Only a day after they almost lost to baseball giant South Africa, Team Canada, filled with little more than minor leaguers, reasserted their stature by defeating Team America which again was littered with Yankees, 8-6.
Adam Stern, a young backup outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, hit an inside-the-park homer, drove in four runs and made two sensational catches in center whilst for Team USA, another Red Sock, Jason Varitek, hit a 448-foot grand slam that helped bring the United States back from an unbelievable 8-0 deficit. But in the end, the kids from the Land of Hockey prevailed.
America was done in by poor pitching, one day after shutting out the Mexicans. Marlin ace Dontrelle Willis allowed five runs and six hits in 2 2-3 innings. He was relieved by Republican Yankee Douchebag Al Leiter, who surrendered two runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning.
Allegedly, if Mexico, who beat South Africa 10-4, defeats Canada by a score of 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1, then both Mexico and Canada will secure berths in the second round, ending Team USA's run. Tomorrow's game against South Africa would become a meaningless exhibition. Hmmm. Hard to imagine it wasn't to begin with, regardless of the ramifications of an early Team USA knockout.
*****
Cuba 8, Panama 6
Alexei Ramirez of Cuba slides home as Carlos Ruiz of Panama waits for the ball.
(Al Bello/Getty Images)
Panama sunk to lower depths, losing their second straight game this time to a Cuban team no one really knew very much about and a team which had been gutted over the years by superstar defections to America.
"I was very impressed with the way they played, because they play as a team," Panama starter Bruce Chen said, although obviously not impressed enough to donate his lunch money. "They do the little things, and they tried to win. They tried everything for the team to win."
With Cuba ahead, 6-4, Panama loaded the bases in the ninth inning and plated a run on a base hit by Olmedo Saenz to cut the Cuban lead to one. Cuban pitcher Yuniesky Maya recovered to strike out Carlos Lee, but then hit the next batter, Earl Agnoly, with the bases loaded, to tie the game at 6.
Venezuela 6, Italy 0
Piazza preparing for humiliation...
You can't say this was much of a surprise although perhaps the fact that Mike Piazza struck out three times was.
Marlin Miguel Cabrera, who has four hits in his first seven WBC at-bats, provided more than enough support for the interstellar Venezuelan hurlers. World Champion Freddy Garcia registered seven strikeouts and allowed just one hit while completing 3 1/3 scoreless innings.
Carlos Silva Silva got Piazza to look at strike three to leave a runner stranded at the end of the sixth inning.
"It was evident they threw their best at us tonight, and they were on top of their game," Piazza attempted to excuse. "I felt the stuff that I saw tonight was the stuff I'd expect to see in June, July and August."
Puerto Rico 8, Netherlands 3
Met Carlos Beltran had three hits, one of which was a homerun, and a stolen base to lead the PRs in an easy victory.
Pudge Rodriguez and Javy Lopez also homered for the PRs.
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