TheMajor League Baseball Opening Series Japan 2008, orMLB Japan Opening Series 2008, was played on March 25 and 26, 2008, inTokyo,Japan. The2007 World Series championBoston Red Sox and theOakland Athletics split a two-game series played atTokyo Dome. These were the first games of theMajor League Baseball (MLB)2008 regular season.

Boston won a closely fought and entertaining opening game in Japan, courtesy of aManny Ramírez 2RBIdouble in the top of the 10th inning.Daisuke Matsuzaka started very shakily, not able to control hiscurveball as he gave up tworuns, including aMark Ellishome run in the firstinning and issuing fivewalks through his five innings. However, he settled down to retire the last sevenbatters he faced.Joe Blanton started for Oakland and pitched solidly through the first five innings. However, he lost control of his pitches in the sixth inning, and gave up three runs. Ramirez drove in two with a double andBrandon Moss (a very late replacement forJ. D. Drew) drove in the third run with an RBI single. In the bottom half of sixth,Kyle Snyder failed to hold on to the lead, giving up a two-run homer toJack Hannahan. Bothbullpens were then solid, giving up no runs until the ninth inning.Huston Street failed to close out the game, giving up a solo home run to Moss. WithHideki Okajima's scoreless 9th inning, the game was sent intoextra innings. Street stayed in the game despite blowing thesave in the 9th inning. With a man on second and two out, Oakland chose tointentionally walkDavid Ortiz, who seemed to have struggled in his earlierat bats. Ramirez then knocked in his third and fourth RBIs with his second double of the game.Jonathan Papelbon came on to close out the game for Boston. With a man on first and one out,Emil Brown hit a double into right field, scoringDaric Barton. However, Brown chose to attempt to advance to third base, but was caught in arundown, and was tagged out. This resulted in a 2 out, nobody on situation, instead of a 1 out, 1 on situation. Papelbon gave up two further singles, but retiredKurt Suzuki to end the game.

In a side note for fans in the United States, many viewers of theDirecTV service were unable to watch the game on eitherESPN2, which had the national game rights, orNESN, which had broadcast rights for the Red Sox in that region. Thetransponders from which the channels areuplinked to viewers of thestandard-definition feed failed some hours before the first pitch at 6 a.m.Eastern time. The screen showed a "searching for satellite signal" error message, then DirecTV put up a static screen apologizing for technical difficulties. Those watching DirecTV on ahigh-definition feed were not affected. The error was not fixed until approximately noon ET; both networks replayed the game coverage after that, as had been scheduled due to the enormous time difference between the U.S. and Japan.

Oakland comfortably won the second game to level the series at 1-1.Jon Lester gave up four runs in four innings, including a three-run home run toEmil Brown in the third inning.Rich Harden pitched six dominant innings for Oakland, striking out nine and giving up just one run thanks to aManny Ramírez solo home run in the sixth inning.Jeff Fiorentino added another run with a single in his first at bat of the season, driving inKurt Suzuki.

• List of Major League Baseball games played outside the United States and Canada

• Japan Opening Series

• 2008 Major League Baseball season
• Boston Red Sox
• Oakland Athletics
• 2008 in Japanese sport
• International baseball competitions hosted by Japan
• Major League Baseball international baseball competitions
• March 2008 sports events in Asia
• 2008 in Tokyo
• Sports competitions in Tokyo
• Events at Tokyo Dome

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata