Sox Set Japan Roster

The Red Sox finalized their 30-man roster Tuesday for the pair of exhibition games they will play in Tokyo this weekend.

The Sox will bring 13 pitchers, eight infielders, six outfielders and three catchers. All 30 players will be eligible to participate in the exhibition games, but the roster must be reduced to 28—with only 25 players eligible for actual game duty—before the Sox face the Athletics in the season-opening series Mar. 25-26.

The Sox play the Hanshin Tigers Saturday at 12:07 p.m. (Japanese time) and the Yomiuri Giants at 7:07 p.m. (Japanese time). Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of Boston. Clay Buchholz is scheduled to start against the Tigers while Tim Wakefield is slotted to start against the Giants. All four games the Sox play in Japan will be at the Tokyo Dome.

The travel roster is as follows:

Pitchers
David Aardsma
Clay Buchholz
Bryan Corey
Manny Delcarmen
Jon Lester
Javier Lopez
Daisuke Matsuzaka
Hideki Okajima
Jonathan Papelbon
Kyle Snyder
Julian Tavarez
Mike Timlin
Tim Wakefield

Infielders
Sean Casey
Alex Cora
Mike Lowell
Jed Lowrie
Julio Lugo
David Ortiz
Dustin Pedroia
Kevin Youkilis

Outfielders
Coco Crisp
J.D. Drew
Jacoby Ellsbury
Bobby Kielty
Brandon Moss
Manny Ramirez

Catchers
Dusty Brown
Kevin Cash
Jason Varitek

The Sox are scheduled to leave for Tokyo following Wednesday’s Grapefruit League finale against the Blue Jays at City of Palms Park in Ft. Myers, FL. They are scheduled to arrive in Tokyo Thursday night and will work out at Tokyo Dome Friday.

The Sox announced Monday that Matsuzaka will start the season opener Mar. 25 while Lester will start Mar. 26. Matsuzaka will start against the Blue Jays Wednesday while Lester is scheduled to start a minor league game against the Pirates’ Single-A affiliate in Ft. Myers Thursday. He will join the Sox in Japan Saturday.

Matsuzaka will be followed to the mound Wednesday by Timlin, Delcarmen, Okajima and Papelbon. Three pitchers—Aardsma, Corey and Lopez—are scheduled to pitch in a minor league game against the Twins.

The Sox are 7-10-2 in Grapefruit League play. Following their return from Japan, the Sox will play three more exhibition games against the Dodgers in southern California Mar. 28-30. The middle game of the series will be played at Memorial Coliseum, where a capacity crowd of 115,000 is expected.


News and notes: The Sox-Athletics opener is the earliest Opening Day in big league history. The previous earliest season opener was played Mar. 29, 2000, when the Cubs beat the Mets, 5-3, in Tokyo…The only other Opening Day played in Japan occurred Mar. 30, 2004, when the Devil Rays beat the Yankees, 8-3, in Tokyo…This will be the 17th time the Sox and Athletics have played on Opening Day, but only the second time since 1961. The Sox beat the Athletics, 2-0, in Oakland Apr. 1, 1998…The first regular season games on American soil will be played Mar. 30 (Braves at Nationals)—only the second time in history a regular season game will be played before Mar. 31. The Rangers beat the Angels, 6-3, on Mar. 30, 2003.