The Oakland Athletics made sure they held onto the lead this time.
A's starter Rich Harden was strong on the mound and Emil Brown's three-run homer powered Oakland at the plate as the A's defeated the Boston Red Sox 5-1 in the second game of Major League Baseball's season-opening series in front of 44,735 fans on Wednesday at Tokyo Dome.
Oakland lost 6-5 in the first game of the series on Tuesday after the Red Sox rallied to tie the score in the ninth inning before winning in the 10th.