The Dodgers open their Cactus League schedule this weekend with a pair of road games — Saturday against the Angels in Tempe, and Sunday vs. the Padres in Peoria. Shohei Ohtani will be in the lineup for each of the first two games, manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Wednesday at Camelback Ranch. Additionally, Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start either Saturday or Sunday.
It’s the earliest Ohtani will have played in a spring training game in his now three years with Los Angeles. In 2024, when he was coming off a second Tommy John surgery the previous September, Ohtani’s first spring game for the Dodgers was February 27, five days after their Cactus League opener. Last season, coming off left shoulder surgery in the previous November, Ohtani didn’t play in a spring game until February 28, eight days after the Dodgers’ opener.
Ohtani homered in each of those first two spring games.
Whether Yamamoto starts Saturday or Sunday, it will likely be his only Cactus League appearance before leaving to join Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic, with training camp beginning in Tokyo next Friday, February 27.
Either way, counting his time away pitching for Japan, there is time this spring for at least five starts for Yamamoto to build up toward the regular season. Count that as a benefit to opening the season the same time as everyone else, rather than beginning more than a week early on a different continent.
Both Dodgers games this weekend will start at 12:10 p.m. PT, and both will be televised by SportsNet LA, simulcast on AM 570, and broadcast in Spanish on KTNQ 1020 AM.