Yankees, Devil Rays Make Tokyo Arrivals

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays appeared tired when they walked into their Tokyo hotel in the middle of the night, fighting jet lag from their nearly daylong journeys.

Led by Hall of Famers Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson, the Yankees pulled up in five buses a little bit past 2 a.m. today -- 9 a.m. PST Friday. The Devil Rays, their opponent in Tuesday’s American League season opener, arrived almost an hour later.

“I think it’s certainly interesting to go take a look at another culture. I just don’t want to go 18 hours to do it,” said Jackson, in Japan for the first time. “Who does? I mean, it’s nice if I can snap my finger, but technology is not there yet. They’re not quite where I want to be in terms of how I want to travel.”

Said Yankee Manager Joe Torre: “I think I stayed up enough. I didn’t sleep a lot. That’s the instructions we were given -- a little bit, so you’re tired when you get in.”

Devil Ray Manager Lou Piniella was thinking even further ahead.

“It will be fun for our group. We’ll enjoy the hospitality,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll win some baseball games.”

The two-game series will be played at the Tokyo Dome.

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The Atlanta Braves have a backup plan in case closer John Smoltz has more elbow problems. They traded two pitching prospects to the Cincinnati Reds for right-hander Chris Reitsma.

Reitsma, 26, will set up Smoltz, who has 100 saves the last two seasons but is coming off his fourth elbow operation.

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Free-agent closer Ugueth Urbina and the Detroit Tigers agreed to terms on a $3.5-million, one-year deal that will reunite him with former Florida Marlin catcher Ivan Rodriguez.

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Kansas City Royal right-hander Miguel Asencio will undergo elbow ligament transplant surgery and sit out the season.

Asencio had surgery last June to remove a bone chip but had some pain during spring training. An MRI this week detected a tear.