OAKLAND — Hunter Jones strolled into the Red Sox’ clubhouse at 3:17 p.m. (PST), about half-an-hour after the team’s 8-2 victory over the Oakland A’s. The relief pitcher had just come straight from the airport after making a cross country JetBlue flight from JFK International Airport in New York City, which had followed another short flight from Rochester.

As Jones walked in — looking a bit weary while wearing an untucked, white dress shirt and jeans — some of the Sox players were walking out, heading to the plane they would soon share with their newest teammate, bound for Boston.

It was a day of airports, waiting, flights, and absolutely no baseball. And it was also one of the best days in the 25-year-old’s life.

It started when Pawtucket Red Sox manager Ron Johnson had to bang on Jones’ hotel room door at 3 a.m. after calls to the pitcher weren’t being answered. Johnson had to deliver the message to his pitcher — who threw six pitches for two outs in the PawSox’ loss to Rochester just hours earlier — that he was being called up to the Red Sox to replace Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was going on the 15-day disabled list with a mild strain of the right shoulder. Jones was to make his debut as a major leaguer.

Needless to say, he didn’t sleep anymore the rest of the night.

“I was up drinking coffee,” he said.

First Jones would have to catch a short flight from Rochester, before heading over to New York City for a 9:15 a.m. departure bound for the West Coast. But when the JetBlue plane Jones was supposed to be taking from JFK got held up in Richmond, Virginia, the lefty’s scheduled time to leave was pushed back to noon.

The problem was that he would need a fairly lengthy game in order to make it to the park before the final pitch. That didn’t happen. Thanks primarily to Tim Wakefield’s performance — carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning — the game lasted just 2 hours and 13 minutes. By the time Jones landed it was already over.

“I was trying to listen to it on XM (radio) on JetBlue, but they didn’t have it on,” Jones explained. “It was really long, but very exciting, though. It was very exciting. I couldn’t sleep on the plane. I was just really excited to be going over here.”

Jones signed with the Red Sox as undrafted free agent out of Florida State in 2005, and split his ’08 season between Double A Portland and Triple A Pawtucket, making a combined 48 appearances.

“What do you call that, the best intentions? It was a heck of an effort,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “He’s going to have an interesting day. He’s going to have a free steak on the way home.”