Food-wise, a lot of us are looking forward to having the comforts of home, and culture-wise, you feel more at home back in America, just speaking the language and little things like that. I think the biggest thing for us is just trying to get acclimated again once we get there, and getting back on the time.

We know going back will be tougher than coming here as far as the time change, but the biggest thing is that we have an off-day, and hopefully we can get back on our schedules in a timely manner. Those games against the Dodgers this weekend don't matter in the standings, so we can kind of have a few more days just to get back in sync. Hopefully that will help us out a lot.

Now we've been able to see what Dice-K and Okajima go through on a daily basis as far as living in a different culture. You get an even bigger respect for them and you understand what they go through. It takes a toll on you to have to deal with the other culture, and finding food. It's very tough for those guys to find stuff that tastes like home. I think people don't realize how tough it is and now we've gotten a taste of it.

On the way to Los Angeles, they want you to sleep for four hours. Who knows? The one thing I know is that you have to just try to get back on time as soon as possible. It could take two days, it could take a week. The biggest thing is just trying to get the right amount of sleep, and at the right time, and not take long naps during the day. You might have to go a couple of days without getting much sleep, and then hopefully you're so tired at some point that you'll just fall asleep at 12 and get about eight hours.

As far as what I'll take with me from this trip, I'll definitely remember the city and all the great things we saw and the overall experience of being in another country. Of course, I'll remember the food -- and how good it was -- and the people and how respectful they were.

For us, it was just fun to go around and eat the sushi and the Matsuzaka beef, stuff like that, just to try new things.

It's funny because you eat a lot of sushi here and the next day you feel really light and you feel like you lost weight. That's a little different than American food, where you eat a lot and you feel like you're gaining weight. That's probably the one thing we'll take away is that maybe eating a lot of sushi is healthy for you. Maybe I'll implement it in the diet a little more once we get back home.

When we got out there for Opening Day on Tuesday, it actually just felt like a normal game. We were just in a different environment and different stadium. It was a great win, too, and hopefully it will carry over. Every time we take the field -- even in the exhibition games we played here -- it felt normal from a baseball standpoint.

I think this trip was fun. We had a great time. But we'll see how it is going back. We'll see how it plays out in the end. Hopefully we can get just get back on schedule and be good to go for the next 160 games.

I did buy some Japanese souvenirs as gifts for people back home. I only bought Japanese stuff that you can't buy back in the States. I got stuff for my family members.

Tonight, we'll go out and eat some sushi and just check out some more sights with some of the guys. It's our last night of eating dinner here and just being able to hang out.

We'll just get ready for the game tomorrow. We'll go to sleep, probably around midnight and get ready to do the daily grind of the 2008 season -– same routine.

I'm looking forward to the sushi. It's very good here, it's very fresh and really good. It comes right off the docks here. It's great sushi. You've got to get as much as you can because you can't find this kind of sushi in the States.

Just watching the Japanese people interact, they are very respectful when they speak to each other. When they speak to their elders, they bow a lot to them. That's something that is sometimes lost in America but is a ritual here.

I also learned from Jeff Yamaguchi -– Oki's translator -– about the 45-degree bow. That's the most respect. I've gotten a lot of those. It seems like you get them all the time here. Jeff is older than me, so he says, "Give me the 45." I don't understand it all, but that's what he said. The lower the bow, the more the respect.

We get back into game mode on Tuesday. I treat every game with a similar mindset. We'll go out there knowing it's a regular-season game and we have to win and it counts on our record. We have to come out, be focused, not worry and just play our game. If we play our game fundamentally sound, we'll give ourselves the best chance to win every day. That's all we've got to do. Play the way we usually do.

The exhibition games were good here because it got us used to the time change and got us acclimated. We're used to having a crazy schedule. We get in late a lot of the time and it's rough during the regular season. We're very good at overcoming all obstacles. This is a little bit of an obstacle, but we'll go out and play hard and not worry about the obstacles. We'll worry about just playing a ballgame out of the 162.

OF course, the big story out here is going to be Dice-K pitching the opener in front of the Japanese fans. That will be wild and exciting. The fans here in Tokyo will be really excited to see him pitch and hopefully he can control his emotions. He'll probably have his adrenaline going. If he can do that, he'll be fine I think.

As far as the time change, I feel like I'm on Tokyo time right now. It's kind of tough when you play in the Dome though because the sun doesn't come in. It gets you a little off. But I think I'm acclimated. It's getting back that they said is tough, but hopefully I'll be able to get back in the swing soon after we get to Los Angeles. But I feel good now.]]> tag:kevinyoukilis.mlblogs.com,2008://1285.54742 2008-03-23T07:50:27Z 2008-03-23T07:53:16Z

Our first day here, we really didn’t have much planned other than just coming to the field. I walked around the Tokyo Dome yesterday, and checked out what it was like outside the stadium.

I had some sushi for lunch and came here to the park to have a workout. Last night was that Welcome banquet and basically I crashed hard at 9:30 because I was just tired.

Today, I just went and saw a little shrine right by the hotel. I took some pictures, there was a thing there to make a wish. I did that, and the last thing was, we went to where the government building was here, took a picture there and just went back to the hotel and then headed over here for our game today.

I feel pretty good now. The big thing is to try to stay up as late as possible tonight. That could be tough. I’ll make sure just to stay up as late as I can because we have to get ready to play those night games, starting on Sunday. That’s my focus now, is trying to stay up. I’ll just go around and check out Japan and look at stuff tonight, see some of the sights of Japan I haven’t seen yet, do a little shopping or whatever. Hopefully I’ll get some cool things.

On the flight over here, I made sure to only sleep for about two hours. I just took a little nap. Once we got here, I slept about four and a half hours. I took a little Ambien and got four and a half hours. I woke up and I was wide awake.

Some of my early thoughts from being here is that it’s very densely populated and very interesting. I heard there’s 14 million people that live here. The streets are very narrow, there are no big SUVs. The vans and stuff are even smaller. The trucks are small. But it’s definitely a city that has order and it’s cool to see.

It’s very americanized. There’s English everywhere, like the names of restaurants and stuff, so it’s pretty cool.

I went around with Hideki Okajima’s interpreter Jeff Yamaguchi this morning. We were just hanging out today. We had breakfast, and he was just like, ëLet’s take a quick walk’, so that was cool. It gave us something to do before we came over here. As we go on, I’ll probably just do some stuff and make sure I bring back presents for people.

I’ve heard that Japanese style baseball is very different, and we’ll see that in these exhibition games. But being a first baseman kind of stinks because I heard they bunt a lot so I have to move around a lot more than usual. There’s no Jason Giambi out here, where I’d have to play all the way back. But it should be fun, it should be interesting to see. It will be fun just to watch them as players. You never know, they’re could be a player over here that might come over to America and play at some point. It will be cool to see that.  It should be interesting.

Tokyo Dome reminds me of the Metrodome. It’s like being in Minnesota except for we’re not walking up all the steps to get on to the field like we do there, which is good. The dugout is interesting. There’s two rows. It will be very interesting because a lot of us guys, we like to stand up and look around. But we’re pretty good at adapting to our environment. I think we’ll be alright.

Of course, everyone is excited to see Dice-K and Okajima back here, but we’re treat ed like celebrities here also.

I think once everyone on the team gets back on their schedules, this is going to be great, and a little easier. But we’re having fun. We’re enjoying it.

We’re going to make the most of it. As long as you have an open mind, it’s a lot easier out here. But if you come in negatively, you’re not going to have fun. I’m positive, I’m having fun. I’m excited just to be here and play and I’m going to make the most of my time here.

If you go there with an open mind and you’re excited, it’s going to be good.

You just have to stay positive. Hey, it’s two baseball games that count and two baseball games that could be huge down the road, so we have to go out there and not be negative and keep a positive attitude.

The longest flight I’ve ever gone on before was Taiwan. In college, we went there my freshman year, we played three colleges over there. That’s probably about the same length flight as this one will be. It was long.

I remember doing a  lot of sleeping that time. But the biggest thing for me this time is I’m not going to try to sleep. I’m going to try to get accustomed to their time zone as quick as possible and then when we get back, I’ll try to get back on our time zone as quick as possible. It will be pretty tough, but we’ll try to work it out.

First and foremost, I’m there to play baseball. I don’t want to do too much where it’s going to put a toll on my body. If I’m tired, I’m not going to go do anything, I’m going to try and get some rest. We’re there to play baseball and that’s the first thing. But hopefully we’ll have some time to check out some cool things and be able to see what Japan has to offer.

It’s going to be great for Dice-K and Okajima I’m sure. You can definitely tell they’re probably going to be treated like royalty and they always tell us we’re going to be treated like royalty over there because they don’t get to see Major League games very often. I heard there’s a different kind of cheering over there, and how they go about the game. We’ll see how they react. It will be fun just to see another culture in the sport of baseball.

I’ve heard Tokyo is very Americanized, so hopefully they’ll treat us well. I think the hardest thing a lot of times is the language barrier and just trying to get things, like food or whatever. But some of us guys who go down to Mexico or other countries, we can speak a little Spanish. But none of us really know Japanese. It’s going to be a different experience for us.

It’s going to be a very eye-opening trip. The key is to try to have fun and enjoy it because it’s something you might not ever do again.

Mike O'Malley is emceeing the night, and some of my Red Sox teammates also will be on hand. Come enjoy some cocktails, dinner, and a great silent auction featuring sports memorabilia and jewelry.

Here's the schedule for the night:
Pre-Game Report 6:00 PM - Silent Auction Preview
First Pitch 6:30 PM - Cocktail Reception
7th Inning Stretch 7:30 PM - Dinner
Extra Innings 8:30 PM - "Newlywed" Style Game Show

Tickets are $500 and you can purchase them at youkskids.org or at the box office at Mohegan Sun. Thanks for your support!

We've been here before, a lot of us. Some on other teams and some with us in 2004. This is great to win this and to be able to go home and celebrate it with all of our great fans.

It's a little different, the fact that it's the second time around. You get used to it a little bit more and that's a good thing. It's exciting each time you win. In 2004, it was the most unbelievable thing and people were going crazy. It had been 86 years. Now you're almost expected to do it.

Some people doubted us all year -- people were worried about the Yankees and they should have just been enjoy our success of being in first place all year. But we had a lot of fans didn't doubt us and they stayed with us and cheered us on, and this is awesome that they get to enjoy this.

To come back from 3-1 against Cleveland, it showed you that we're both a resilient team and a great team. We're the best team in baseball this year so we're excited to pull this off. It's unbelievable to win a World Series again.

We just went out and played this year from day one and had a great team all along. Every time you win it all, it takes a little bit of luck here and there. But it comes down to making the most of your opportunities and we did that.

Like I said all along, you just play for the day. Everything isn't about the stats. When the postseason comes around, it doesn't matter about anything but winning.

In October, we just played great ball and clicked on all cylinders and got good pitching. Good pitching leads you all the way. We also had timely hitting. We had a lot of guys who stepped up and had great years.

What can you say? We have the best team in baseball. We just can't wait to go home and celebrate. This is what it's all about!

We were up big early then they come back hard, but that showed the resiliency of this team. Those guys come back and score some runs, but we came back with some of our own and showed that we'd do what we needed to do. We did a good job tonight of playing the game the right way.

Dice-K pitched great, and also gave us a huge hit with his two-out, two-run single. He just got his pitch count up there in that one inning. You can't ask for more than that: a two-out single and 5 1/3 strong innings.

People in the media mentioned that we've now won six games in a row, but we're not even thinking about that. You can't look at it that way. We just go day to day. These guys won 21 out of 22 and now they've lost three in a row. You can't really go on the past. The playoffs is all about living for that day. It doesn't matter what happens the day before. You've got to go out there and play.

Pedroia and Ellsbury did such a great job tonight. They're rookies, but they're going out and helping this team win every night. Jacoby's double just fell in during that eighth-inning rally and that was probably one of the biggest plays of the game. We were able to get a little lead there for Papelbon.

I took in the first six innings or so from the bench and then replaced David Ortiz on defense for the rest of the game. It's just one of those things where you know it's coming and you have to deal with it and you try to stay loose and go in the game. This is not an easy place to come in late like that just because of the weather. It was so cold out there. It's tough to come in there, but it was great.

We're going to go home tonight and do the normal routines and come out tomorrow and get to the ballpark at the same time like we did today and go out and play the game like we always do. This team, whether we're down three games or down two games or up three games, we go out and play the game the same way. We don't take any day for granted.

Like I said when we were down 3-1 to the Indians, you play for the day, and today, we played really well. That's the bottom line, you have to play each and every day as best you can.

We know the Rockies will come out and play hard, and play tough like they did tonight. Hopefully we can get ahead and stay ahead.

Jon Lester takes the ball for us in Game 4, and that will be a huge opportunity for Jon. I think the big thing is, if he keeps his composure and throws strikes, he's going to be effective. He has great stuff. He looks strong and he's been throwing the ball well. If he throws strikes, that will be huge.

We went out there with confidence and really didn't want to settle for the split. We're just trying to keep going with this. Our pitching is going to take us as far as we go. That's the biggest thing right now. We have great pitching and our bats will come alive on some days. Then, some days like today, we just edged out with just enough. It doesn't matter how you win. A win is a win.

You'd have to ask them about their psyche, but for us, to go ahead 2-0 is huge. They haven't lost too many games lately. Hopefully this keeps them down. For us, we just have to keep rolling because that's a good team over there. At any time, if they start clicking, they have a great offense.

I think this team is always pretty confident. We're just playing good ball right now. We're doing everything well right now.

Schilling pitched great. Okajima was unbelievable. Papelbon pitched great. Pap's pickoff was huge. You have a great hitter in Helton up.

Now we go to Denver. We played at Coors in '04, so it's not brand new to all of us. It's something we haven't done in a while. We'll see when we get there. They just say to stay as hydrated as possible.

I think what we did against Cleveland really carried over and not having a lot of days off really helped. We got back in the swing of things tonight and we have to keep playing because this is a tough team across the way. The score tonight doesn't say it all. This team is going to play a lot tougher the next couple of games and we've got to take advantage of our opportunities. We can't look at the score. We just have to keep playing inning to inning and try to win each inning.

Dustin and I are both hitting at the top of the order and we're just trying to get on base for the big guys behind us. We know if David and Manny are swinging the bat well -- if we get on base, it just adds to the depth of our lineup and our team. When David and Manny are swinging the bat, this is hands down one of the best teams in baseball.

Even when we were up 13-1 tonight, the guys in the lineup were still grinding out at-bats and doing the best we could. We have guys that grind it out and keep at it and that's how you score 13 runs.

What can you say about Josh? There were a couple of balls hit hard but he worked out of jams. He keeps doing it. Hopefully he doesn't have to pitch again, but if we do see him again, we'll be excited.

He's throwing the ball so well and he has confidence and when Josh has all the confidence in the world out there, that's when he's at his best. He's definitely been at his best and we want to keep him going at that rate. When he's on, he's the toughest pitcher in baseball.

The Rockies, I don't think, looked that rusty. They swung the bats well. I think we just scored a bunch of runs and had timely hitting.

Game 2 is huge. We want to get a 2-0 lead. If we can get a 2-0 lead, maybe we'll keep them  off guard. We don't want to get them used to winning again because they can get hot quick and that's not what we want.

That's how I've tried to look at it since the playoffs started -- just play and don't worry about things too much -- and it's worked for me so far.

I've been swinging the bat real well in the playoffs and feel good and I think the main reason is I'm healthy. I think that's the biggest thing. There are little things here and there during the year that nagged at me and when you feel healthy and feel good, good things usually happen. I'm really excited just to get out there and play. Adrenaline helps this time of year too when you play in these games and these situations. You don't feel a lot of the aches that you go through in the second half of the season. To be healthy and playing in October is awesome.

You just have to use your adrenaline in the right way, because it can be good and bad. If you use too much adrenaline and get too excited, that's when you get in a funk. The easiest thing is to just try to relax and try to keep it simple and do the little things. Try not to do too much. I think when you try to do too much, that's when you fall into a bad groove.

The Rockies are a good, young team and they're hot -- real hot, obviously. Hopefully they slow down against us and we come out and swing the bats and pitch well. For us, it's all about playing our game. That's all we can worry about is us. We can't worry about the other team. We always feel we can win any game as long as we go out there and play our game.

We played these guys in June and they took two out of three from us, but we can't take too much from that series that will help us in this one. Maybe you'll remember the pitchers you faced or some of our pitchers will remember the batters they faced. But Interleague is always tough, it's always in June, that's early in the year. You can't assess it that much. This Colorado team is a lot different team now.

These guys have won 21 out of 22 and that's just remarkable. That's unbelievable that they did that. But that's in the past. It's amazing that they put together a string like that just to get to the playoffs and then to get all the way to the World Series. It's a great feat, but Game 1 is a whole different story. You can't look at past records because those records don't matter. Everyone is zero and zero. You have to put all that aside and play the game.

It's obviously great to start the series with Josh, but to tell you the truth, I was laughing at everyone obsessing about Josh needing to pitch Games 4 and 7 for us to win the last round. I didn't think Josh needed to pitch Game 7. I thought Dice-K got a bad rap and people were dogging him, but he pitched well. People get on Dice-K, but Dice-K has pitched well.

As for Josh, you're confident as a position player when you start a series -- or a game -- with him taking the ball. You're excited because you have the best pitcher in the game maybe, or in the American League, pitching for you. Every time he steps on the mound, we're confident. That's the biggest thing. Having confidence in your teammates and your pitchers is huge. We have confidence in all of our pitchers. It's just that when Josh is out there, we feel at extra ease in the fact that when he's on ... he's one of the best pitchers around. The guy is the best pitcher when he's on -- he's shown it. Hopefully he shows it again in Game 1.

If you ask me what the key to this series was, it was just sticking together. There's a lot of people that are negative, and there's a lot of people that doubt us, and they want to get on the bandwagon and say we can't do it. You know what? We proved everyone wrong. We did it in 2004 and we did it again now. Maybe one of these days, people will start having a little more faith in us.

We have to play for each other. It's a business, both in the media side or other sides, where people might write bad things about you. You know what? Just take it and go with it, and take out all that aggression on the baseball field.

This was a tense game tonight, but when Pedroia hit that home run, it was huge. That was the biggest thing for us. We're just excited to put those runs across. Hey, we added on. That's what we wanted to do, extend our lead.

I know the Indians are taking a lot of heat for not sending Lofton on that hit down the line in the seventh, but that sign the ball hit is not usually there. Usually, that ball kicks right to the shortstop. That's one of those things I think third-base coach Joel Skinner prepared well for; that was actually a good call on his part. It just didn't bounce his way, and we were very fortunate he held him up. Nine out of 10 times here in Boston, guys get thrown out trying to go to second or going home on balls hit down there.

We get the double play right after that; that was just huge. We were so excited to get back in the dugout. That was the biggest turnaround of the game.

I had a good series swinging the bat, but I don't mind flying under the radar. I'll fly under the radar any day of the week. That's just how it is. I'll fly under the radar as long as we win.

To me, I'm just excited to play this game. I'm very blessed in life to be able to play this game. I'm very blessed the Red Sox have stuck with me. That's the biggest thing for me -- the Red Sox have confidence in me and that's all I need, for somebody to have confidence in me to let me play this game, because I love to play it. I give it 100 percent every day. I'm all about just having a lot of heart and playing the game.

I'm real excited just to go to the World Series, but I'm just trying to enjoy what we have right now and I'll just prepare myself for that first game at Fenway on Wednesday against the Rockies.

Getting on the board first is huge when you have Josh Beckett on the mound pitching gems. Sometimes all he needs is one run. Getting that one run was big, and then we were able to add on.

I think once we were ahead, 2-1, guys were definitely more confident, but also, guys knew that we needed to get more runs. This is a great Indians offense, and they can get back in the game with one swing. For us, we were just excited to get those runs across in the seventh and eighth. That was huge for us.

What Josh is doing right now is great. You wish he could go out there every day and throw the ball, but he can't. He's throwing the ball well, and we're exited to have him on the mound pitching, because he's dangerous out there. It just seems like he's locked in and throwing his pitches where he wants, and 'Tek is calling a great game. We'll take him any day of the week out there.

Game 6 back in Boston is going to be great. I think the fans are going to be a little bit more confident. It seems like it was a little bit of panic mode while we were gone, and I think it's huge for us to go back and get the momentum going in our favor and for us to win a game.

We know we're still facing elimination, so we've got to win that game on Saturday.

We're fortunate to have Curt Schilling on the mound in Game 6. He was definitely the guy that helped get us through 2004, and we're hoping he comes out and throws a great game. If he can throw a great game and we can get a couple of runs across for him, we feel that we can hopefully win that ballgame and push it to a Game 7.

We just have to go out there and play for the day -- just go out there and play as hard as we can and not worry about yesterday, and we'll just play for the present.

For us, we want to take a plane flight home on Thursday night and play a game in Boston on Saturday. We think if we can get to Boston and play, we have a good chance. We have Josh on the mound in Game 5. There's nobody we'd rather have out there.

We have to play like there's no tomorrow, because there isn't. You have to go out there and give your all, give it 100 percent. You have to battle. It's going to be a dogfight out there. We have to go out there and find a way to get back home.

I think a lot of times you're a dangerous team when you have nothing to lose. For us, we want to go back home. We just have to try to win one game.

What can I say about tonight? It just wasn't our inning. You lose ballgames when you can't stop rallies. I had that foul ball down the line that I couldn't come up with. I slipped a little, and Dustin and I sort of bumped into each other. If we could have come up with that ball, it would have been big. But we didn't.