Welcome To America by Jared Carrabis
Red Sox Victorious In First Game Back In The States

No nerves? No problem. For those Sox fans that were not still Japan-lagged still recovering from an irregular sleep schedule, they witnessed a pitcher that was well worth the price tag. Daisuke Matsuzaka was on in Oakland in his second start of the season. Matsuzaka may have unveiled a new strategy to record strikeouts. That being, fastball, fastball and some more fastballs. In a masterful outing under the lights in Oakland, Daisuke threw six and a third strong innings, surrendering just one run on two hits. Matsuzaka ended his night retiring the last thirteen Athletics he faced consecutively. Matsuzaka threw 96 pitches staying in the same general pitch count range as he did in his first outing but this time taking his outing a lot further. With 96 pitches he threw 63 for strikes resulting in nine strikeouts.


The scoring in this one kick-started in the second inning when Jack Cust accounted for Matsuzaka’s only blemish of the night when he hit a solo shot putting the A’s out in front 1-0. Daisuke went on to resume his silencing of the Oakland offense but the Red Sox had some scoring to do. Boston waited until the fifth to tie up the proceedings when Kevin Youkilis led off the inning with a single to right. With two outs, Julio Lugo hit a grounder back to the Oakland starter Joe Blanton who booted the ball leaving Lugo at first and Youkilis advancing to second now in scoring position.


The rookie, if you can even imagine he really is one, Jacoby Ellsbury dug in and on the second pitch of the at bat singled to right field bringing Kevin Youkilis all the way around to score on a very close play at the plate. The play brought Oakland Athletics manager Bob Geren out of the dugout to dispute with home plate umpire Wally Bell. The run would stand and the game was tied.


With two outs in the top of the sixth, Kevin Youkilis continued to have himself a stellar night (3 for 4) when he tripled, not missing a home run by much, to deep left field. The ball banged high off the wall in left as Youkilis strolled into third just 90 feet away from becoming the go-ahead run. The captain, Jason Varitek, still looking for his first hit of the 2008 season, sent a fastball offering high into right field. The ball sailed and appeared to have bounced above the yellow line, indicating that it would be a home run, and bounced back into play. The captain chugged for second and held up when second base umpire Rob Drake was not signaling for a home run. Varitek should have picked up his first home run of the season but settled for a double and an RBI.


Matsuzaka would exit in the seventh inning with two outs giving way to Hideki Okajima who recorded the final out of the seventh. Okajima would go on to put the next two outs in the books and then hand the ball over to the Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon, who would be asked to obtain a four-out save, with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. Papelbon would go on to throw a mere two pitches to end the eighth inning sending the game into the ninth with the score still 2-1 in Boston’s favor.


Boston would threaten in the top half of the ninth putting runners on first and second when Jason Varitek singled back up the middle and Coco Crisp laid down a text book bunt to put two men on. Back-to-back hotshot lineouts would follow off the bats of Julio Lugo and Jacoby Ellsbury to draw the top of the ninth to a close against former Boston closer, Keith Foulke. Papelbon took the mound for the bottom of the ninth having thrown just two pitches previously and picked up the first out of the inning by striking out Travis Buck on three pitches. Buck, Oakland’s leadoff hitter struck out four times on Tuesday night raising his strikeout total to seven on the young season (not exactly what you want to see from a leadoff hitter) Papelbon continued to cruise through the Oakland batters by striking out Mark Ellis on five pitches, all in which were fastballs. Daric Barton worked the count full but Papelbon was just too much for the Oakland offense to handle as he completed his quest to strike out the side.


With a pump of the fist, Boston picked up their second win of the season (first in the United States) and Papelbon racked up his second save in as many chances with a vengeance. The Red Sox win a close one on the west coast and look to take the series on Wednesday when the lefty Jon Lester toes the rubber against Rich Harden. Harden got the best of Lester in their first meeting this season in Tokyo, but Lester will be looking to forget his first start and get off to the start he intended. Lester who was touched up for five hits and four runs will be looking to get his first win of the season.


Final Score: Red Sox 2, Athletics 1

Published on April 01, 2008

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