- MLB Japan Opening Series 2008
The
Major League Baseball Opening Series Japan 2008 (or MLB Japan Series 2008 for short) was played on March 25 and 26, 2008 inTokyo ,Japan . The2007 World Series championBoston Red Sox and theOakland Athletics split the two-game series at theTokyo Dome .Game 1, March 25
Boston won a closely-fought and entertaining opening game in Japan, courtesy of a
Manny Ramírez 2 RBI double in the top of the 10th inning.Daisuke Matsuzaka started very shakily, not able to control hiscurveball as he gave up two runs, including a Mark Ellishome run in the firstinning and issuing five walks through his five innings. However, he settled down to retire the last sevenbatter s he faced.Joe Blanton 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 andBrandon Moss (a very late replacement forJ. D. Drew ) 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 toJack Hannahan . Bothbullpen s were then solid, giving up no runs until the ninth inning.Huston Street failed to close out the game, giving up a solo home-run to Moss. WithHideki Okajima 's scoreless 9th inning, the game was sent intoextra innings . 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 walkDavid Ortiz , who seemed to have struggled in his earlierat bat s. Ramirez then knocked in his third and fourth RBIs with his second double of the game.Jonathan Papelbon came on to close out the game for Boston. With a man on first and one out,Emil Brown hit a double into right field, scoringDaric Barton . However, Brown chose to attempt to advance to third base, but was caught in arundown , 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 retiredKurt Suzuki to end the game.In a side note for fans in the United States, many viewers of the
DirecTV service were unable to watch the game on eitherESPN2 , which had the national game rights, or NESN, which had broadcast rights for the Red Sox in that region. Thetransponder s from which the channels areuplink ed to viewers of thestandard definition feed failed some hours before the first pitch at 6 a.m. Eastern time. 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 22
Linescore
Road=Oakland Athletics|RoadAbr=OAK
R1=0|R2=0|R3=0|R4=2|R5=0|R6=0|R7=0|R8=0|R9=2|RR=4|RH=10|RE=0
Home=Yomiuri Giants |HomeAbr=
H1=0|H2=1|H3=1|H4=0|H5=0|H6=0|H7=0|H8=0|H9=1|HR=3|HH=10|HE=1
WP=Huston Street (1-0) |LP=Daisuke Ochi (0-1) |SV= Fernando Hernández (1)
RoadHR=Bobby Crosby (1),Jack Hannahan (1) |Game 3, March 23
Linescore
Road=Oakland Athletics|RoadAbr=OAK
R1=2|R2=0|R3=3|R4=0|R5=0|R6=0|R7=0|R8=5|R9=0|RR=10|RH=12|RE=0
Home=Hanshin Tigers|HomeAbr=
H1=1|H2=0|H3=0|H4=0|H5=1|H6=0|H7=0|H8=0|H9=0|HR=2|HH=7|HE=0
WP=Justin Duchscherer (1-0) |LP=Shinobu Fukuhara (0-1)
RoadHR=Jack Cust (1),Travis Buck (1),Donnie Murphy (1) |Game 4, March 23
Linescore
Road=Boston Red Sox|RoadAbr=BOS
R1=0|R2=0|R3=0|R4=0|R5=0|R6=4|R7=0|R8=3|R9=2|RR=9|RH=13|RE=1
Home=Yomiuri Giants|HomeAbr=
H1=1|H2=0|H3=0|H4=1|H5=0|H6=0|H7=0|H8=0|H9=0|HR=2|HH=7|HE=0
WP=Tim Wakefield (1-0) |LP=Adrian Burnside (0-1)
RoadHR= J. D. Drew (2),Jed Lowrie (1) |ee also
*
2008 Major League Baseball season
**2008 Boston Red Sox season
**2008 Oakland Athletics season External links
* [http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/opening_series/y2008/index.jsp Japan Opening Series]
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