Major League Baseball, in conjunction with the 30 Clubs, announced today the pitching matchups for Opening Day on Thursday, March 27th as well as the final season-opener on Friday, March 28th.
Earlier today, Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers squared off in the opening game of the 2025 Tokyo Series presented by Guggenheim at the Tokyo Dome. It marked the first-ever Opening Day game started by a pair of Japanese-born players. With Yusei Kikuchi scheduled to take the mound on Opening Day for the Angels, 2025 will mark the first season to feature at least three Japanese-born starting pitchers on Opening Day. Previously, multiple Japanese-born pitchers started on Opening Day in 2017 (Masahiro Tanaka, NYY and Yu Darvish, TEX); 2021 (Kenta Maeda, MIN and Darvish, SD); and 2022 (Shohei Ohtani, LAA and Darvish, SD). Overall, Imanaga, Yamamoto and Kikuchi will become the eighth, ninth and 10th Japanese-born starting pitchers to take the mound on Opening Day (19 overall starts, including 2025), joining Hideo Nomo (2000, 2003-04); Daisuke Matsuzaka (2008); Hiroki Kuroda (2009); Tanaka (2015-17, 2019); Darvish (2017, 2021-22, 2024); Maeda (2021); and Ohtani (2022-23).
Reigning National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes will take the mound on Opening Day for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot park in Miami. At 22 years and 302 days old, Skenes will become the youngest pitcher in the Majors to start on Opening Day since José Fernández of the Marlins in 2014 at 21 years and 243 days old. Coincidentally, Skenes will also become the first reigning Rookie of the Year winner to make an Opening Day start on the mound since Fernández followed up his award-winning 2013 season with the season-opening start in 2014. Skenes, who was the top overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, will become the fastest number one overall Draft selection to make an Opening Day start. The previous quickest to do so were Mike Moore (top overall pick in 1981 and Opening Day starter in 1984) and Stephen Strasburg (top overall pick in 2009 and Opening Day starter in 2012).
Overall, Opening Day starters include 22 All-Star pitchers and four starting pitchers – Garrett Crochet, Clay Holmes, Kikuchi and Luis Severino – who will take the mound in debut performances with their new clubs.
The 2025 Opening Day pitching matchups across the Majors feature:
GAME | PITCHING MATCHUP | TIME |
NYY vs. MIL | Carlos Rodón vs. Freddy Peralta | 3:05 p.m. (ET) |
TOR vs. BAL | José Berríos vs. Zach Eflin | 3:07 p.m. (ET) |
TEX vs. BOS | Nathan Eovaldi vs. Garrett Crochet | 4:05 p.m. (ET)/3:05 p.m. (CT) |
WSH vs. PHI | MacKenzie Gore vs. Zack Wheeler | 4:05 p.m. (ET) |
KC vs. CLE | Cole Ragans vs. TBD | 4:10 p.m. (ET)/3:10 p.m. (CT) |
HOU vs. NYM | Framber Valdez vs. Clay Holmes | 4:10 p.m. (ET)/3:10 p.m. (CT) |
CIN vs. SF | Hunter Greene vs. Logan Webb | 4:10 p.m. (ET) |
SD vs. ATL | Michael King vs. Chris Sale | 4:10 p.m. (ET)/1:10 p.m. (PT) |
CWS vs. LAA | Sean Burke vs. Yusei Kikuchi | 4:10 p.m. (ET)/3:10 p.m. (CT) |
MIA vs. PIT | Sandy Alcantara vs. Paul Skenes | 4:10 p.m. (ET) |
STL vs. MIN | Sonny Gray vs. Pablo López | 4:15 p.m. (ET)/3:15 p.m. (CT) |
LAD vs. DET | TBD vs. Tarik Skubal | 7:10 p.m. (ET)/4:10 p.m. (PT) |
AZ vs. CHI | TBD vs. TBD | 10:10 p.m. (ET)/7:10 p.m. (PT) |
SEA vs. ATH | Logan Gilbert vs. Luis Severino | 10:10 p.m. (ET)/7:10 p.m. (PT) |
TB vs. COL | Shane McClanahan vs. Kyle Freeland | 4:10 p.m. (ET) on 3/28 |
Under the theme “Baseball Eve,” MLB Network will air a bevy of studio shows on Wednesday, March 26th, the day before Opening Day. MLB Central, MLB Now presented by Blue Buffalo, Intentional Talk and MLB Tonight will blanket the coverage, followed by a special MLB Tonight predictions special at 7 p.m. ET. To set the scene for the season and as announced last week, preview episodes of both MLB Network Podcast presented by New Balance and Off Base Podcast will debut on “Baseball Eve” at 1:00 and 1:30 p.m. ET. Opening Day will also feature MLB Network’s first regular season game of 2025, featuring the Chicago Cubs at Arizona Diamondbacks at 10:00 p.m. ET. MLB Tonight and for the first time on Opening Day, Big Inning, will lead up to the Cubs and Diamondbacks. The first MLB Network Showcase game of 2025 will feature the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers hosting the Atlanta Braves at 8:30 p.m. (ET)/5:30 p.m. (PT) on Wednesday, April 2nd.
