Team USA Comes Up Short in WBC
March 23rd 2009 19:57
After making a run to the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic, Team USA loses to Japan, 9-4, on Sunday night.
Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched four-plus innings, allowing only two earned runs for Japan. Team USA didn't get the same results from their pitching rotation as Roy Oswalt allowed six runs, four earned, in three-plus innings. The poor defense by the USA in the eighth helped Japan advance to the championship game against Korea on Monday.
Team USA improved their finish from the 2006 World Baseball Classic when they placed sixth in the tournament. They still can't win a tournament where the game being played was invented on their own soil. Team USA is not fundamentally sound like Japan, Korea or Cuba. These countries create runs and don't wait for the home run. They also take infield during batting practice instead of shagging flyballs in the outfield. We should not look be defeated in our own, but at least this fourth place finish was better than the sixth place in 2006.
Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched four-plus innings, allowing only two earned runs for Japan. Team USA didn't get the same results from their pitching rotation as Roy Oswalt allowed six runs, four earned, in three-plus innings. The poor defense by the USA in the eighth helped Japan advance to the championship game against Korea on Monday.
Team USA improved their finish from the 2006 World Baseball Classic when they placed sixth in the tournament. They still can't win a tournament where the game being played was invented on their own soil. Team USA is not fundamentally sound like Japan, Korea or Cuba. These countries create runs and don't wait for the home run. They also take infield during batting practice instead of shagging flyballs in the outfield. We should not look be defeated in our own, but at least this fourth place finish was better than the sixth place in 2006.
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