Red Sox winners in 10th, 6-5

TOKYO (AP) — Boston, Japan, it doesn’t matter: Manny Ramirez strikes a winning pose for the Boston Red Sox.

In the earliest major league opener, the Red Sox started their World Series title defense with a signature Manny moment.

Ramirez stood frozen in the batter’s box, admiring his 10th-inning drive to center field off Huston Street, thinking it would be a three-run homer. Instead, the ball bounced off the wall for his second two-run double, good enough to lift the Red Sox over the Oakland Athletics 6-5 Tuesday.

Daisuke Matsuzaka excited fans at the start, and Ramirez at the finish.

“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. in Boston when the season began, and organizers tried to make it feel like Fenway Park by playing “Sweet Caroline” after the last out.

Ramirez, starting the final guaranteed season of his eight-year contract, hit a tying, two-run double in the sixth inning, and rookie Brandon Moss hit an RBI single that gave Boston a 3-2 lead and chased Oakland starter Joe Blanton.

Matsuzaka, pitching in Japan for the first time since joining the Red Sox last season, left after five wild innings and 95 pitches, and Jack Hannahan’s two-run homer off Kyle Snyder put Oakland ahead 4-3 in the sixth. Moss, playing because J.D. Drew hurt his back in batting practice, hit a solo homer in the ninth off 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.

Ramirez hit a drive to deep center and was sure it would be a home run. It wasn’t, and he had to hustle to make it to second.

Ramirez learned when he got to the ballpark that he couldn’t use the red-barreled bat he planned on using because it would distract pitchers. So he got some new bats in Tokyo.

“Maybe if I used my American bat that ball maybe would have gone,” he said. “I thought I hit it good. I couldn’t use my bat because it wasn’t legal. Thank God I got some Japanese wood that I could use.”

BOSTONOAKLAND

abrhbiabrhbi

Pedroia 2b4120Buck rf5000

Yukilis 1b4110Ellis 2b4111

Ortiz dh4100Barton 1b2200

Rmirez lf5124Cust dh4000

Crisp cf0000Brown lf4011

Lowell 3b4010Crosby ss5121

Moss rf5122Hnnhan 3b4122

Varitek c4000Suzuki c5010

Ellsbry cf4010Sweney cf3000

Lugo ss4120Sweney ph0000

Cora ss0000Frntino cf0000

Totals386116Totals36575

Boston0000030012—6

Oakland2000020001—5

DP—Oakland 2. LOB—Boston 6, Oakland 9. 2B—Pedroia (1), Ramirez 2 (2), Brown (1). HR—Moss (1), Ellis (1), Hannahan (1). SB—Suzuki (1). S—Pedroia.

IPHRERBBSO

Boston

Matsuzaka522256

Snyder1 1-322201

Lopez2-300001

Corey100000

Okajima W,1-0100011

Papelbon S,1131111

Oakland

Blanton5 2-373313

Embree1 1-310001

Foulke100001

Street L,0-11 2-333312

Dinardo1-300010

HBP—by Matsuzaka (Cust). WP—Matsuzaka. Umpires—Home, Rick Reed; First, Hunter Wendelstedt; Second, Tim Timmons; Third, Paul Nauert. T—3:39. A—44,628.