March 26, 2008: Oakland A’s even Japan Opening Series with a win over Red Sox

After playing 10 innings the night before, the Boston Red Sox and Oakland A’s squared off again at the Tokyo Dome on March 26. The game drew just a few more than the March 25 game, some 44,735. The first pitch was at 7:09 P.M. Tokyo time. For these first two regular-season games of 2008, Oakland was deemed the home team.

The starting pitcher for Oakland was Rich Harden, beginning his sixth season for the Athletics. The Red Sox starter was left-hander Jon Lester; he had gone 11-2 over the two previous years – and had won the Red Sox World Series clincher in 2007 – but 2008 was his first full season in the majors.

Each pitcher surrendered a two-out base on balls in the first inning, but both pitchers retired the next batter they faced. Harden struck out two Red Sox, as he did again in the top of the second inning. Lester, though, gave up a one-out double down the left-field line to shortstop Bobby Crosby. After striking out Jack Hannahan, he walked catcher Kurt Suzuki and then saw center fielder Chris Denorfia single to center field. Crosby scored and Suzuki moved up to third base. Right fielder Travis Buck took a called third strike. The Athletics led, 1-0.

The Red Sox drew two walks in the third inning, and stole a base in between, but failed to score.

Oakland added three runs, taking a 4-0 lead, in the bottom of the third. Second baseman Mark Ellis walked. After one out, designated hitter Mike Sweeney singled to shallow center, Ellis going to third base. Left fielder Emil Brown came up. His poor baserunning cost the A’s in the first game, but this time up he hit a three-run homer to left field off Lester. “Emil got one pitch just a little bit over the plate and he hit it over the wall,” Lester said.1 His home run provided the runs that won the game.

Harden struck out two more Boston batters, giving himself seven K’s in the first four innings.

Lester worked the bottom of the fourth, striking out Denorfia and Ellis. In between the two strikeouts, Buck grounded out to second baseman Dustin Pedroia.

Harden struck out the first batter in the fifth, too. Shortstop Julio Lugo singled off him, but Pedroia hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

After the first four innings. David Aardsma relieved Lester, who had struggled with his control and thrown 83 pitches.2 A strikeout and two routine infield grounders retired the side.

In the sixth, Manny Ramírez hit a two-out solo home run off Harden. His homer into the left- field seats was the only run the Red Sox got in the game.

Aardsma struck out the first two batters he faced (Crosby and Hannahan), but was then relieved by Javier López, who walked Jack Cust but got Buck to line out to Ramírez in left field.

Harden was relieved by Santiago Casilla, who was starting his second full season in the majors. He struck out the first two batters he faced, gave up a double to right field by former Red Sox center fielder Coco Crisp, then got Lugo to ground out, short to first.

Manny Delcarmen replaced López. (The Red Sox used five pitchers in the game and the Athletics used four.) He got a couple of groundouts, gave up a single to right field by Sweeney, and then got the third out when Brown hit a pop fly to second base.

Oakland manager Bob Geren called on two former Red Sox relievers – both had been on the 2004 World Series champions. Keith Foulke and Alan Embree were asked to work the eighth and ninth and hold Oakland’s 4-1 lead. Foulke got Pedroia to fly out to right field. Kevin Youkilis reached on an error by Crosby at shortstop. David Ortiz hit a fly ball to deep right field, but it was caught for the second out. He was 0-for-7 in the two games in Japan. Ramírez struck out.

Bryan Corey worked the bottom of the eighth for Boston. Crosby hit a foul fly to right field, caught by Brandon Moss. Ramírez caught a long drive hit by Hannahan to left. Suzuki doubled to left-center field, then scored the fifth run for the Athletics on a single to center by Jeff Fiorentino, who had run for Cust in the bottom of the sixth and stayed on to play center field. Buck grounded out.   

In their ninth, the Red Sox were down, 5-1. Embree took over from Foulke. Mike Lowell led off with his second hit of the game, another single to left field. Sean Casey pinch-hit for Brandon Moss and hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Embree struck out Jason Varitek for the final out. Oakland pitching had held Boston to five hits.

With the win, each of the visiting American teams had won a game in the two-game Opening Series.

Harden, who struck out nine in his six innings, got the win. Lester took the loss.

The two teams parted for a few days, to meet again in Oakland in April and continue the “homestand” for the Athletics.3 In the intervening days, the Red Sox played three exhibition games in Southern California against the Dodgers, losing the first (3-1) and third (8-0), but winning the “big one” in between, 7-4 in front of over 115,300 fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum, playing in front of the largest crowd to ever attend a baseball game. The Athletics likewise played three more spring-training games, against the Giants in San Francisco. They were shut out in the first one, 3-0, but won the next two, 6-2 and 7-2.

When the regular season resumed, Boston won both of the games played in Oakland, 2-1 (a win for Daisuke Matsuzaka, a hold for Hideki Okajima, and a save for Jonathan Papelbon) and 5-0, with Jon Lester pitching the first 6⅔ innings. They then had to travel to play three games in Toronto (their third country of the 2008 season) before returning to Boston for the April 8 home opener.

The trip to Tokyo had been a return visit for Julio Lugo, who had been on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays team that traveled to Japan to play the Yankees in 2004. He told the Oakland Tribune, “It took me a month-and-a-half to get readjusted. I felt it when I was playing. I played good during that period of time, but I felt it a lot. I couldn’t fall asleep, and my appetite wasn’t good. You adjust for a week (in Japan), and then you’ve got to turn around.”4

The 2008 season ended with Oakland in third place in the AL West, 24½ games behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Red Sox finished second in the East, just two games behind the Tampa Bay Rays. Boston beat the Angels three games to one in the Division Series but lost the seven-game ALCS to the Rays.

Not everyone liked the idea of these games being played overseas before what had been the traditional season opener in Cincinnati. Two columnists for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution decried the break from tradition, Furman Bisher in a column entitled “Sayonara, Baseball Tradition,” and Terence Moore, who wrote, “It’s all about the potential for the greedy folks involved with these leagues to add megabucks to their megabucks. So, while the NFL already is holding regular-season games in foreign lands, the NBA is thinking about it, and baseball has joined its football counterpart by actually doing it.”5

Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of the trip, which had included two exhibition games against Japanese teams, “It’s a unique experience. I thought our players handled it very well. I was very proud of the way we handled everything that was thrown at us because it’s different.

“I also thought the Japanese people and the hosts were very gracious to us. I thought they embraced the Red Sox and the organization very well. Hopefully, we gained some more fans.”6

Oakland returned twice more to Japan, splitting another pair of 2012 games at the Tokyo Dome against the Seattle Mariners, then losing both games against Seattle in 2019.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK200803260.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2008/B03260OAK2008.htm

Notes

1 Jim Armstrong, “Harden Shuts Down Boston Bats,” Worcester (Massachusetts) Telegram and Gazette, March 27, 2008: C1. For his part, Brown said, “We didn’t play too bad last night, I made a mistake and it cost us. I was glad I could help the team today, so that we can head home with a win.”

2 For comments by Lester on his disappointing performance, see Amalie Benjamin, “Lester Not Wild About His Outing,” Boston Globe, March 27, 2008: C6.

3 It was an oddity – traveling back in time – that the Red Sox charter left Tokyo around midnight on March 27, crossed the International Dateline, and arrived in Los Angeles at 6:00 P.M. that same day, March 27.

4 Joe Stiglich, “A’s Love Trip to Tokyo, but Their Bodies May Not,” Oakland Tribune, March 27, 2008: Sports1.

5 Furman Bisher, “ Sayonara, Baseball Tradition,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 26, 2008: B5.Terence Moore, “Tradition Going, Going, … Almost Gone,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution [blog]. https://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/moore/entries/2008/03/26/tradition_going_going_almost_g.html. Both articles accessed February 24, 2024. Those who attended the games, including the author of this article, enjoyed the experience. For a writeup of the experience, see Bill Nowlin, “The Red Sox in Japan,” Red Sox Magazine, second edition 2008, 18-27.

6 Gordon Edes, “For Sox, It’s a Day to Split,” Boston Globe, March 27, 2008: C1.