The Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox are finished with their two game series over in Japan and this time it was the Athletics that came out on top with a 5-1 victory.  It was the third time that two american teams split a two game series over in Japan.

The A’s got off to a good start when Chris Denorfia singled in Bobby Crosby in the second inning.  Emil Brown came up big with a three run homerun off of Jon Lester in the third inning.  That gave the Athletics a 4-0 lead after three innings but they weren’t done scoring as Jeff Fiorentino singled in Kurt Suzuki in the 8th inning.

Rich Harden was the winning pitcher for the Athletics.  He pitched a great ballgame and went six innings while only allowing one run.  That run came in the sixth inning when Manny Ramirez went deep for his first homerun of the season.  Other then that, the A’s pitching staff did a wonderful job against the potent Red Sox lineup.

The A’s will now head back to the United States and play three exhibition games against the San Francisco Giants.