It was Opening Day for the Chicago Cubs, but it wasn’t a traditional curtain-raiser.

Yes, the MLB Tokyo Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers means it’s historic, but the timing makes it unique — and Cubs fans saw that with the way manager Craig Counsell managed his starter, ace Shota Imanaga, on Tuesday.

The 31-year-old left-hander was pulled after four no-hit innings and 69 pitches against the Dodgers, with the Cubs clinging to a 1-0 lead. The calendar played as much of a role as the performance. It’s mid-March, and Imanaga — and, frankly, the rest of the pitchers in this series — just aren’t built up to pitch like they would in July or August.

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“Getting to 70 was about the pitch number,” Counsell told reporters at the Tokyo Dome after the game. “That was kind of the number we had for Shota, and as he finished that [fourth] inning, it was the right time to take him out.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Dodgers’ starter, threw 72 pitches, providing five innings of one-run, three-hit ball with four strikeouts. He, too, likely would have pitched deeper if this were a midsummer game.

The hoopla surrounding the MLB Tokyo Series made it a charged-up atmosphere, too. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said pregame that it felt “like a playoff environment,” and that raised the stakes for Imanaga more than a regular-season game later in the season.

“He also, I think you have to understand the energy that you use just in an environment like this,” Counsell said. “I think we saw that certainly from both guys.”

The depth of the Dodgers’ roster made Imanaga pitch strategically, too. He knew, going up against Yamamoto, that runs would be at a premium, so he tried to limit the damage the Dodgers would do, and that led to four walks — the most he has given up in an MLB start. That, too, racked up his pitch count.

“Today’s outing, one thing I am trying to focus on is to try not to give up any runs,” Imanaga told reporters through an interpreter after the game. “Although I [a lot] of pitches, but overall, I didn’t give up any runs, so that’s something I did good, I think.”

Now, Imanaga will continue his ramp up for the rest of the season, which should allow him to pitch deeper into games the rest of the way.