The start of another season is hours away….are you ready? Oakland will be the home team in Tokyo with Joe Blanton on the mound. Blanton did not pitch well against the Red Sox last year getting 1 loss and 2 no decisions in 3 starts with an ERA of 4.66. Dice-K will be under a tremendous amount of pressure pitching against his home fans for the defending World Series champs. The Red Sox need to get on the board in the top of the first to take away some of this pressure. Boston should do well since Youk has been swinging a hot bat and Ortiz hits .417 and Manny hits .667 against Blanton. Dice-K can have some rough starts with high pitch counts in the first before he settles down. He needs to limit base runners and stay focused in the bottom of the first. If the Red Sox can win the first inning of game one they will win the game.
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