The Art Neuro Weblog

Olympic Baseball - Day 3
Canada trounced the Netherlands 7-0. This was a bigger difference than was anticipated. The Netherlands are better than this, however, it does point to a good Canadian team. Canada rapped out 11 hits to Netherlands' 3. The Canadians also relayed their pitching well, going through 5 innings with starter Shawn Hill, then giving an innings each to Myette, Kusiewicz, Ogiltree, and Mears. In total, the picketing staff combined for 4 strike outs and 2 walks. The Netherlands in contrast had their starter Patrick Beljards knocked out after 3 innings, but ended up compiling 7 strike outs and 2 walks, allowing 7 runs on 11 hits.

Taiwan downed Greece 7-1.
Another game that is in line with predictions, the Greeks struggled to hit anything with only 3 hits, but did draw 5 walks and struck out only 4 times. Unfortunately, 3 of those walks were drawn by lead off man Nicolas Theodorou, with nobody behind him making much impact. Former Yankee utility man Clay Bellinger went 0-for-4 in the clean-up spot, in an awesome display of futility. The Greeks allegedly have 5 former major leaguers, but it seems they're not cutting the mustard.
Taiwan meted out 9 hits for their 7 runs, which is certainly a change of batting prowess from the previous days. Or perhaps the Greek defense plain stank and had no range. It is not as if the Greeks have a TTO Defense proof pitching staff, with their 4 strike outs and 3 walks.

Australia beat Italy 6-0. At last, the Australian bats did the talking - it's their strong suite coming into this tournament, and it's taken 3 days to turn up, and it didn't until the Seventh inning. Guys, I know you're laid-back and all, but that's leaving it late. The good news is that they delivered this result to Europe's number one team, Italy (I know, it's hard to believe Italy is the Euro baseball power, isn't it?). Chris Oxspring pitched 8 innings of 1-hit shut out ball, striking out 5 and issuing only 1 walk. He was relieved by Ryan Rowland-Smith who pitched the Ninth inning. The Aussies rapped out 12 hits; Thomas Brice went 3-for-5, David Nilsson went 2-for-4 with a walk, leading the way. They likely won't beat Japan, so they are in a hole.

Japan finally beat Cuba in an Olympic Tournament; the win was 6-3. That's right. The day finally came when Japan fielded its best against Cuba, and won. Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was Japan's Olympic Ace in Sydney 2000 and obviously still is the heart and soul of their pitching staff, struck out 7 and issued only 1 walk. He often talked about 'revenge' after the Japanese team went home without a medal in 2000; worse still, Matsuzaka had pitched absolute gems against Korea twice and the USA, with no wins to show for it, losing 2-1, 1-0, 2-0. While he scattered 7 hits to the Cubans, Matsuzaka shut them out for 8 innings, getting caught in the ninth. He was relieved by Hirotoshi Ishii who struck out the last 2 batters for a save. Norihiro Nakamura, also a veteran of Sydney 2000, went 3-for-4 and homered, thus exacting his 'revenge' on the Cuban squad that had held him down in Sydney.

I got an autograph on a ball from Nakamura in Sydney at the Japan-Cuba game. He looked at me and decided I wasn't Japanese, so he signed my major league ball, 'Nori #5' in English. "The f*cking pratt," I thought at the time, but as later events turned out, he did want to play in the majors and almost signed with the New York Mets. I guess he was practising his English. Kudos to the man. :)
He currently leads in slugging as of this writing, at, 1.300. Wow. The man is on a mission. What? No' OBP' on that page? It's the Olympics, so go figure. :)

- Art Neuro