all lefties in the liveball era with a minimum of 150.0 IP through their first 30 career games, that ERA stands as the 15th lowest, sandwiched between the 2.83 from Joe Hatten and Marcelino López and the 2.86 from Gene Bearden.
Dodgers catcher Will Smith contributed a run-scoring single and three walks to the win, establishing himself as the 39th Dodger since 1901 to reach safely at least four times on Opening Day. Two other catchers precede Smith: Steve Yeager (reached safely four times) in 1978 and Paul Lo Duca (4) in 2004. Among all backstops since 1901, Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman holds the Opening Day belt, having reached safely six times (five hits and a walk) in 2023. Joe Girardi assembled three different Opening Days with at least four times on base, more than anyone else in the modern era saddled by the tools of ignorance.
Dodgers leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani singled, doubled and scored two runs to bring his career OPS to .508 in seven Opening Day contests. The three-time MVP’s meager number is quite a distance from the top performers in Game #1s:
Since 1901, Highest Career OPS in Opening Day Games, min. 50 PA
1.542 Richie Hebner in 12 games
1.366 Babe Ruth in 18 games
1.366 Ted Williams in 14 games
1.355 Gabby Hartnett in 14 games
1.348 Danny Tartabull in 12 games
On the plus side, Ohtani’s line made him the eighth Dodgers leadoff hitter since 1901 to post a multi-hit, multi-run outing in the club’s first game of the year. The lineage starts with Johnny Frederick in 1929 and then continues with Pee Wee Reese (1942), Maury Wills (1966), Brett Butler (1991), Dave Roberts (2002), Rafael Furcal (2006) and Joc Pederson (2019). For all leadoff hitters since 1901, Shannon Stewart produced the most such games, with four.
Making his seventh Opening Day start for the Cubs, left fielder Ian Happ produced one of the team’s three hits and also drew a walk. Happ is the 33rd Cub since 1901 to have at least seven Opening Day starts, with Ernie Banks (17), Billy Williams (14), Ryne Sandberg (14), Ron Santo (13) and Sammy Sosa (13) serving as the top five.
Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.
Roger Schlueter
As Sr. Editorial Director for Major League Baseball Productions from 2004-2015, Roger served as a hub for hundreds of hours of films, series, documentaries and features: as researcher, fact-checker, script doctor, and developer of ideas. The years at MLB Production gave him the ideal platform to pursue what galvanized him the most – the idea that so much of what takes place on the field during the MLB regular and postseason (and is forever beautifully condensed into a box score) has connections to what has come before. Unearthing and celebrating these webs allows baseball to thrive, for the present can come alive and also reignite the past.