The second Red Sox-A's game in Japan wasn't much of a contest as Rich Harden completely outpitched Jon Lester in a 5-1 A's win.
The injury-prone Harden pitched six innings, giving up only three hits, one run, three walks and striking out nine. When healthy, he is one of the top pitchers in baseball but that has been a big if as he's missed most of the last two seasons with injuries.
Lester (as he is prone to do) got into too many jams, walked too many guys and eventually left too early. Hopefully, he can curb this problem early in his promising MLB career but this is almost all we've seen since he debuted two summers ago. Lester went four innings, giving up five hits, four runs, three walks and four strikeouts.
The big hit of the game was provided by Emil Brown (surprise!), who cranked a three-run homer of Lester in the third. Manny had a solo homer in the sixth off Harden but that was about the only highlight for the Sox from the game.
Former Red Sox Keith Foulke and Alan Embree combined to pitch the final two scoreless innings for the A's, kicking a little more dirt on the Sox's grave. Oh well, the odds of both of those guys lasting through the year without getting injured are slim at best.
So now, the teams come back to the United States and have another exhibition series with other teams before meeting in Oakland next Tuesday for another Opening Day, kind of. The memories from the last two days will last Red Sox fans a lifetime, or maybe until next week. Who knows.
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