The Art Neuro Weblog

Olympic Baseball - Day 2
More Baseball was played overnight in Athens, and this is what Hermes, the messenger God says about what happened:

Taiwan edged Australia 3-0. For the second day in a row, the Australians couldn't get into the swing, so to speak. Apart from David Nilsson who went 2-for-4, the Aussies lacked consistent hitting. It may also be the case the Taiwan's defense is very tight. Looking at the pitching line of Yankee farm hand Wang Chien-Ming, he only has 1 strike out across 7 innings, with only 3 hits scattered. There's not much Defense-Independent pitching going there with only 1 of the 'Three True Outcomes'- K's, BB's and HRs.
So the Aussie boys made contact putting the ball into play, but it was hardly enough for a slick defensive machine like Taiwan. That's 2 losses on the trot for Australia and that's already setting them behind the pack substantially.

Canada cruised past Italy in a 9-3 show of strength. Canada scored 9 runs off only 6 hits, showing Italy's pitching must have struggled with the strike zone. The combined pitching lines of 6 walks and 2 earned runs and 4 errors by Italy show that both pitching and defense were not up to holding back Canada. Clean up hitter and catcher Pierre-Luc a.k.a 'Pete' LaForest led the way hitting a 3-run bomb in the 7-run second as well as going for 2-for-3 overall with 4 RBI. Pierre-Luc is of course one of the top Prospects in the Tampa Bay system. The Yankees ought to trade for this kid. Maybe the Australians should. :)

Japan fought off the Netherlands 8-3. True to past Olympic form, the Netherlands put up a great fight. They led early against Japan, knocking out starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma. Iwakuma for his part struggled with his control, walking 3 as well as striking out 3. Hitoki Iwase pitched an inning of relief, after that Hiroki Kuroda pitched long relief for 5 strong innings striking out 7 walking 3, and shutting down the Dutch offense. With a combined 9 strike outs and only 3 walks, the relief pitching dominated outcomes. At the end of the day, Japan piled on 11 hits for their 8 runs, but until the 8th inning 2-run homer by Atsushi Fujimoto, it was no sure thing.

Cuba squeaked by Greece, 5-4. While you wouldn't call this an 'upset', for Greece to come within one run of Cuba in a 5-4 game is very surprising. Although truth be told, 3 out of the 4 runs were scored against a shaky Cuban bullpen in the ninth. They had no business threatening Cuba for the rest of the game. In fact, for most of the game, Cuba's Norge Luis Vera and Danny Bettancourt dominated with 10 strike outs across 8.1 innings. Cuba's bats were also decisive, thumping out 10 hits with 3 homeruns against a ragged Greek staff that only got 1 strike out and issued one walk.

So from 2 days we can tell this: The Cubans make contact and hit for the fences, but their bullpen maybe dodgy. Japan pitches for the three true outcomes like no other team including the Cubans. Taiwan's defense is tight, Italy's isn't; and Australia have lost 2 closely fought games because they trusted luck and couldn't hit for power. The Dutch are good and may even surprise Cuba again as they did in Sydney 2000. Don't be fooled by the 2 blowouts on the first day. This competition is a little tighter than people gave it credit; and International Baseball is such a wonderfully different thing to domestic League-Season play. :)

- Art Neuro