Red Sox-A’s Japanese season opener preview
By Beltway Boss
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball newsÂ
The Boston Red Sox will soon take on the Oakland Athletics all the way from the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Naturally, second year Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka will get the nod in a game before his hometown crowd. Matsuzaka went 15-12 with a 4.40 ERA in his first season with the Red Sox after the team shelled out 103 million dollars in posting fees and guaranteed salary to bring Matsuzaka from the Nippon Professional Baseball League to MLB. First pitch will be at 6:05 a.m, EDT. That is 3:05 a.m. in Oakland.
This will not be the first time MLB teams have ventured out of the United States to play a game. The New York Yankees last played the Tampa Bay Rays in 2004 at the Tokyo Dome. In 2000 the Yankees and Chicago Cubs played in Japan; the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres also played a game in Mexico that year. 2000 was the first year MLB went global.
This matchup pits two franchises against each other that are heading in opposite directions. The Red Sox are the defending World Series Champions and have made the playoffs four out of the last five seasons - they also won the World Series in 2004. The A’s, meanwhile, have made the playoffs in just one out of the last four seasons after making four consecutive playoff appearances. But now, the small-market A’s appear to be in a constant state of rebuilding. This in stark constant to the Red Sox whose opulence will be on display in the form of Matsuzaka.
The A’s made those four consecutive playoff appearances on the backs’ of their memorable trio of starters: Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. After the 2004 season, Oakland’s famed General Manager, Billy Beane, traded Hudson and Mulder apparently after reaching the conclusion that the A’s as currently constructed could not win a championship. Zito departed two seasons later as a free agent. Beane apparently has lost faith in his team again, as signaled by his trade of ace starter Danny Haren, who was acquired in the Mulder deal, to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Haren was signed for $12.65 million through 2009 with a $6.75 million option for 2010.
The Red Sox have some rotation issues of their own. Josh Beckett, the Cy Young winner in 2007, is not making the trip to Japan although he is throwing pain free. The situation is more dire with 41-year-old probable Hall of Famer Curt Schilling. Schilling has been placed on the 60 day disabled list. It is not known when Schilling, who tested the free agent market before signing a one-year incentive heavy contract to return to the Red Sox, will return. These injuries mean that the Red Sox will start 24-year-old cancer survivor Jon Lester in game two. They will also have to count on 41-year-old knuckleballer Tim Wakefield in the rotation. Wakefield won 17 games last season, but lost 12 while posting a 4.76 ERA.
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