Opening Day, take 2.

Red Sox (1-1) vs. Oakland (1-1)
(resumption of 4 game series from Japan)
Game 3 Tue 10:00EST: Matsuzaka (0-0, 3.60) vs. Blanton (0-0, 4.76)
Game 4 Wed 3:35EST: Lester (0-1, 9.00) vs. Harden (1-0, 1.50)

Raise your hand if you've ever seen a series in which all four starting pitchers pitched two games apiece in cities 5,000 miles apart?

Anyone...anyone...Bueller?

Didn't think so.

The maddening mystery tour that is the start of the 2008 season for the World Champs continues tonight when the Sox resume their 4-game set with the A's, this time in glorious Oakland, which last time I visited the Bay Area was a far cry from the site of the first two games of this series, Tokyo.

And luckily for us on the East Coast, instead of waking up before dawn to catch our Sox we have to stay up past 1:00am to see the entire first game of the regular season to take place in America. Yipee!

Wait, aren't the champs supposed to have the scheduling advantages the following season? What is Bad Hair Bud taking his scheduling cues from the NFL?

All lamenting aside it's just nice to see the Sox playing actual games that count in the United States. And it will also be nice to get away from the media circuses that have plagued this club since they set down in Tokyo a week and a half ago. Between that surreal scene over there and the farce exhibition game against the Dodgers last Saturday that drew 155,000 spectators, it will be a welcome change to play in the cavernous yet quaint (attendance-wise) Oakland Mausoleum.

Dice-K will get a chance to redeem himself far away from the fanfare befitting a movie star he received in his homeland, and hopefully being away from all those distractions will help him focus on the task at hand this year: pitching consistently and becoming the dominant pitcher everyone has been waiting for.

He's shown flashes of brilliance since coming to the Sox last season, but the up and down aspects of his starts have started to look more like a pattern than an aberration. perhaps pitching in front of 22,000 fans who couldn't care less about him will help improve his game.

It's almost time for Opening Day number 2, and we should be in for a late night.

Let's hope we at least go to bed happy.

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As, Harden send Sox packing with series split

Oakland 5, Boston 1
WP: Harden (1-0)
LP: Lester (0-1)
SV: None
HRs:Bos: Ramirez (1); Oak: Brown (1)

Paris & LA got nothing on this City of Lights

Superstar: Rich Harden 6IP, 3H, ER, 3BB, HR, 9K
The oft-injured Oakland righty tossed a brilliant game in his first start since last July 7th. Despite falling behind in the count to 8 of Boston's first 11 batters, Harden minimized the deficits by tossing strikes on the next pitch every time, and when he did get in trouble he recorded a big out to escape a jam.

The Biggest Loser: David Ortiz 0-3, BB, K, 3 LOB
This title could've gone to starter Jon Lester, who was anything but solid, but for the second straight game Big Papi had opportunities to drive in key runs and couldn't get the job done; his foul out with 2 on & 2 out in the third was an early momentum killer.

RECAP:
Now that the trip to the Far East is over, the one thing I learned is that it's a lot more rewarding waking up at 5:45 in the morning to watch your team play when they end up with a win.

But when you get up before the crack of dawn for the second straight day and witness another lackluster pitching performance that is not backed up by clutch offensive fireworks, the end result is a long, lumbering day marked by moments of sleepiness interspersed with baseball-related cursing like "why the fuck did I get up that early to watch that friggin turd of a game?!"

Game 2 of the first series of the regular season started much like the first one, with Boston falling behind early thanks to some heroics by Oakland's merry band of nobodies and has-beens, but instead of the better team rallying for a late victory, this time the As held the lead on the strength of a huge pitching performance from onetime phenom Rich Harden.

The pomp and pageantry that marked the opener that was mainly due to the return of Daisuke Matsuzaka was considerably muted this morning in Japan, and with jets waiting on the tarmac to take the teams stateside as soon as the game was over, you got a sense that everybody was already in getaway day mode.

That includes this audience member.

Whereas yesterday I was somewhat bright-eyed despite the ungodly early start, today I may have woken up at quarter til six, but after flopping down on the couch and toning down the surround sound I didn't actually open my eyes until about an hour later.

By that time Oakland had already grabbed an early 1-0 lead on an RBI single by someone named Chris Denorfia, and Jon Lester (4IP, 5H, 4ER, 3BB, 4K, HR) was clinging to the hope that he could be like Dice and keep the score close until his offense could bail him out.

No such luck, sushi breath.

After Boston failed to score in the top of the 3rd when Big Papi fouled out to third on a nice play by Jack Hannahan with two men on base, Oakland seized control of the contest in the bottom of the inning thanks to a redeeming hit by last night's goat, Emil Brown.

Brown went from hero to zero in the opener when his one out, 10th inning RBI double off Jonathan Papelbon sliced the Sox lead to 6-5 in the bottom of the extra frame, but he squashed any hopes of a comeback when he was inexplicably nailed off second even though he represented the tying run.

The gaffe hurt even more as the next two batter laced base hits off Paps, virtually ensuring that Brown would indeed have scored to tie the game and making him the butt of Little League-esque jokes from Kyoto to Quincy.

But Brown would get the last laugh today when he came up with two on and one out in the bottom of the third. No sooner did Gary Thorne, a walking, talking gaffe machine himself, declare that this was Brown's opportunity to redeem himself did the former Royals prospect do just that, ripping a 1-0 meatball from Lester deep into the left field stands for an emphatic 3-run homer, a shot that erased the bad memories of the game prior for him and guaranteed a plane ride full of new ones for the boys from Beantown.

Staked to a 4-0 lead Harden wasn't about to fold like a house of cards as his teammate Joe Blanton did the day before. Harden, who never pitched again after that July 7th start last year, culminating what has been 3 injury-riddled seasons as Oakland's future ace, only got better after being handed the big lead. He allowed just three baserunners over the next three innings, one erased on a double play, and the only run he surrendered came on a Manny solo shot in the 6th that merely served as a shutout breaker and got the mercurial rightfielder to within 9 homers of the magical 500 plateau.

The only thing that followed was adding a bit of salt to the wound as former Sox relievers Burger Keith Foulke and Alan Embree slammed the door shut on any comeback hopes with a pair of scoreless innings in the 8th and 9th, and no sooner did Jason Varitek make the final out did the team start heading for the buses for the long return trip back to this country.

A trip that is guaranteed to be even longer thanks to that depressing loss.

NOTES:
-No red bats, no problem: Ramirez finished the trip 3-9 with 2 doubles and 5 RBI but fanned 4 times, 3 today including looking at three straight strikes from Foulke to end the 8th. This after he was forced to buy new bats in Japan because league officials wouldn't allow him to use his special Red Sox red models.

-What have you done for me lately?: Following his 0-3, 3K performance today, Game 1 hero Brandon Moss learned about the harsh realities of life in MLB when he was given the news that he would be heading to Pawtucket, not to LA with the rest of the club, upon his return to the States. Something tells me he won't be there long, and that something is J.D. Drew's brittle body

-Coco's back: Crisp made his debut in CF today after sitting out the opener in favor of phenom Jacoby Ellsbury. He went 1-3 with a double in what was probably the beginning of an early season audition for any teams that may need a center fielder when they break camp

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Manny, Moss power Sox to Opening Day victory

Boston 6, Oakland 5 (10 inns)
WP: Okajima (1-0)
LP: Street (0-1)
SV: Papelbon (1)
HRs: Bos- Moss (1); Oak: Ellis (1), Hannahan (1)

Superstar(s) of the Game: Manny & Moss 4-9, 2R, 2 2Bs, HR, 6BI
Ramirez knocked in 4 of the 6 Sox runs with a pair of two-run doubles, including the game winners in the 10th, and Brandon Moss, a late fill in for J.D. Drew, knocked in the other two with an RBI single in the 6th and the game-tying solo shot in the 9th, his 1st career home run.

The Biggest Loser: Huston Street 1.2IP, 3H 3ER, BB, 2K, HR, BS, L
The stellar young As closer blew the save when he allowed Moss' shot in the 9th, then got torched for 2 more runs on 2 hits and a walk in the 10th to take the loss. No sushi for you!

RECAP:
At times it wasn't pretty.

Other times it was downright terrific.

All of the time it was damn early.

But either way you look at it the end result was Boston stole a victory in the Land of the Rising Sun in a game that began just after sunrise on the East Coast, squeaking out an extra-inning win over a bunch of relatively unknown baby As after a shaky performance by starter Daisuke Matsuzaka and reliever Kyle Snyder.

Matsuzaka (5IP, 2H, 2ER, 5BB, 6K, HR, HBP), making his first start in his homeland since defecting to Boston prior to last season, pitched 5 innings of topsy-turvy ball, allowing 2 runs on 60 pitches through the first two innings before settling down and holding the As at bay, allowing his teammates a chance to climb back in it with their potent offense.

Except that offense was being stymied by the bend-but-don't-break attack of Joe Blanton (5.2IP, 7H, 3ER, BB, 3K), who despite getting into mini-jams in each of the first 3 innings inning held the Sox scoreless through the first five of this early bird special.

The game began with Dustin Pedroia ripping a single up the middle at just after 6:10 EST this morning (7:00PM tonight Japan time) and ended when Jonathan Papelbon got Kurt Suzuki to ground out to Youk just before 10:00 Eastern, and in between the game featured a little bit of everything, including helmeted waitresses in the stands, geisha girls dancing on the field before the game, Hub-centric tunes like "Shipping off to Boston" and "Sweet Caroline" playing on the LOUDspeakers, and raucous ovations for Boston's two Japanese imports, Dice-K and Hideki Okajima.

Too bad once the game actually got started the hospitality and goodwill Boston had been receiving throughout the entire trip came to a sudden and screeching halt.

First came the news that J.D. Drew, who had homered in each of the two prior exhibition games vs. Japanese League teams over here, was a game-time scratch due to a back spasm of some sort, forcing the green Moss (sorry) into the starting lineup just 3 minutes prior to game time.

Pedroia then promptly sparked what appeared to be an early rally for the away team with his solid single to center and after Youk's fielder's choice got him into scoring position it was up to the big boys to get the early run in. Except Papi (0-4,BB, R) popped out to third on the first pitch he saw and Ramirez fouled out to right 4 pitches later, and suddenly it was time for Matsuzaka to make his Tokyo Dome re-debut.

Unfortunately what followed was a lesson of how not to pitch when you are being welcomed back to the place your career began as Dice-K looked like a Little Leaguer on the hill for the biggest game of his life. Matsuzaka got Travis Buck to ground out on the first pitch he threw, then proceeded to serve up a gopher ball to Mark Ellis two pitches later to give Oakland an early (literally) 1-0 lead.

It didn't get much better from there as Dice walked unknown Daric Barton, hit Jack w/ a 'K' Cust on the foot on a 2-2 count, then after wild pitching the runners over, loaded the bases on another free pass to the feeble Emil Brown. Only a slow roller to the mound by plummeting Bobby Crosby that plated one and a strikeout (on a 3-2 count) to Jack Hannahan, who was replacing the injured Eric Chavez, prevented the A's from blowing the game open before the first Sapporo of the evening was downed.

The 2nd inning brought more of the same as Boston wasted a leadoff single by Mike Lowell only to see Matsuzaka get himself in another predicament thanks to his inability to throw a breaking ball for a strike, resulting in a bases-loaded situation courtesy of two walks and a single by Suzuki in the bottom of the frame.

This time only a strikeout of Kust prevented an As uprising as Matsuzaka escaped the inning unscathed to keep the deficit at 2-0, but by this time it looked as though Dice would be gone from the game before the last wisps of darkness faded from the morning sky here in the States.

Things settled won from there, with the teams trading 1-2-3 innings for a bit until the Sox finally broke through against Blanton in the top of the 6th.

Pedroia (2-4) began the uprising with a ringing double off the wall in right center that was misplayed by Buck, and after Youk drew a 4-pitch walk, Papi had another chance to do some damage and slice into the As lead. But he fouled out to third.

Luckily Manny brought his hitting shoes in the first game of his contract year -is it any wonder why he's so focused & prepared this early in the season?- as he laced the first pitch he saw from Blanton down the third base line and deep into the corner for a 2-run double that tied the score and brought the fans from both nations (of course RSN was well represented for this ultimate roadie) to their feet for the first time since the beginning of the game.

After Lowell fanned, Mos began his rise to cult status and started the murmurs of "play him instead of the oft-injured Drew" when he ripped 1B to RF to score Manny, and the Sox had the lead at 3-2 and a potential win for Matsuzaka, who gutted it out despite his early struggles and deserved a W here.

Too bad Kyle Snyder didn't follow the script, as he allowed a single to Crosby and a homer to Hannahan 5 pitches into the bottom of the 6th, and now Boston would have to play catch up again.

The next few innings featured a parade of relievers, including a couple of familiar faces on the Oakland side in Lenny DiNardo and old friend Keith the Burger King Foulke, who threw a 1-2-3 8th that included a whiff of Manny to end the frame, and then the Sox were down to their final at bats.

Thankfully Huston Street was willing to play the role of goodwill ambassador today.

Moss spanked Street's 1-out, 2-2 offering into the stands in right for a game-tying solo shot that sent the crowd into a frenzy, and even though he retired the next two batters, you could sense the momentum had definitely shifted to the home-away-from home team.

Sure enough after Oki, who received a louder greeting from the fans than fellow countryman Matsuzaka, set the As down in the bottom of the 9th, Boston quickly went to work on ending this thing in the 10th when Lugo reached on an infield single to lead off, and then after an intentional walk to Papi, Ramirez roped a double high off the right field wall that scored both runners and effectively sent the fans home happy.

Sure Papelbon struggled in the bottom of the 10th, letting in a run on three hits, but by that time everyone was either too spent to worry about it or had already left for work assuming that Boston had lost in regulation.

But on this day (night? morning?) the Sox would prove to be just as resilient as they were 5 months ago, when no deficit was too large and no game was unimportant enough to brush aside.

Especially one where the psyche of two nations was resting on their shoulders.

Hey, whadda ya say we all do it again tomorrow morning?

See ya at 6:00.

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Hours away from Opening Day

Boston Red Sox (0-0) vs. Oakland A's (0-0)
GM 1 Tue 6am EST ESPN2: Matsuzaka (NR) vs. Joe Blanton (NR)
GM 2 Wed 6am EST ESPN2: Lester (NR) vs.0 Harden (NR)

As most of the country sleeps, two nations will be awake with the giddy anticipation that the new baseball season always brings. Or bleary-eyed and groggy while watching our national pastime kick off the 2008 season 7,000 miles away from home at an hour reserved for pre-dawn pee trips and nauseating early birds.

But definitely one or the other.

The Boston Red Sox begin their title defense in the land of the rising sun at about the time the sun is rising in the West, which is why it will feel so odd when the first game between the Sox and A's starts at approximately 6:07 a.m. EST. After all, there are still Grapefruit and Cactus league games being played stateside, and after this 2 game set is complete, Boston will play three additional "preseason" games against the Dodgers this weekend in LA.

Preseason games. After the season has officially started.

And baseball fans thought Bud Selig fucked up with the All Star Game tie.

But no matter. When the game starts it will be all about Dice K receiving a hero's welcome in his homeland, Jacoby Ellsbury continuing his quest to be the home-grown folk hero Judas Demon never was, and Big Papi attempting to put his sub-par (by his standards) 2007 season behind him by winning that elusive MVP he so rightfully deserves.

The Sox tuned up for this odd goodwill mission that is a marriage of horsehide and greenbacks by taking a pair of exhibition games from Japanese League teams the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers, a surefire way to prepare for 'real' MLB teams like the San Fran Giants and Detroit Tigers if there ever was one.

The only major news to come from the trip to Japan was the sore neck incurred by backup 1B Sean The Mayor Casey, as the combination of the 17-hour flight and a poor sleeping position proved debilitating for the aging vet, and proved the Sox brass were quite wise to keep rehabbing ace Josh Beckett back home for some fine tuning on his injured back.

Beckett was officially placed on the DL before the trip, but he pitched a couple innings against scrub minor leaguers yesterday and is progressing nicely with his injury and should be ready for the Sox first real series back home next week sometime.

In the meantime his mates will try to win a couple of games in a foreign land at an odd hour with a pair of Nations glued to the sets to see what this opening series will bring.

If the Sox take a pir and come away with no major maladies, food poisoning or super strain of jet lag, all should be well.

But god forbid Boston drops a pair, Dice-K gets a hold of some bad sushi from a disgruntled Seibu Lions fan, and JD Drew goes 0-8 with 3 Ks and four groundouts.

Then the real grumbling will begin.

I can hear the mid-summer mantra now: "if only they didn't have to start the fucking season in fucking Japan..."

Play Ball and Go Sox!!!

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