The Dominican Republic and Japan face off in the opening baseball game of the Olympics, late Tuesday night. This game will be taking place at Azuma Stadium in Fukushima. Both of these teams are in Group A.
The Dominican Republic was the last team to qualify for the Olympics and now have the tough job of facing off against Japan who many believe are the favorites. The star of this Dominican Republic team is Jose Bautista who hasn’t played in the MLB since 2018 but will still be leaned on heavily in this tournament. Melky Cabrera and Emilio Bonifacio are also players who are going to be leaned on heavily, and both are going to need to be good in this game if the Dominican Republic is going to want to pull off the upset. The one big issue for the Dominican Republic team is they really don’t have a whole lot of talent with the pitching, and they are going to need the big bats to carry them in this game.
The Japan team might not have Shohei Ohtani but they still have a lot of talent, by far the most of any Olympic team. Former New York Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka is going to be a key player for this team. Japan also will lean on Tetsuto Yamada who is one of the best bets in the Nippon Professional Baseball league. There is a good chance that Yamada could see himself in the MLB sooner rather than later. This is a loaded roster top to bottom, that has depth at every position.
The Dominican Republic bats are going to be cold going against Japan’s pitching staff, and this game is going to get out of hand early. Look for Japan to win this game on the run line, and if your book offers it, take Japan -2.5.