Red Sox vs Athletics in Tokyo (3/25-3/26)

Game 1: The start of the 2008 season wasn't too promising for the Red Sox in the earlygoing of their first game. Daisuke Matsuzaka was struggling to locate his pitches in his native land and he gave up two first inning runs to put the Sox in an early hole. Matsuzaka's 2nd inning was pretty shaky as well, but fortunately he kept the A's off the scoreboard and settled down in the following innings. He ended up going 5 innings, allowing 2 hits, 2 runs, and 5 walks while striking out 6.

The Red Sox struggled to get to Joe Blanton as his first 5 innings were smooth sailing. The Red Sox finally jumped on him in the 6th inning for three runs and chased him from the game. The big blow in that inning came from Manny Ramirez who hit a 2-run double to put the Sox ahead.

In the following inning Kyle Snyder surrendered a 2-run homerun to the might Jack Hannahan. The decision to put Snyder into a game with a one-run lead was questionable to begin with and Snyder proved the doubters correct.

The outcome appeared bleak for the Sox as they failed to score as the game carried into the 9th inning. It was very disappointing as a Sox fan for their hitters to fail to tee off on the likes of Alan Embree and Keith Foulke.

Huston Street entered to pitch the 9th for the A's after the Red Sox got some solid bullpen work from Javier Lopez and Bryan Corey (who in my opinion deserves a spot in the bullpen). Street started off the inning by retiring Mike Lowell on a routine flyball to centerfield. Brandon Moss then came to the rescue for the Red Sox as he cranked his first career homerun to tie the game at four. The blast likely came as a shock to Sox fans who probably expected JD Drew to start in the opener. Drew was scratched due to a tight lower back.

The game would go into extra innings after the Red Sox got a solid contribution from Hideki Okajima to get them into extra innings. The performance opened up a 2-run 10th for the Red Sox in which they scored on another 2-RBI double from Ramirez after Ortiz was intentionally walked. Something tells me that this is going to be a huge year for Ramirez who is in a contract year and racked up 4 RBIs in the opener.

Jonathan Papelbon came in to pitch the bottom of the 10th and gave the Red Sox fans a nice scare. Papelbon was likely saved by a baserunning gaffe made by Emil Brown who attempted to take 3rd base on an RBI double. The ball was cutoff and the Red Sox got Brown in a run down. The following two Athletics hitters singled as Papelbon was apparently struggling. Red Sox fans feared for the worst before Papelbon finished off the A's by getting Kurt Suzuki to ground out to Kevin Youkilis.

The win gave the Red Sox a 1-0 record and put them in first place. Picking things up from where they left off apparently.

Game 2: The second game of the young season didn't go as smoothly for the Red Sox as their bats went cold against a healthy and brilliant Rich Harden. Harden pitched 6 innings, gave up a solo homerun to Manny Ramirez, and struck out nine Red Sox hitters.

Jon Lester struggled for the Sox as he only made it through 4 innings. He allowed 4 runs and walked 3. The big blow came from yesterday's goat, Emil Brown. Brown hit a 3-run bomb on a cutter right over the heart of the plate. The homerun gave the A's a 4-0 lead.

David Aardsma, Bryan Corey, and Manny Delcarmen pitched in relief for the Sox.

The loss drops the Red Sox to 1-1. They will now play three exhibition games on the west coast before continuing the regular season on April 1st in Oakland.