Major League Baseball will open on the 30th and Japan hours on the 31st, and the Angels' Shohei Ohtani is expected to play an active role in the two-way pitching style from the opening game.

Angels face Fujinami's Athletics in Oakland

The Angels' Ohtani will serve as the Opening Day pitcher for the second time last year, and will face the Athletics, who have joined pitcher Shintaro Fujinami this season, in their home base, Oakland.

Ohtani led Japan to victory by pitching in the WBC = World Baseball Classic, and even in the opening game, he had a good batting average of 4/5/5, finishing earlier than usual to enter his sixth season in the big leagues.

After the WBC, he said, "I threw with great intensity, so I still have some tension," and although he was worried about fatigue from the tournament, he will serve as the opening pitcher for the second consecutive year as scheduled and will also start as the designated hitter.

Athletics pitcher Fujinami is scheduled to make his big league debut by starting the second game of the season opener on April 6, Japan time, and it seems that a showdown with batter Ohtani of the same age will suddenly be realized in the United States.

Masanao Yoshida (Red Sox) will also start against the Orioles.

Red Sox player Masanao Yoshida, also in his first year in the big leagues, is expected to start the season opener against the Orioles in Boston, and Cora has hinted at starting at No. 1 and left field.

It will be interesting to see if he can demonstrate his competitive strength, which is a new tournament record in the WBC, with 4 RBIs, on the big league stage.

Senga (Mets) scheduled to start on April 4 Maeda Kikuchi also announced starting schedule

▼ Pitcher Kodai Senga, who joined the Mets on the same East Coast, will make his first big league start against the Marlins at the opposing home on April 4, Japan time.
▼ Twins pitcher Kenta Maeda, who is returning from a right elbow injury for the first time in two seasons, will start against the Marlins on April 3, Japan time.
▼ Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi was announced to start against the Royals on April 2, the same Japan time.

Meanwhile, Padres pitcher Yu Darvish, who put together the WBC's Japan roster, is scheduled to make his final pre-season training pitch at the camp site on March 4, Japan time, and his post-season starter schedule has not yet been decided.

From this season, the match card arrangement has been changed, and Japan players have more opportunities to play against each other.

This season, Major League Baseball will reduce the number of games between teams from the same district from 19 to 13 per year, and the number of interleague games against teams from different leagues will more than double from 20 to 2.

There will also be more matches between teams that Japan players belong to.

Ohtani of the Angels is scheduled to do the following.
▼Yoshida's Red Sox will play a four-game series in Boston starting April 46, and if Ohtani rotates for the first five days of the season, he is likely to face Yoshida in the April 4 game.
▼ The Yankees, whose Judge broke the American League home run record last season, will play three consecutive games in New York starting April 14.
▼ The Cardinals, who have former WBC Japan teammate Nootvar, are scheduled to play a three-game series in St. Louis starting May 4.
▼ The Cubs with Seiya Suzuki are scheduled to play three consecutive games at home from June 5.

High-profile matches continue from the beginning of the season.

Angels vs. Athletics will be broadcast on NHK General

NHK
will broadcast the Angels' season opener, in which Ohtani will start in a dual-wielding lineup, from 10:59 a.m.

▼ Yoshida's Red Sox season opener will be broadcast on BS3 from 1 a.m.

Otani's opening match will also be streamed simultaneously on NHK Plus.