TOKYO — Daisuke Matsuzaka got the Tokyo Dome fans revved up, and Manny Ramirez struck the winning pose.
In the earliest major league opener, Ramirez hit his second two-run double in the 10th inning — admiring his drive from the batter’s box, thinking it was a three-run homer — and Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 6-5 Tuesday night.
“Ultimately, it was a great ballgame,” Matsuzaka said through a translator. “I hope people got a chance to enjoy it live.”
A crowd of 44,628, including fans from Boston, cheered at the Tokyo Dome, which hosted baseball’s opener for the third time in nine years. It was 6:10 a.m. back in Boston when the season began, and the organizers tried to make it feel like Fenway Park by playing “Sweet Caroline” after the last out.
Matsuzaka left after five wild innings and 95 pitches, and Jack Hannahan’s two-run homer off Kyle Snyder put Oakland ahead 4-3 lead in the sixth. Moss, playing because J.D. Drew hurt his back in batting practice, hit a solo homer in the ninth off Huston Street (0-1)
Then, in the 10th, Julio Lugo reached on an infield single leading off, Dustin Pedroia sacrificed and David Ortiz was intentionally walked with two outs, before Ramirez doubled off the wall to drive in two runs.
Jonathan Papelbon took the mound to his “Wild Thing” theme in the bottom half, but was hardly intimidating. He walked Daric Barton leading off and gave up a one-out RBI double to Emil Brown, who was tagged out in a rundown between second and third.
After a pair of singles, Kurt Suzuki hit a game-ending groundout, giving Papelbon the save and sealing the win for Hideki Okajima (1-0), who used to pitch in the Tokyo Dome for the Yomiuri Giants.
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