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Game One Win? Check.by Cameron on March 25 at 2:27PM | comments (0)
[ comments (0) ] [ BallHype ] It may not have been the way a fan would draw it up, but the Red Sox are 1-0. In a game that went nearly four hours, finishing just before 10 o'clock after a 6 a.m. start, Boston moved to an early divisional lead at 1-0 with a come-from-behind, 6-5 win over the A's in the Tokyo Dome. The Red Sox twice staged late-inning rallies - a three-run burst in the sixth and solo homer from late addition Brandon Moss (guess who the scratch was ... go ahead, it really is that obvious ... J.D. Drew! Who woulda thought!") in the top of the ninth before Manny Ramirez proved that his offseason of preparation would have him ready to go from Day 1, knocking home his third and fourth RBI of the game in the top of the 10th.  In truth, both the Sox and Daisuke Matsuzaka, the native son turned Boston opening day starter who allowed two runs on only two hits across five sporadic and inefficient innings. Dice-K entered with gusto, allowed a two-run homer to Oakland's Mark Ellis, and proceeded to walk an average of one batter per inning during the victory. Still, though his 95 pitches only earned him five frames, his six strikeouts were predictably clutch, bailing him out of a number of jams, just as they did a number of times during his 15 wins in 2007. Unfortunately, Terry Francona's hand was forced into going to the equivalent of long relief, and Kyle Snyder failed to ingratiate himself in his chase for the fifth starting spot, giving up two runs of his own. In fact, Snyder allowed his two ER after only two batters, with Oakland's new third baseman, Jack Hanahan taking Snyder deep for a 4-2 lead. He recovered, as did the Boston bullpen, and the Sox were able to patch things together until Moss came through with his first MLB homer to tie the game, and Ramirez found a way to win it with a hit and earn himself $10 grand for player of the game honors, money which he promptly - and only Ramirez could pull this off - said allocated in the following manner: "I'm just ready to roll, I feel great, " said Ramirez, was given a giant check for 100,000 yen -- about $10,000 -- by the sponsor for being the player of the game. That's right folks, 10K for gas money. You have to love Manny Ramirez talking to the media again, no matter how you feel about him. But don't take our word for it, check out the new and improved media Manny below. |
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