Two of baseball's Japanese superstars are heading home.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, the series will pit Dodgers designated hitter and pitcher Shohei Ohtani against Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga. Ohtani is from Ōshū, Japan while Imanaga is from Kitakyushu in the southern part of the country.
Together, the current and future MLB superstars helped Japan beat the United States in a final for the ages to win the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Ohtani, the two-time MVP of the American League, is slashing .316/.400/.635 in 2024 with 29 home runs and 69 RBIs. Imanaga, a rookie, is 8–2 with a 2.97 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 97 innings pitched.
This will mark the sixth occasion on which MLB has played games in Tokyo; baseball most recently did so in 2019, where thePatrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game.
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