SEATTLE, AP – Ichiro Suzuki and possibly Hideki Matsui will begin the 2012 season playing before their countrymen.
The Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics will open next season in Japan with a two-game series at Tokyo Dome on March 28 and 29, the Major League Baseball commissioner’s office announced on Wednesday. The teams will also play two yet-to-be scheduled exhibition games during the trip.
The teams will leave their spring training homes in Arizona on March 22 and return on March 30.
The A’s will be the home team in both games.
This will be the fourth Japan opener, following the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs (2000), the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay (2004), and Boston and Oakland (2008).