TOKYO, March 26 (UPI) -- Rich Harden allowed three hits and struck out nine over six innings Wednesday, helping the Oakland Athletics to a 5-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in Tokyo.
The decision gave the teams a split of their two-game set in Japan. They return to the United States for games in Oakland next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Harden (1-0) walked three and allowed a sixth-inning home run to Boston's Manny Ramirez, who had four runs batted in during Tuesday's game.The Athletics were up 4-0 at that point.
Oakland took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Chris Denorfia's RBI single and pushed that to a four-run bulge with a three-run home run by Emil Brown the next inning.
Mark Ellis opened the Oakland third with a walk. One out later, Mike Sweeney singled to set up Brown, who lined a shot over the left-field wall for his home run. All the runs came off Boston's Jon Lester (0-1), who gave up five hits and three walks to go with five strikeouts over four innings.
Oakland added a run in the eighth on Jeff Fiorentino's RBI single to left.
