Tokyo wake-up call nears for Red Sox, A's

TOKYO -- The regular season is about to start, and the Boston Red Sox's jet lag is fading -- but still not gone.

"The last couple of days have been pretty rough," pitcher Tim Wakefield said Sunday. "My body's still adjusting, but I think last night was the first night I got a decent amount of sleep and not waking up four or five times during the night."

He was awake enough to do some sightseeing for the first time on the trip Sunday before he pitched 5 2-3 innings in that night's 9-2 victory over the Yomiuri Giants, returning to his hotel in a cab about five hours before the game.

No touring, though, for Terry Francona, manager of the defending World Series champion. The skipper with tunnel vision sees his hotel, tall buildings and Tokyo Dome, not the shrines and gardens that are part of Japan's culture.

"I had a peanut-butter sandwich for Easter and something I wasn't sure what it was," he said. "We're in a different city, but it could just as well be San Francisco. It doesn't matter. I wake up, and I go to the ballpark."

He'll be there again today when his team works out ahead of Tuesday night's major-league season opener against Oakland, when former Seibu Lions great Daisuke Matsuzaka pitches for Boston. Joe Blanton is scheduled to pitch for the A's, who may have coped better with the time change because their trip to Tokyo was shorter. Both teams arrived Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Red Sox, winners of two of the past four World Series, will face an Oakland A's team coming off its first sub-.500 finish in nine seasons. Beating Boston will be tougher because Eric Chavez didn't make the trip after having two shoulder surgeries and one back operation in the past six months.