The Sox are International

Photo from the Boston Globe by Koichi Kamoshida

After poossibly boycotting the trip to Japan yesterday, the Sox mit safely there at around noon today.

When this trip to Japan was first announced, I had high expectations for the team, hoping they could win both of the games against the A's, and maybe even both of the exhibition games. As I read article after article yeaterday and this afternoon about their trip, I found myself just wishing that this team could make it back to America without causing some international incident that would require them to be detained for a 48 hour period.

Seriously, I don't think Japan is ready for this team. Godzilla is a cute puppy dog compared to them.

And how awesome is Papelbon? Getting a custom-made, portable poker table ordered for the trip. Too bad he didn't get much use out of it, as it got broken only a few hours into the trip. My guess? Pedroia was losing, and went all Jackie Chan on that thing. Because, y'know, it's the boards fault that Pedroia sucks, and if he wasn't going to win, nobody else was, either.

On a side note, Lester was awesome in his minor league start, today, throwing five perfect innings, with 8 strikeouts. The best part? He threw 42 of his 58 pitches for strikes. Let's hope this is a foreshadowing of what's to come.

He will travel to Japan tomorrow morning, and, as opposed to what the rest of the team was instructed to do, has been instructed to sleep most of the time on the way over. Let's hope he gets lots of rest, so he can be ready to take on the A's in the second regular season game.