MLB Japan Opening Series 2008
Encyclopedia
The Major League Baseball
Opening Series Japan 2008 (or MLB Japan Series 2008 for short) was played on March 25 and 26, 2008 in Tokyo
, Japan
. The 2007 World Series
champion Boston Red Sox
and the Oakland Athletics
split the two-game series at the Tokyo Dome
.
2 RBI
double
in the top of the 10th inning. Daisuke Matsuzaka
started very shakily, not able to control his curveball
as he gave up two runs
, including a Mark Ellis
home run
in the first inning
and issuing five walks
through his five innings. However, he settled down to retire the last seven batter
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 and Brandon Moss
(a very late replacement for J. 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 to Jack Hannahan
.
Both bullpen
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. With Hideki Okajima
's scoreless 9th inning, the game was sent into extra 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 walk
David Ortiz
, who seemed to have struggled in his earlier at 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, scoring Daric Barton
. However, Brown chose to attempt to advance to third base, but was caught in a rundown
, 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
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 either ESPN2
, which had the national game rights, or NESN
, which had broadcast rights for the Red Sox in that region. The transponder
s from which the channels are uplink
ed to viewers of the standard 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.
gave up four runs in four innings, including a three-run home run to Emil Brown
in the third inning. Rich Harden
pitched six dominant innings for Oakland, striking out nine and giving up just one run thanks to a Manny Ramírez
solo home run in the sixth inning. Jeff Fiorentino
added another run with a single in his first at bat of the season, driving in Kurt Suzuki
.
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
Opening Series Japan 2008 (or MLB Japan Series 2008 for short) was played on March 25 and 26, 2008 in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The 2007 World Series
2007 World Series
-Game 1:Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at Fenway Park in Boston, MassachusettsThe Red Sox cruised to a blowout win in Game 1 behind ALCS MVP Josh Beckett, who struck out nine batters, including the first four he faced, en route to his fourth win of the 2007 postseason...
champion Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
and the Oakland Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
split the two-game series at the Tokyo Dome
Tokyo Dome
Tokyo Dome is a 55,000-seat baseball stadium located in Bunkyo Ward of Tokyo, Japan.The stadium opened for business on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of the Velodrome which was next door to the site of the predecessor ballpark, Kōrakuen Stadium...
.
Game 1, March 25
Boston won a closely fought and entertaining opening game in Japan, courtesy of a Manny RamírezManny Ramírez
Manuel "Manny" Arístides Ramírez Onelcida is a retired Dominican-American professional baseball outfielder. He was recognized for great batting skill and power, a nine-time Silver Slugger and one of 25 players to hit 500 career home runs. Ramirez's 21 grand slams are third all-time, and his 28...
2 RBI
Run batted in
Runs batted in or RBIs is a statistic used in baseball and softball to credit a batter when the outcome of his at-bat results in a run being scored, except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play. The first team to track RBI was the Buffalo Bisons.Common nicknames for an RBI...
double
Double (baseball)
In baseball, a double is the act of a batter striking the pitched ball and safely reaching second base without being called out by the umpire, without the benefit of a fielder's misplay or another runner being put out on a fielder's choice....
in the top of the 10th inning. Daisuke Matsuzaka
Daisuke Matsuzaka
is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball in the United States. He previously played for the Seibu Lions in Japan's Pacific League. He was selected the MVP of the inaugural and the second World Baseball Classic, and is an Olympic bronze...
started very shakily, not able to control his curveball
Curveball
The curveball is a type of pitch in baseball thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball causing it to dive in a downward path as it approaches the plate. Its close relatives are the slider and the slurve. The "curve" of the ball varies from pitcher to...
as he gave up two runs
Run (baseball)
In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted balls are met or assured...
, including a Mark Ellis
Mark Ellis (baseball)
Mark William Ellis is an American professional baseball second baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball. He has played for the Oakland Athletics and Colorado Rockies.-Early career:...
home run
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
in the first inning
Inning
Inning is a municipality in the district of Erding in Bavaria in Germany....
and issuing five walks
Base on balls
A base on balls is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls. It is better known as a walk. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08...
through his five innings. However, he settled down to retire the last seven batter
Batter
Batter may refer to:* Batter * Batter * Batter, * To hit or strike a person, as in committing the crime of battery* To hit or strike a person, as in committing the tort of battery, a common-law offense...
s he faced. Joe Blanton
Joe Blanton
Joseph Matthew Blanton is a starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball.-College career:...
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 Moss
Brandon Douglas Moss is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball.-Professional career:...
(a very late replacement for J. D. Drew
J. D. Drew
David Jonathan "J. D." Drew is an American professional baseball right fielder who is a free agent. He is a left-handed hitter, and began his major league career in with the St. Louis Cardinals...
) drove in the third run with an RBI single. In the bottom half of sixth, Kyle Snyder
Kyle Snyder
Kyle Ehren Snyder is an American baseball player, who is a former relief pitcher.Snyder played with the Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox . He is listed at 6-8 and 220 pounds, is a switch hitter, and throws right-handed....
failed to hold on to the lead, giving up a two-run homer to Jack Hannahan
Jack Hannahan
John Joseph "Jack" Hannahan IV is an American professional baseball third baseman with the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball. Mainly a third baseman, Hannahan has also played other infield positions....
.
Both bullpen
Bullpen
In baseball, the bullpen is the area where relief pitchers warm-up before entering a game. Depending on the ballpark, it may be situated in foul territory along the baselines or just beyond the outfield fence. Also, a team's roster of relief pitchers is metonymically referred to as "the bullpen"...
s were then solid, giving up no runs until the ninth inning. Huston Street
Huston Street
Huston Lowell Street is an American baseball relief pitcher for the Colorado Rockies. His father is former University of Texas quarterback James Street, and his brother Juston Street is currently a pitcher for the minor league Vancouver Canadians....
failed to close out the game, giving up a solo home run to Moss. With Hideki Okajima
Hideki Okajima
is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher with the Boston Red Sox organization in the United States, currently with their AAA affiliate, the Pawtucket Red Sox. He played with the Yomiuri Giants and Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league from 1994-2006...
's scoreless 9th inning, the game was sent into extra innings
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 innings , each of which is divided into halves: the visiting team bats first, after which the home team takes its turn at bat...
. 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
Intentional base on balls
In baseball, an intentional base on balls, usually referred to as an intentional walk and denoted in baseball scorekeeping by IBB, is a walk issued to a batter by a pitcher with the intent of removing the batter's opportunity to swing at the pitched ball...
David Ortiz
David Ortiz
David Américo Ortiz Arias , known as David Ortiz, nicknamed "Big Papi", is a Dominican American professional baseball player who is currently a free agent. Previously, Ortiz played with the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox...
, who seemed to have struggled in his earlier at bat
At bat
In baseball, an at bat or time at bat is used to calculate certain statistics, including batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. It is a more restricted definition of a plate appearance...
s. Ramirez then knocked in his third and fourth RBIs with his second double of the game. Jonathan Papelbon
Jonathan Papelbon
Jonathan Robert Papelbon is an American professional baseball pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball. Before joining the Phillies, Papelbon played with the Boston Red Sox from 2005-2011....
came on to close out the game for Boston. With a man on first and one out, Emil Brown
Emil Brown
Emil Quincy Brown is an American professional baseball player who is currently a free agent.-Career:...
hit a double into right field, scoring Daric Barton
Daric Barton
Daric William Barton nicknamed "D.B.", is a Major League Baseball first baseman who plays for the Oakland Athletics....
. However, Brown chose to attempt to advance to third base, but was caught in a rundown
Rundown
A rundown, also called a pickle, is a situation in the game of baseball that occurs when the baserunner is stranded between two bases and is in jeopardy. When the base runner attempts to advance to the next base, he is cut off by the defensive player who has a live ball and attempts to return to...
, 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
Kurt Suzuki
is a Major League Baseball catcher for the Oakland Athletics.-College career:Suzuki played at Cal State Fullerton. Cal State Fullerton captured the 2004 College World Series championship, thanks to Suzuki's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving the Titans a 3-2 win over the...
to end the game.
In a side note for fans in the United States, many viewers of the DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
service were unable to watch the game on either ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
, which had the national game rights, or NESN
New England Sports Network
The New England Sports Network, or NESN [NESS-en], is a regional cable television network that covers the six New England states except Fairfield County, Connecticut and Southbury, Connecticut, a town in New Haven County, Connecticut which is covered by New York City sports networks...
, which had broadcast rights for the Red Sox in that region. The transponder
Transponder
In telecommunication, the term transponder has the following meanings:...
s from which the channels are uplink
Uplink
A telecommunications link is generally one of several types of information transmission paths such as those provided by communication satellites to connect two points on earth.-Uplink:...
ed to viewers of the standard definition feed failed some hours before the first pitch at 6 a.m. Eastern time
North American Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving 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
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
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 LesterJon Lester
Jonathan Tyler Lester is an American professional baseball pitcher with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball...
gave up four runs in four innings, including a three-run home run to Emil Brown
Emil Brown
Emil Quincy Brown is an American professional baseball player who is currently a free agent.-Career:...
in the third inning. Rich Harden
Rich Harden
James Richard Harden is a Canadian professional baseball pitcher.-Early years:Harden attended Claremont Secondary School in Victoria, British Columbia. He was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 38th round of the 1999 Major League Baseball Draft...
pitched six dominant innings for Oakland, striking out nine and giving up just one run thanks to a Manny Ramírez
Manny Ramírez
Manuel "Manny" Arístides Ramírez Onelcida is a retired Dominican-American professional baseball outfielder. He was recognized for great batting skill and power, a nine-time Silver Slugger and one of 25 players to hit 500 career home runs. Ramirez's 21 grand slams are third all-time, and his 28...
solo home run in the sixth inning. Jeff Fiorentino
Jeff Fiorentino
Jeffrey Philip Fiorentino is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball. He attended Florida Atlantic University and Nova High School in Davie Florida...
added another run with a single in his first at bat of the season, driving in Kurt Suzuki
Kurt Suzuki
is a Major League Baseball catcher for the Oakland Athletics.-College career:Suzuki played at Cal State Fullerton. Cal State Fullerton captured the 2004 College World Series championship, thanks to Suzuki's two-out RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving the Titans a 3-2 win over the...
.
Game 1, March 22
Game 2, March 22
Game 3, March 23
Game 4, March 23
See also
- 2008 Major League Baseball season2008 Major League Baseball seasonThe 2008 Major League Baseball season began on March 25, 2008 in Tokyo, Japan with the 2007 World Series champion Boston Red Sox defeating the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome 6–5 in the first game of a two-game series, and ended on September 30 with the host Chicago White Sox defeating the...
- 2008 Boston Red Sox season2008 Boston Red Sox seasonThe Boston Red Sox' 2008 season began on March 25, in Tokyo, Japan for the MLB Japan Opening Day 2008. The Red Sox were attempting to become the first repeat World Series Champions since the 1999–2000 New York Yankees and also be the first repeat Champions of the 21st century. They also tried to...
- 2008 Oakland Athletics season2008 Oakland Athletics seasonThe Oakland Athletics' season marked their 40th year in Oakland, California, after the franchise move from Kansas City, Missouri in 1968.-Potential free agents:...
- 2008 Boston Red Sox season