boston won a closely fought and entertaining opening game in japan, courtesy of a manny ramírez 2 rbi double in the top of the 10th inning. daisuke matsuzaka started very shakily, not able to control his curveball as he gave up two runs, including a mark ellis home run in the first inning and issuing five walks through his five innings. however, he settled down to retire the last seven batters he faced. joe blanton started for oakland and pitched solidly through the first five innings. however, he lost control of his pitches in the sixth inning, and gave up three runs. ramirez drove in two with a double and brandon moss (a very late replacement for j. d. drew) drove in the third run with an rbi single. in the bottom half of sixth, kyle snyder failed to hold on to the lead, giving up a two-run homer to jack hannahan.