Solid start from Brandon Knight helps American baseball team reach medal round
Thanks to a solid outing by Buena High graduate Brandon Knight, the Americans are in the medal round, right where they expected to be all along in the Olympic baseball tournament. It's just been a much bigger challenge getting there than they initially figured. Finally, for the first time during the Beijing Olympics, the U.S. team played a game devoid of controversy and craziness. John Gall hit a go-ahead solo homer to start the sixth, Knight struck out five in 613 strong innings and the United States beat Chinese Taipei 4-2 on Tuesday night.
"We always seem to make it a little too interesting," Knight said with a smile. "There's a little sense of relief (to be in the medal round). I'm not going to lie and say we didn't expect that. It was a goal."
Dexter Fowler, batting ninth, missed hitting for the cycle by a home run for the U.S. (4-2). His sixth-inning double against Taiwan reliever Lee Chen-chang gave the Americans a two-run cushion. Next for the United States is a today with medal favorite Japan in the final preliminary contest, Game No. 7, before Friday's semifinals. Manager Davey Johnson decided to go with Trevor Cahill on four days' rest today and save hard-throwing right-hander Stephen Strasburg to start Friday's semifinal against either Cuba or South Korea. Strasburg is the team's lone college player from San Diego State and struck out 23 in a game back in April.
"We've got a chance to win a gold medal," Johnson said. "That's what we came for."
Getting through this one without incident or injury meant a lot, too. The Americans have seen two players get hit in the head during the tournament, lost a heartbreaker to defending champion Cuba in the 11th inning and beat the Netherlands in a game that took 6 hours because of two lengthy rain delays.
"You know everybody's coming for our heads," Fowler said, figuratively speaking this time. "The USA's supposed to be the big dogs."
Johnson was down to 10 position players Tuesday, only one on the bench. Yet Matt LaPorta could return Friday from a mild concussion after getting plunked by China on Monday, and Jayson Nix also might be back after fouling a ball off his left eye against Cuba and needing microsurgery to close the gash. Lin Chih-sheng homered to start the seventh to pull Taiwan (1-5) within 3-2, but Jason Donald singled in a key insurance run in the eighth. Taiwan broke a scoreless tie in the fifth when U.S. first baseman Matt Brown booted a hard-hit grounder by Shih Chih-wei for an error that allowed Lin to score from third. The Americans immediately answered in the bottom half on Brian Barden's RBI double. Fowler scored on the play following his leadoff triple.
Right fielder Nate Schierholtz made a great throw home to get Chen Chin-feng and save a run in the sixth, a momentum boost for the Americans.
"That was the first clean game for us," Donald said. "The fact that we're in position is a nice feeling. It takes some of the pressure off. We've gotten a lot better as the tournament's gone on."
The Taiwanese squad, meanwhile, is still feeling the effects of losing third baseman and top hitter Chang Tai-shan for the entire tournament because of a failed drug test.
"It has cost us a lot," manager Hong I-chung said.
The U.S. team turned back to Knight, who started their Olympic opener against South Korea last Wednesday. The right-hander made an emergency start in July for the New York Mets when Pedro Martinez returned to the Dominican Republic for his father's funeral. Knight was then designated for assignment by his club so he could be on the Olympic roster.
"We were lucky to get him back," Johnson said.
Both pitchers struck out the side in the first. Knight, who found success mixing in more breaking balls this outing, allowed two runs on five hits and walked two. Kevin Jepsen pitched a perfect ninth for the save. The U.S. team squandered scoring opportunities in each of the first two innings, leaving runners on first and third in the initial frame and first and second in the second. Taiwan turned an impressive 4-6-3 double play to rob Lou Marson of a base hit in the second after Gall drew a leadoff walk from Taiwanese starter Hsu Wen-hsiung.
2008 The E.W. Scripps Co.
Japan gives its all to claim Olympic gold
The Olympic baseball competition begins Wednesday in Beijing and based on the rosters, it's easy to see that Japan is willing to do whatever it takes to bring home the gold.
The Japanese roster is made up entirely of the country's greatest stars while Team USA consists of minor-league players whose names most of you wouldn't recognize, at least not yet. These Americans hope to follow the spike marks of Roy Oswalt and Ben Sheets, who both led the way to victory in 2000. Major League Baseball decided that no player on a team's current 25-man big-league roster would be eligible to participate in the Olympics. Beyond those 25, all other players are eligible, a pool that goes above 3,000 professionals.
But it's not that easy because American Baseball Team USA must seek the permission of the player's parent club. Even with their hands tied, American officials have worked hard to put together the best possible team, especially after failing to qualify in 2004. In 2006, Japan won the inaugural World Baseball Classic but lost to the U.S. in their only meeting. The U.S. victory was punctuated by a missed call by home-plate umpire Bob Davidson that negated a Japanese run, possibly costing Japan its strongly sought victory.
In spite of the WBC championship, Japanese players and fans still remember the name Bob Davidson and get visibly angry at what they perceive as getting robbed in their head-to-head matchup with the U.S. Point being, these players and fans take great pride in how they fare internationally, especially against the United States, where it is believed the best baseball in the world is played. This decision to allow Japanese professionals in the Olympics is eye-opening to me, seeing how my Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks are in the middle of a pennant race. We will lose our top two starting pitchers and our starting shortstop, a slick-fielding, lefty-hitting speedster who has been hitting above .320 for most of this season.
It would be like the Yankees losing Mike Mussina, Joba Chamberlain and Derek Jeter for three weeks in August, a move that could potentially cost the team a spot in the postseason. The Japanese, however, don't bat an eye. Not one utterance of unfairness or the hint that maybe this is a bad idea. Hawks fans are proud to see their best players represent their country. Certainly they know what is at risk, but at the same time there is a great sense of pride.
The international stage is a priority and the owners and general managers in Japanese professional baseball gladly give up their best players for what could lead to Olympic gold and heightened national pride. You can be assured that their 2004 bronze-medal finish in Athens ignites a passion for redemption.
It's a pressing issue here, too, because this very well may be the last time we see baseball in the Olympics. Both baseball and softball have been voted out for 2012.
Our league will make some adjustments to the season because of the Olympics. For example, there will be a five-day break in August as the players prepare for Beijing, cutting into the number of regular-season games they'll miss.
Also, any team that loses three or more players to the Olympic roster will be allowed to increase their foreign-player limit by one while the Japanese players are gone. Currently, clubs are allowed to carry a maximum of four foreign players at one time, with no more than three pitchers or three position players; that number will go to five for teams losing three or more players. I don't know if I have ever been more interested than this year in how the U.S. Olympic baseball team fares. Team USA will have its hands full battling players who are older and more experienced in international play. Gold in Beijing would be an incredible feat for Team USA and one worth getting behind and rooting for.
As for Japan, anything less than gold would be a disappointment as it puts the best the country has to offer, minus a few Japanese stars now in MLB, up against the rest of the world.
Copyright 2008, azcentral.com.
Legion baseball team falls in tourney
The Batesville American Legion Post 271 baseball team closed out the season with a 12-0 loss to Anderson in the sectional tournament. Anderson scored three runs in the first inning. They followed up with one in the second and two in the third and fourth innings to put the game out of reach.
Batesville managed only two hits in the game. Brian Beard was 1-3 and Brandon Wallpe had one hit in two plate appearances. Austin McIntyre reached on an error and Jason Eckstein had a pair of walks.
Pitcher Pete Reding suffered the loss on the mound for Batesville. Reding pitched five innings and gave up seven earned runs, while striking out two.
Shawn Burcham pitched two innings in relief.
Post 271 forfeited the second round game and finished the season with a 3-18 record.
Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.
Baseball's striking out in Russia
Russia can often be found at the top of the international rankings in just about every sport, but baseball seems to be the exception to the nation's athletic dominance. And with Beijing acting as the sport's last hurrah on the world's biggest athletic stage, the world's largest country could have it even tougher on the diamond.
"When baseball is finished in the Olympic Games, we'll have problems," said Mikhael Kornev, coach of the Russian squad at the world junior baseball championships in Edmonton. "When baseball came into the Games, it was good for us; we had a country program. But right now, I think only Czech Republic, Poland and Italy have a country program. Russia doesn't give much money (to baseball). They like soccer, basketball, hockey."
Relegated to cast-away status in attempting to get players away from those popular team sports - "We go into schools and take guys who don't play soccer, basketball. We don't look at big guys or little guys. If you want to play, (we) take you," Kornev explained - the reduced funding adds another hurdle for a country that features only two baseball stadiums - neither with lights. Coming here, we took guys who could pay the money to come here. We don't have a good team because not everybody can pay $3,000," he noted.
The lack of talent showed on Monday afternoon, as the American team drubbed the Russians 25-0 despite having no advanced knowledge of their opponents. The win kept the U.S. undefeated at 3-0, while the Russians remained winless at 0-3. Their record isn't a surprise to Kornev, who admitted his team has been overmatched against some of their opponents.
"In group, we have guys who are (better than us), and then we have the games for eighth to twelfth place, who are the European teams - Czech Republic I see taking last place in the other group - and then we'll play good games against those teams," Kornev said. Drawing from a small pool of only about 100 players to make up their junior team, Kornev admitted they'd have a difficult time competing during the tournament, and acknowledged that his team isn't as talented as they'd like.
"We don't have very good guys with experience. Maybe four or five guys here could be on the national team. Four starters are good guys. The shortstop (Yuri Bakalets Akosta) is a very good kid; he has Cuban and Russian passports."
For a sport that was only introduced in the country in 1986, Russia is focusing not on their double-digit losses, but on the successes they have had in the game's relatively short history there.
"We have good teams in ages like 10 to 12. We've been to the Little League World Series seven times, and in the European Championships we always have good teams," Kornev said. "We have two pitchers, lefties, they play right now for the Minnesota Twins (in the minors). If they were here right now, we'd be more trouble for other countries."
2008 Canwest Interactive, a division of Canwest Publishing Inc.
Curwensville American Legion baseball gets blanked by Brookville
The Curwensville American Legion baseball team looked a lot like the field they were playing on Monday evening - sloppy. As wet weather turned the diamond into a slick, muddy disaster area, Curwensville suffered the worst effects of the elements, committing six errors en route to a 13-0 loss to Brookville at Thorp Twins Field.
"It was a mess all the way around," Curwensville head coach Adam McGary said. "Guys were getting stuck going around the bases ... But we had to get it in, we're running out of time (to play games). We had some fielding errors and some throwing errors and they really hurt us. We couldn't really come back from them."
Two first-inning errors led to three unearned runs for Brookville, and the visitors, who got an excellent effort from starter Mike Lindermuth, never looked back. Brett Sutika got the start for Curwensville, giving up six runs - three of which were earned - on six hits over two innings before Sam Gardner came on in relief, but he didn't fare much better in the long run.
"Sammy pitched pretty good when he came in," McGary said, "but he left a few balls there and they started hammering him the longer he threw."
Gardner gave up nine hits and seven runs, three earned - while striking out four and walking three. Brookville tacked on three more runs in the second inning to make the score 6-0, and added four in the fourth with the help of two of the teams six doubles on the day. Rob Zimmerman and Garrett Spence got the inning started with back-to-back doubles, as the heart of Brookville's order crushed Curwensville's pitching. Zimmerman was 3-for-5 with two doubles, three runs scored and three knocked in. Spence batted 4-for-4 with three doubles, two runs scored and two RBIs. Nick Bishop pitched in three hits, three RBIs and a run scored. Things held at 10-0 until the final inning, when Brookville patched together three more runs to cap the scoring. Lindermuth earned the win for Brookville, scattering eight hits while holding Curwensville scoreless.
Curwensville threatened in the first inning, but left Gardner standing on third. Lindermuth worked out of trouble again in the fourth, leaving a man on second, and despite giving up a single and hitting a batter to open the bottom of the seventh, the righty hurler maintained the shutout, with some help from an excellent defense behind him. Brookville turned three double plays on the day to help its pitcher keep Curwensville off the board. Gardner and Joe Bloom led the Haymakers offensively with two hits apiece.
The Progressnews
Legion team tops Wilton, 5-4
Hayden Metz got the final out on a broken bat grounder to short as the Ridgefield Post 78 American Legion baseball team held on to defeat Wilton, 5-4, on Tuesday night in Wilton. Ridgefield (4-5) led 5-2 entering the seventh inning, but Wilton rallied for two runs and had runners on second and third before Metz was able to get AJ Jacoby on a groundout to end the game.
None of Wilton's runs were earned as Ridgefield committed three errors.
"Hayden and I were talking after the game and he has now given up one earned run in 17 innings," said Ridgefield manager Drew Hall. "He's pitching great. He's adjusted real well to the wood bats. He has a real good two-seam fastball and he's getting it in on the batters' fists. He's broken around 10 bats already this season."
Metz (1-1) finished with a compete-game five-hitter, walking four and striking out seven. Trailing 1-0, Ridgefield erupted for four runs in the top of the third inning. Josh Lavardera and Bobby Dunphy reached on singles and Corey Mitchell was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Joe Scalzo followed with a two-run single, and Kyle Palmer walked to reload the bases. Garret Switzer then singled to drive in two more runs and make it 4-1. Ridgefield added its final run in the fifth as Scalzo had a leadoff double and scored on Switzer's RBI single. Wilton got one run in the fifth before mounting its final rally in the seventh. Last weekend, Ridgefield dropped two of three games to Darien. Ridgefield lost the series opener, 5-2, before rebounding for a 7-2 victory. Sam Robertson pitched a two-hitter for Ridgefield, striking out nine and walking one.
But Darien won the series finale, 10-6, in a game that featured 14 errors, six by Ridgefield and eight by Darien. Ridgefield began the season by winning two of three games from Greenwich. Metz was the tough-luck loser in a 2-1 defeat, but Robertson then pitched a one-hit shutout in a 3-0 Ridgefield win. Greenwich's only hit came in the first inning. Kyle Miller then went the distance as Ridgefield took the series with a 5-2 victory. After losing to Wilton, 10-8, Ridgefield fell to Norwalk, 2-1, with Robertson taking the loss despite pitching well.
"Our pitching has been really good," said Hall. “Errors have hurt us in a few games though."
Of Ridgefield's five losses, three have been by one run.
"Overall, I'm happy with our start," said Hall, who is now in his fourth consecutive season as manager. "I think this is the best team we've had since I've been here."
2008 Hersam Acorn Newspapers
Confident Rays believe future is now
This has nothing to do with a franchise that never won more than 70 games in a single season. This has everything to do with a legitimately good baseball team; here and now, playing its home games at Tropicana Field. Forget whatever you thought you knew about the Tampa Bay Rays. It's ancient history, it's useless, it's irrelevant to the topic at hand. You could say that a page has been turned for this franchise, but it's more like an entirely new book is being written.
Let us glance briefly at the numbers that will explain, clarify and underscore this phenomenon. The Rays, after victories over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, are 42-29, just two games out of first in the American League East. That's very encouraging, but it is just the beginning. The Rays are fourth in the AL in team earned run average. They lead the league in team fielding percentage. In the other half of the game, the Rays are a mere ninth in the AL in runs scored. In a way, that moderate offensive output actually makes the overall picture even brighter. The Rays have created this early-season success out of truly sturdy stuff, pitching and defense. They don't have a single hitter having an out-of-his-mind, over-his-head, career kind of year. There is nothing of the fluke about any of this.
And as a bonus, the Rays also lead not only the AL, but the Major Leagues in stolen bases. Speed doesn't slump, and it helps in both halves of the inning. This is not a one-dimensional operation that the Rays have put together. If you just looked at the numbers, you would say that the biggest difference between the 2008 Rays team and all of its predecessors would be the pitching, in both quality and quantity. The rotation is reliable and more. At the back end of the bullpen, closer Troy Percival has made a crucial contribution with the revival of an admirable career. The Rays have done a great job of producing homegrown talent, but they also obtained Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano, in what will stand as an absolute heist, although a heist in an honorable cause.
But there is also an intangible difference in the 2008 Rays. There is not a sense of awe and wonderment that this team is achieving something. There is instead a belief that this is exactly what this team should be doing. Before Wednesday night's game, manager Joe Maddon received a gee-whiz kind of query about just how cool it was that the Rays would be given a chance to display their prowess before a national television audience on ESPN. Maddon responded, politely enough, but pointedly, that virtually all of the Rays' games were televised and that in any event, this was not a matter for the team's focus.
"I don't want us to focus on who is covering the game from a television sense," Maddon said.
It was a harmless question. But the answer was better than the question. All right, the Rays are young. But this does not disqualify them from success. It is as Tigers manager Jim Leyland says: "Don't talk to me about age. Talk to me about talent."
The Rays are both young and talented. But they don't appear to be unprepared for immediate success. Take the much-heralded third baseman, Evan Longoria, 22, so well-regarded here that the franchise signed him to a multi-year deal within a week after he was summoned from Triple-A. He was regarded as a tremendous hitting prospect, but his defensive abilities may be every bit as impressive.
"Everybody talks about his offense, but his defense has been Gold Glove to this point," Maddon said.
On Tuesday night, Longoria hit a mammoth home run and then made a game-saving play, with two out in the ninth and the tying run on third. He charged in on Reed Johnson's bunt, making the classic barehanded pickup and across-the-body throw in one motion, just in time to end the game. "The kid showed a lot of athleticism at third base," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "It was a really nice play."
The home run would have been enough for one night. And so would the play at third. But both in one night? Wow. But Longoria is not some youthful dreamer here on a pass. This team has the sense that its time is not a vague and distant future, but right now. "We've known that we have the talent and the players to do what we're doing now," Longoria said. "This team has grown. We've been able to come together. The atmosphere in here is the most exciting thing, to come to the park every day and just expect to win."
That is not an unreasonable expectation. The Rays have won 24 of their last 28 and nine straight series at home. More than that, against the very best opposition, the three first-place teams in the AL and the Cubs, who, after all, arrived at Tropicana Field with baseball's best record, the Rays are 13-11. Take that together with the second straight, tense, taut, dramatic, one-run victory, 5-4 on Wednesday night, there were even more reasons to believe in the Rays. "For us, it validates that we are playing well and we are a good team," Maddon said. "When you go through these situations where we're attempting to grow, you think you're good and you think you're better, but then you have to go out there and actually show it. It's not about coming close, and coming up short, and always saying, 'What if,' and 'We just missed.' You actually have to do it to get to that next level.
"We seem to play all first-place american baseball teams," Maddon said with a smile. "The whole schedule is littered with first-place teams. Everybody that shows up here is in first place. It's a great thing. Again, we gain confidence from that and you realize you can play against anybody. That's an important thought to maintain. The flip side is that we have to do better on the road against these teams. We've done pretty well against them here, but we have to take that composure and the focus and fight through those late innings on the road. We're doing better, it's getting better, but there are still some hurdles that we have to overcome."
Again, that is exactly the right approach to take; the focus not on what has been accomplished, but what is needed for improvement. In total, everything is different for the Rays in 2008. That would be different as in better. On Wednesday night, the vocal competition between Cubs fans and Rays fans in the crowd of 31,496, combined with the quality of play on the field, made for a terrific evening of baseball intensity. The Rays may not be better than the leaders of their division, the Boston Red Sox, but there are roughly 28 other clubs in that same boat. If the season ended today, although it never does when somebody says that, the Rays would win the AL Wild Card berth. This is not a dream. This is not a fantasy. This is a good baseball team, getting better.
2001-2008 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
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