The Boston Red Sox fell behind early in the ballgame against the Oakland Athletics and were not able to provide much offense the entire game as they lost 5-1 to split the two game series over in Japan.

Starting pitcher Jon Lester wasn’t his normal self on the mound as he only lasted four innings while giving up four earned runs on five hits.  Lester also had four strikeouts, and walked three batters while giving up one homerun.  The homerun came off the bat of Emil Brown, which extended the A’s lead from one to four in the third inning.

The only offense the Red Sox were able to muster up was a solo homerun by Manny Ramirez in the sixth inning.  Other then that, the Red Sox bats were pretty silent and were unable to push across any other runs.

The Red Sox will come back to the US and play three exhibition games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Boston Red Sox got the season off to the right start as they beat the Oakland Athletics 6-5 in 10 innings as the two teams opened up the season in Japan.

Dice-K was shaky in the no decision and will need to do better throughout the season to really help out the ball team.  I’m sure he was pretty nervous pitching back in Japan, so lets see how he pitches in his next game.

Manny Ramirez led the Red Sox at the plate as he had two doubles that both plated two runners.  One being in the 6th inning, and the other coming in the 10th inning that proved to be the game winner for the Red Sox.

Jonathan Papelbon picked up his first save of the season, although it didn’t come easy either as the A’s battled back in the 10th inning but still fell one run short.

The two teams will battle it out once again before heading back to the United States.

The Boston Red Sox have sent down Bartolo Colon, Keith Ginter, and Joe Thurston to minor league camp.

Colon was a once shot at making the active roster out of spring training, but he will get some more time down in minor league camp and try to get his velocity up before the Red Sox think about calling him up to the big leagues.  If Colon isn’t able to make the active roster by May 1st, he will become a free agent.

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Daisuke Matsuzaka has got the nod for the Boston Red Sox Opening Day starter.  Matsuzaka will take the mound against the Oakland Athletics on March 25th over in Japan when the Red Sox and Athletics kick off the 2008 Major League Baseball season.

Jon Lester will get the nod for game two in Japan as well.  I can see the Red Sox going 2-0 to start the season with Matsuzaka and Lester pitching.

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It wasn’t good news at Red Sox Spring Training on Thursday for a couple of veteran players.  Both moves are kind of a suprise to me to tell you the truth, but I do see where the team is coming from with both of them.

First off, Curt Shilling has been moved to the 60-day disabled list.  You have to wonder how bad Shilling’s injury realy is.  Will we even see him at all in 2008?  Doesn’t look like we will until atleast July and that would be at the earliest.

The next move that Red Sox made is more of a suprise.  This morning Doug Mirabelli was told that he had been released.  Mirabelli was pretty much only used as Tim Wakefield’s personal catcher and his numbers really have dropped in the past few season.  I figured they liked him in the lockeroom and that was why they kept him around.  It must have just been time for Mirabelli to move on.  I wonder what team will take a chance at him now?

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The Boston Red Sox made a couple of roster moves today as they trimmed off five spots off their Spring Training roster.  Two players were optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket while three players were reassigned to minor league camp.

Devern Hansack and Jonathan Van Every were the two players that were sent to Triple-A while Lee Gronkiewicz, Michael Tejera, and Jon Switzer were reassigned to minor league camp.

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Josh Beckett is not planning on going to Japan when the Red Sox open the 2008 season against the Oakland Athletics.  Beckett will more then likely stay back in the states to rest his back which has slowed him down in spring training.

It is unsure if Beckett will be able to pitch when the team returns to the states as well.  Right now they do not want to rush bringing him back to have him injure the back even more.  Rest is about the only thing Beckett can do to hopefully get these spasms out of his back.

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Jonathan Papelbon didn’t get the $900,000 deal that he was hoping for, but he did get a pretty nice raise to $775,000 from the Boston Red Sox.  Papelbon only has two years of service under his belt so he wasn’t eligible for salary arbitration yet.  If he continues to pitch good, he will have a very nice pay riase next off season.

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