2008 MLB Opening Day game Red Sox and Athletics

The Major League Baseball Opening Series Japan 2008, or MLB Japan Opening Series 2008, was played on March 25 and 26, 2008, in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The

2007 World Series The 2007 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2007 season. The 103rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Colorado Rockies and the American Le ...

champion

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

and the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

split a two-game series played at

Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium. Construction on the stadium began on May 16, 1985, and it opened on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of th ...

. These were the first games of the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) regular season.

Game 1, March 25

Boston won a closely fought and entertaining opening game in Japan, courtesy of a

Manny Ramírez Manuel Arístides Ramírez Onelcida (born May 30, 1972) is a Dominican Americans (Dominican Republic), Dominican-American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for parts of 19 seasons. He played with ...

2 RBI

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

in the top of the 10th inning.

Daisuke Matsuzaka is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher, who pitched professionally for 23 seasons, 16 of them in NPB, 7 in MLB. He is currently a baseball color commentator, critic, reporter, and YouTuber. Daisuke is nicknamed in Japan and "Dice ...

started very shakily, not able to control his

curveball In baseball and softball, the curveball is a type of pitch thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball, causing it to dive as it approaches the plate. Varieties of curveball include the 12–6 curve ...

as he gave up two runs, including a Mark Ellis

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

in the first

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other team ...

and issuing five walks through his five innings. However, he settled down to retire the last seven batters he faced.

Joe Blanton Joseph Matthew Blanton (born December 11, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Kansas City Royals, Pi ...

started for Oakland and pitched solidly through the first five innings. However, he lost control of his pitches in the sixth inning, and gave up three runs. Ramirez drove in two with a double and

Brandon Moss Brandon Douglas Moss (born September 16, 1983) is an Americans, American former professional baseball outfielder / first baseman / designated hitter (DH). He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, Phil ...

(a very late replacement for

J. D. Drew David Jonathan "J. D." Drew (born November 20, 1975) is an American former Major League Baseball right fielder. He began his major league career in with the St. Louis Cardinals, and also played for the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Bo ...

) drove in the third run with an RBI single. In the bottom half of sixth, Kyle Snyder failed to hold on to the lead, giving up a two-run homer to

Jack Hannahan John Joseph "The Bangladesh Hammer" Hannahan IV (born March 4, 1980) is an American former professional baseball utility player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Ind ...

. Both

bullpen In baseball, the bullpen (or simply the pen) is the area where relief pitchers warm up before entering a game. A team's roster of relief pitchers is also metonymically referred to as "the bullpen". These pitchers usually wait in the bullpen if t ...

s were then solid, giving up no runs until the ninth inning.

Huston Street Huston Lowell Street ( ; born August 2, 1983) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Angels. After ...

failed to close out the game, giving up a solo home run to Moss. With

Hideki Okajima is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. Okajima pitched for the Yomiuri Giants, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athle ...

's scoreless 9th inning, the game was sent into

extra innings Extra innings is the extension of a baseball or softball game in order to break a tie. Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine regulation innings (in softball and high school baseball games there are typically seven innings; in Little Lea ...

. Street stayed in the game despite blowing the save in the 9th inning. With a man on second and two out, Oakland chose to intentionally walk

David Ortiz David Américo Ortiz Arias (born November 18, 1975), nicknamed "Big Papi", is a Dominican-American former designated hitter (DH) and first baseman in Major League Baseball who played in the American League (AL) from 1997 to 2016, primarily wit ...

, who seemed to have struggled in his earlier

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

s. Ramirez then knocked in his third and fourth RBIs with his second double of the game.

Jonathan Papelbon Jonathan Robert Papelbon (; born November 23, 1980) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably for the Boston Red Sox, with whom he was an All-Star in four cons ...

came on to close out the game for Boston. With a man on first and one out,

Emil Brown Emil Quincy Brown (born December 29, 1974) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1997 to 2009 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, a ...

hit a double into right field, scoring

Daric Barton Daric William Barton (born August 16, 1985) is an American former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics. Minor league career Barton was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the ...

. However, Brown chose to attempt to advance to third base, but was caught in a

rundown In baseball, a rundown, informally known as a pickle or the hotbox, is a situation that occurs when the baserunner is stranded between two bases, also known as no-man's land, and is in jeopardy of being tagged out. When the baserunner attempts ...

, and was tagged out. This resulted in a 2 out, nobody on situation, instead of a 1 out, 1 on situation. Papelbon gave up two further singles, but retired

Kurt Suzuki Kurtis Kiyoshi Suzuki (born October 4, 1983) is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Oakland Athletics, Washington Nationals, Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, and Los Angeles Angels. ...

to end the game. In a side note for fans in the United States, many viewers of the

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...

service were unable to watch the game on either

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

, which had the national game rights, or

NESN New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports network, regional sports cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which ow ...

, which had broadcast rights for the Red Sox in that region. The

transponder In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend word, blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a T ...

s from which the channels are

uplink In a telecommunications network, a link is a communication channel that connects two or more devices for the purpose of data transmission. The link may be a dedicated physical link or a virtual circuit that uses one or more physical links or shar ...

ed to viewers of the

standard-definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

feed failed some hours before the first pitch at 6 a.m.

Eastern time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small port ...

. The screen showed a "searching for satellite signal" error message, then DirecTV put up a static screen apologizing for technical difficulties. Those watching DirecTV on a high-definition feed were not affected. The error was not fixed until approximately noon ET; both networks replayed the game coverage after that, as had been scheduled due to the enormous time difference between the U.S. and Japan.

Game 2, March 26

Oakland comfortably won the second game to level the series at 1-1.

Jon Lester Jonathan Tyler Lester (born January 7, 1984) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals. ...

gave up four runs in four innings, including a three-run home run to

in the third inning.

Rich Harden James Richard Harden (born November 30, 1981) is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher. He pitched for the Oakland Athletics, Chicago Cubs, and Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball. Early years Harden attended Claremont Secondary S ...

pitched six dominant innings for Oakland, striking out nine and giving up just one run thanks to a

solo home run in the sixth inning.

Jeff Fiorentino Jeffrey Philip Fiorentino (born April 14, 1983) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder who played for the Baltimore Orioles and Oakland Athletics between 2005 and 2009. His nickname is '' Screech'' due to his resemblance to the D ...

added another run with a single in his first at bat of the season, driving in

Exhibition Games

Game 1, March 22

Game 2, March 22

Game 3, March 23

Game 4, March 23

External links

Japan Opening Series
{{Oakland Athletics 2008 Major League Baseball season Boston Red Sox Oakland Athletics 2008 in Japanese sport International baseball competitions hosted by Japan Major League Baseball international baseball competitions March 2008 sports events in Asia 2008 in Tokyo Sports competitions in Tokyo