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FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Right on schedule, Red Sox pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima walked toward home plate at 6:45 p.m. Monday.

AP Photo/Charles KrupaRed Sox pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka, left, and Hideki Okajima, right, were chummy with Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui before their spring training game.

Yankees left fielder Hideki Matsui ran out of his dugout a few seconds later for the arranged photo opportunity.

With more than 30 cameras -- still and video -- standing in an arc behind home plate, the Japanese players posed with the mound behind them, shook hands and repeatedly bowed to each other as photographers kept shooting.

At one point, Matsui in his dark blue jersey was asked to stand between the Boston players in their red jerseys.

"I said to Matsui-san, 'I'm sorry to bother you right before your game,' " Matsuzaka said through a translator. "He said, 'Don't worry about it. Thanks for coming over to say hello.' He wished me good luck, so I wished him the same and said thanks."

Matsui batted fourth and singled in his first at bat against Tim Wakefield. Matsuzaka rested after pitching four innings Sunday in a 5-3 loss to Baltimore.

The meeting of the three players before Boston's game with New York was the first since Matsuzaka reached agreement on a six-year, $52 million contract with the Red Sox on Dec. 13. Okajima signed as a free agent Nov. 30.

They chatted and smiled for two minutes before parting as the fans cheered.

Okajima and Matsui were teammates on Tokyo's Yomiuri Giants of the Central League from 1995-2002. Matsuzaka was with the Pacific League's Seibu Lions from 1999-2006.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press