Hey in case you didn't notice it, and judging by the TV exposure this came got, you didn't, the baseball season opener happened yesterday morning at 2:00 in Tokyo. RF Ichiro Suzuki had four hits in the first game he has played in Japan since 2000 and 2B Dustin Ackley hit a homer and drove in the game-winning run with an 11th inning single as Seattle topped Oakland 3-1. RHP Felix Hernandez combined with two relievers on a six-hitter for the Mariners. The two teams complete their two-game series in Tokyo this morning at 2:00, with the rest of the league not opening their seasons until April 4 or later.
The game was tied in the fourth when Ackley homered and Oakland C Kurt Suzuki had an RBI double in the bottom of the frame. Seattle went ahead in the 11th when SS Brendan Ryan doubled and 3B Chone Figgins bunted him over to second, followed by Ackely's RBI single, a stolen base, and a single by Ichiro to pad Seattle's lead to make it easier on RHP Brandon League, who slammed the door for the save in the bottom of the frame. RHP Tom Wilhelmsen got the win for Seattle following two innings of relief.
CF Yoenis Cespedes, a Cuban defector who signed a four-year, $36 million contract this off-season, was one-for-three with a double and two strikeouts in the game for Oakland in his Major League debut. The capacity crowd at the Tokyo Dome seemed ecstatic every time Ichiro came up to the plate or touched the ball in the field. Ichiro has been dropped to the number three hole in Seattle's batting order and singled in his first at-bat when he beat out Oakland SS Cliff Pennington's throw to first for an infield hit.
Ichiro had another infield hit in the fourth and a clean single to center in the sixth before his extra-inning hit in the 11th. Hernandez pitched eight strong innings in a no-decision for Seattle. RHP Brandon McCarthy pitched seven strong innings in a no-decision for Oakland.
The A's were 1-for-14 with runners in scoring in position. Remember my opening? That's because this game wasn't broadcast live in the U. S. outside of the Seattle market. I was awake at 2:00, and I checked FOX, TBS, ESPN, and the MLB Network, but nary a game was found (the game was shown on a tape-delay by the MLB Network later yesterday). Don't get excited for this morning's game either, because you probably won't find it. The Mets and Cubs played in Tokyo in 2000, and those games were on TV. So were the Yankees and Tampa Bay (then "Devil" Rays) when they opened in Tokyo in 2004. And so were Boston and Oakland when they played in Tokyo back in 2008. Oh by the way, Oakland and Seattle were supposed to play a two-game set in Tokyo back in 2003, but the series was cancelled due to fears over the impending U. S.-invasion of Iraq, and I bet that those games would have been broadcast too. Epic fail MLB, Ted Turner, Disney, and Rupert Murdoch.
Today's probables are RHP Bartolo Colon for Oakland and LHP Jason Vargas for Seattle. Yesterday's game featured an hour-long tribute to the victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, narrated by former Baltimore IF Cal Ripken Jr., Yankees SS Derek Jeter, and Boston manager Bobby Valentine (who previously managed the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan for years), and absolutely no one from either Oakland or Seattle.
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