One Down, 161 To Go

With the first game of the 2008 season officially in the books, all I can say is that I can’t wait until the games are on at night here in the States. Being up at 5AM is officially too early in the morning if I haven’t already been up all night. However, I’m still alive, at work and happy that the Sox grabbed their first win of the year. It wasn’t easy.

Dice-K was roughed up immediately by the A’s in his return to Japan. He looked like he usually does, five or six innings of solid pitching with one inning that looks like he belongs in Double A. Mark Ellis got things started for the Athletics in bottom of the first with a shot to left center. Things quickly descended from there and I wondered why in the hell I got up after only about five hours of sleep. Matsuzaka proceeded to walk hitters, hit batters and throw wild pitches. At the end of the disaster that was the first inning, the Sox were lucky to get out alive only down 0-2.

The bats didn’t have any problems getting on base this morning, but they did have issues driving them in once they were on. The Sox were able to manage five hits before they did some damage to the scoreboard in the top of the sixth. After grounding into a fielder’s choice and grounding to first, Brandon Moss showed up and became a major contributor to the game doubling to right and scoring Manny Ramirez in the sixth and then homering in the top of the ninth to bring the Sox back to a tie with the A’s after entering the inning down 3-to-4 and pushing the game to extra innings.. Moss was a last minute addition after JD Drew was scratched for back problems. Hopefully a little Sake and massage with happy ending can get him back on the right track. I keep waiting for Drew’s injury bug to show up.

Ortiz went hitless and was intentionally walked in the 10^th but still looked better and more comfortable at the dish than he did most of the year at the plate last season. However, I did like how he evolved and adjusted last season after being unable to hit for power because of his knees and hit for average almost better than he ever had in his career. Manny came up big to get things started in the sixth with a two run double and did the same in the 10^th to seal the deal for the Sox. As long as one of the “Big Two” is coming up clutch, I don’t care which one, I’ll be a happy camper this early in the morning.

The one glaring concern was the amount of pitching the Sox had to throw at the A’s to walk away with a 6-4 win. Five pitchers in all were used over the course of the game after Dice-K left the game after the fifth. Kyle Snyder, Javier Lopez, Bryan Corey, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon all saw action in the last half of the contest. None of them looked especially sharp except for the two middle relievers (Lopez and Corey) and Okajima. Papelbon looked nearly horrid and practically gave the game away in the bottom of the tenth. And thanks for some shitty baserunning by former Kansas City Royal Emil Brown, who is a gigantic dunce cap, the Sox got the second out where Brown should have hit an RBI double with only one out. With two out and nobody on, Papelbon put two more runners on base before getting Kurt Suzuki to ground out to first.

Overall both teams about what was expected of them. The A’s took shots here and there to build a small lead at different points in the game, and the Sox battled their way back into it with some power hitting blended with some clutch pitching when it was needed. Yes, even after I spend the last paragraph blasting (sort of) the staff. Hopefully tomorrow produces another victory in less stressful fashion for me when I’m up at 5AM. Again.