Shohei Ohtani, Japan's other baseball stars shook their nerves and delivered in MLB's Tokyo opener

TOKYO (AP) — Yoshinobu Yamamoto had a little extra zip on his fastball. Shohei Ohtani even admitted to some nerves.

There was little doubt this was no ordinary baseball game.

But the Japanese players who were playing in front of their home country at the Tokyo Dome on Tuesday night handled any jitters they had quite well, delivering in clutch moments as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 4-1 in Major League Baseball’s season opener.

“I was actually pretty nervous,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “It’s been a while since I was nervous, but today, definitely felt it.”

Ohtani finished with two hits in the Dodgers’ win, including a single in the fifth and a double in the ninth. Both hard-hit balls brought roars from the roughly 42,000 fans at a packed Tokyo Dome and were instrumenta...
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