Having already gone to great lengths to start their season, the Red Sox went to extra innings in the first regular-season game they have ever played outside of North America. The Sox gave Japan its first taste of what has made them World Series champions twice in the last four seasons with a 6-5, 10-inning win over the Oakland Athletics before 44,628 in the Tokyo Dome. The Sox came from behind twice; Manny Ramirez had a two-run double that snapped a 4-all tie and made a winner of native son Hideki Okajima. Jonathan Papelbon had a shaky outing, giving up a run on three hits and a walk, to earn the save.
If the Sox had not come to Japan, rookie Brandon Moss would never have left Florida with the club. He would not have been in the starting lineup if right fielder J.D. Drew had not felt some tightness in his back while running sprints in the outfield just before the game, forcing manager Terry Francona to make him a late scratch.
But without Moss, the Sox would not have taken Oakland to extra innings. Moss singled home the go-ahead run in a three-run Sox rally in the sixth, and with the Sox two outs from defeat in the ninth, the left-handed hitting rookie connected for his first major-league home run to tie the score at 4.
Brandon Moss was one of the extra players the Sox were allowed to bring to Japan because they were exempt from having to trim their roster to 25 players because of their early start date. With Moss having a very good spring and start to the 2008 season, Bobby Kielty may be the odd-man out.
