Tokyo Dome

Ichiro Suzuki and possibly Hideki Matsui will begin the 2012 season playing before their countrymen. The Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics will open next season in Japan with a two-game series at the Tokyo Dome on March 28 and 29 the commissioner's office announced on Wednesday. The teams will also play two yet-to-be scheduled exhibition games during the trip. The teams will leave their spring training homes in Arizona on March 22 and return to Arizona on March 30. Seattle and Oakland had been scheduled to play there in March 2003, but the series was scrapped because of...

Ichiro Suzuki and possibly Hideki Matsui will begin the 2012 season playing before their countrymen. The Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics will open next season in Japan with a two-game series at the Tokyo Dome on March 28 and 29 the commissioner's office announced on Wednesday. The teams will also play two yet-to-be scheduled exhibition games during the trip. The teams will leave their spring training homes in Arizona on March 22 and return to Arizona on March 30. Seattle and Oakland had been scheduled to play there in March 2003, but the series was scrapped because of...

TOKYO - Yes, they played "Sweet Caroline" in the middle of the eighth. And there were a few fans doing the "so good, so good, so good" thing while thousands of Japanese spectators sat quietly and wondered what in the name of Sadaharu Oh was going on. Welcome to Tokyo Dome, site of the Red Sox season opener Tuesday. The Sox defeated the Hanshin Tigers, 6-5, yesterday in the first of four games (two preseason, two real ones) at the Dome. They play the Yomiuri Giants tonight, then meet the A's here Tuesday and Wednesday.

TOKYO - Yes, they played "Sweet Caroline" in the middle of the eighth. And there were a few fans doing the "so good, so good, so good" thing while thousands of Japanese spectators sat quietly and wondered what in the name of Sadaharu Oh was going on. Welcome to Tokyo Dome, site of the Red Sox season opener Tuesday. The Sox defeated the Hanshin Tigers, 6-5, yesterday in the first of four games (two preseason, two real ones) at the Dome. They play the Yomiuri Giants tonight, then meet the A's here Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Kosuke Fukudome hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning yesterday to lead Japan to an 18-2 rout of China in the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo. The game was called after eight innings under the tournament's mercy rule. Seattle Mariners slugger Ichiro Suzuki, the only position player from the major leagues representing Japan, went 1 for 6 with an RBI. Hideki Matsui of the Yankees and infielder Tadahito Iguchi of the White Sox opted to sit out the tournament.

TOKYO -- For a guy who last weekend said he wasn't coming and kept tour organizers in suspense until showing up just hours before the team's charter flight was due to depart from Los Angeles, Manny Ramirez acted mighty happy to be in Japan. "Anybody know where I can find some good sushi?" said Ramirez, walking into a Tokyo hotel restaurant wearing a Washington Redskins jersey and accompanied by Carlos Ferreira, his first Little League coach from Washington Heights, the New York neighborhood in which Ramirez grew up. Ferreira, an operating room assistant in Columbia Presbyterian...

TOKYO - As soon as Daisuke Matsuzaka walked off the field at the Tokyo Dome yesterday afternoon, he was surrounded. Crushed, perhaps, by a cavalcade of media, cameras, and flashbulbs. And it wasn't even the first time he had addressed them that day. Even with his 15-minute press conference two hours earlier, the Japanese media were hanging on his every word, a lot like they were last season when Matsuzaka strolled into spring training and into the mob. His return to Japan, of course, is just as important.

FORT MYERS, Fla. - It's a year later, and the Dice-K phenomenon has dulled slightly. What endures is the question, "How good can Daisuke Matsuzaka be?" Winning 15 games as a 26-year-old rookie was impressive, but there were good times and bad. He spent the season learning his new teammates, the culture, and American baseball. He made adjustments with his pitches, and scaled down his vast repertoire and workout routine. He adapted to a five-man rotation after having pitched once a week in Japan.

NAGOYA, Japan -- What Big Papi needed, more than anything, was a nap. "Let me tell you, baby, I'm tired," David Ortiz said as he walked down the runway leading to the third base dugout in the Nagoya Dome, the fourth ballpark in four nights for a team of major league all-stars whose exhibition tour of Japan had begun to resemble one of those trips the Celtics make when they vacate the FleetCenter because the circus is in town. "I can't wait till I'm on the other side," Ortiz said, anticipating the team's return home tomorrow after an eight-game visit here in which he shared top billing with...

Japan defeated Taiwan 9-2 on Saturday in a charity baseball game on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Kenta Kurihara hit a two-run homer in the third inning to give Japan a comfortable 4-1 lead. Naoto Watanabe and Takahiro Arai drove in two more runs on sacrifice flies in the fourth and fifth innings. Sho Nakata had a two-run single in the sixth when Japan scored three more runs to put the game out of reach. Proceeds from the game will be donated to disaster-hit areas.

TOKYO - As soon as Daisuke Matsuzaka walked off the field at the Tokyo Dome yesterday afternoon, he was surrounded. Crushed, perhaps, by a cavalcade of media, cameras, and flashbulbs. And it wasn't even the first time he had addressed them that day. Even with his 15-minute press conference two hours earlier, the Japanese media were hanging on his every word, a lot like they were last season when Matsuzaka strolled into spring training and into the mob. His return to Japan, of course, is just as important.

FORT MYERS, Fla. - It's a year later, and the Dice-K phenomenon has dulled slightly. What endures is the question, "How good can Daisuke Matsuzaka be?" Winning 15 games as a 26-year-old rookie was impressive, but there were good times and bad. He spent the season learning his new teammates, the culture, and American baseball. He made adjustments with his pitches, and scaled down his vast repertoire and workout routine. He adapted to a five-man rotation after having pitched once a week in Japan.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Kosuke Fukudome hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning yesterday to lead Japan to an 18-2 rout of China in the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo. The game was called after eight innings under the tournament's mercy rule. Seattle Mariners slugger Ichiro Suzuki, the only position player from the major leagues representing Japan, went 1 for 6 with an RBI. Hideki Matsui of the Yankees and infielder Tadahito Iguchi of the White Sox opted to sit out the tournament.

NAGOYA, Japan -- What Big Papi needed, more than anything, was a nap. "Let me tell you, baby, I'm tired," David Ortiz said as he walked down the runway leading to the third base dugout in the Nagoya Dome, the fourth ballpark in four nights for a team of major league all-stars whose exhibition tour of Japan had begun to resemble one of those trips the Celtics make when they vacate the FleetCenter because the circus is in town. "I can't wait till I'm on the other side," Ortiz said, anticipating the team's return home tomorrow after an eight-game visit here in which he shared top billing with Roger...

TOKYO -- For a guy who last weekend said he wasn't coming and kept tour organizers in suspense until showing up just hours before the team's charter flight was due to depart from Los Angeles, Manny Ramirez acted mighty happy to be in Japan. "Anybody know where I can find some good sushi?" said Ramirez, walking into a Tokyo hotel restaurant wearing a Washington Redskins jersey and accompanied by Carlos Ferreira, his first Little League coach from Washington Heights, the New York neighborhood in which Ramirez grew up. Ferreira, an operating room assistant in Columbia Presbyterian Medical...

Hisashi Iwakuma had a shaky return to Japan on Monday, giving up six runs over four innings in the Seattle Mariners' 9-3 loss to the Yomiuri Giants in an exhibition game. Dustin Ackley hit a solo homer to left in the top of the first off Yomiuri's D.J. Houlton at Tokyo Dome. Former Philadelphia Phillies outfielder John Bowker tied it with a solo shot off Iwakuma in the bottom of the first. Iwakuma spent 12 seasons in Japanese professional baseball before signing with the Mariners in the offseason.

Kurt Suzuki hit a two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning and Tommy Milone pitched five scoreless innings and the Oakland Athletics beat the Yomiuri Giants 5-0 in an exhibition game on Sunday. Suzuki connected off Yomiuri reliever Levi Romero to give Oakland a 3-0 lead and Jemile Weeks added an RBI single to make it 4-0. Coco Crisp later drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 5-0. "It went out like a bullet," Suzuki said of his home run. "I hit the ball pretty well so it felt really nice.