TOKYO —

JD Drew hit a grand slam and Tim Wakefield threw 5-2/3 effective innings Sunday as the Boston Red Sox rallied to beat the Yomiuri Giants 9-2 to complete a sweep of four exhibition games against Japanese teams for the two major league clubs playing the season-opening series in Tokyo.

Hideki Okajima threw a scoreless seventh against his former team before the Red Sox open the defense of their World Series title with two games against the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday and Wednesday at Tokyo Dome.

The Japanese left-hander, greeted by a flurry of camera flashes on his every pitch, allowed a one-out single to up-and-coming infielder Hayato Sakamoto but got pinch-hitter Noriyoshi Omichi to line into an inning-ending double play.

Drew’s sixth-inning grand slam off left-hander Adrian Burnside, his second home run in as many games, turned a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead before the Red Sox added five runs in the final two innings, including a solo shot by Jed Lowrie in the eighth.

Earlier Sunday, Jack Cust, Travis Buck and Donnie Murphy each homered and combined for seven RBIs as the A’s routed the Hanshin Tigers 10-2.

Cust gave the A’s a 2-0 lead with a two-run shot to left-center in the first inning and Buck also connected off right-hander Shinobu Fukuhara to lead off a three-run third that extended their lead to 5-1 at Tokyo Dome.

© 2008 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

2 Comments

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  westurn at 03:10 PM JST - 24th March

  Excellent games by the American teams. The Japanese need to stop the yakyu and focus on real baseball. Especially the long ball power hitter angle ! That really hurt the J's They simply had no response to the power game the American teams provide. In short, baseball remains much more entertaining than yakyu !

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  kornholio at 03:52 PM JST - 24th March

  Like I said in a previous post which Kyodo news seemed to have left out. Giants pitcher Utsumi pitched two scoreless innings while striking out five straight batter (the heart of the Sox line-up). Utsumi had good command and was spotting his pitches on the corners while throwing sharp breaking balls. Garinger, a former Detroit Tigers number one draft pick, pitched two scoreless innings as well. He also plunked that little pest Pedroia on the back which made me a fan!!

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