THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON - It's like the off-season never happened for Matt Garza and the Tampa Bay Rays.
Garza pitched seven innings of four-hit ball, and the Rays hit three homers off Daisuke Matsuzaka to beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3 on Thursday and win their opening three-game series.
Evan Longoria had three hits, including a two-run homer, and Matt Joyce and Shawn Riggans also homered for the defending American League champions.
"We just wanted to establish ourselves early in the season, set the tone and let the people know it wasn't a fluke," said Garza (1-0), who allowed one run and three walks, striking out five to improve to 6-1 in his career against Boston. "We're here to battle for a while."
Matsuzaka (0-1) 5 1/3 innings. The Japanese star was MVP of the World Baseball Classic for the second straight time, but his season debut more closely resembled his performance in Game 5 of last year's AL championship series, when he gave up three homers in four innings before the Red Sox rallied from a seven-run deficit to win 8-7 and force the series back to Tampa Bay.
"The mistakes really hurt him," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "They're a good team. We'd like to think we are. It will be a long, interesting season."
