The Art Neuro Weblog

Olympic Baseball - Day 4
Netherlands beat Italy 10-4. Netherlands out-hit Italy compressively, knocking out 14 hits to Italy's 8. The Dutch simply scored consistently through the game to rack up their 10 runs, while their fielding was good enough to support a pitching staff that could only strike out 4. Netherlands' catcher Chairon Isenia went 3-for-4 with 1 run scored and 3 runs batted in, leading the on-parade of hits from the 9-hole. Italy's clean up hitter Jairo Ramos Gizzi went 2-for-3 with a walk, scoring 2 runs and batting in one, but it wasn't enough against the Dutch.

News of the Day! Australia Crashed Through Japan 9-4. Australia's hitting crew finally got their game rolling, and even then it was touch and go. They jumped ahead 3-0 in the third, catching up to Japanese starter Naoyuki Shimizu, who was throwing a good game, striking out 5 and walking none. Then, the Japanese fought back to a 4-3 lead. The Australian bats finally connected in the Eighth to go ahead 6-4 and pushed the result over the line by adding another 3 in the Ninth, making it 9-4.

The news media in Japan are treating this like a shock defeat, head coach Kiyoshi Nakahata was more on the line saying that the team got ambushed after their historic win over Cuba. He commented, "Today's Australian Team was really tough. We wanted to win them all, but they simply got a hold of us. No excuses."
Starting Pitcher Shimizu said "I had an image in my head about their lineup from the data, but in reality, they surprised me with how they were able to make solid contact. I thought the hit balls would die on them more."
Director-Manager Shigeo Nagashima who is recovering from a stroke in Japan gave he advice to the Japanese not to dwell on it and face the next opponent freshly. So it won't prove to be a fatal loss for the Japanese who sit at 3 wins and 1 loss.

Well, Japan did ambush Cuba with Matsuzaka for their win, so it is conceivable that Australia ambushed Japan with their best pitchers. Historically speaking, it's not out of line for Australia to beat Japan in International competition, and they always do it with the bats (4-5 vs. Japan in Internationals). This is all part of the fun and games of playing Olympic Baseball. Team Australia on the other hand stand to benefit from this win greatly. Now they must win 2 of 3 from Greece, Italy and the Netherlands. This is all very much feasible compared to how the 3 wins from 4 games looked yesterday. Oh yes, Rodney Van Buizen had 3 runs batted in for 'Straya; good on him! "Oi, oi, oi."

Canada squeaked by Greece 2-0. This is a surprisingly close result. Consider that Canada are the current leaders on the table with 4 wins; admittedly they got them against teams that do not include Cuba or Japan, so it's doubtful they will go through without a loss. They're good but they're not that good. Or maybe they are. We'll wait and see. The Canadians were only able to get 5 hits for their 2 runs in a game where the Greek staff (with such great Greek names as 'Sean James Spencer') struck out 6, walked 3.

Clay Bellinger went 0-for-4 in the clean up spot again, proving why he's no longer playing for the New York Yankees. The rest of the Greeks were held to 4 hits. Now that I've put the knock on Clay, he'll probably go 4-for-4 against Japan.

Cuba beat Taiwan 10-2. Cuba bounced back from their defeat and trounced Taiwan. Looking at the box score line, the Cuban pitching hardly dominated with only 4 strike outs and issuing 2 walks, scattering 6 hits; the Taiwanese simply couldn't get their offense going against the Cubans. The Cuban offense unleashed 15 hits for their 10 runs, chewing through the Taiwanese pitching staff.

So all in all it was another fun baseball day in Athens. Reading the Japanese news reports has been hilarious. This was supposed to be a 'favoured and stacked' team. On paper they were supposed to be the best. As they say, I guess that's why we play the games to find out. It's not as if the Yankees win every game of their regular season either. :)

- Art Neuro