Pretty good day of baseball on Sunday as the World Cup moved to the final eight. The seedings still are not quite set as there is a couple of makeup games being played today, one involving the U.S. and Australia, who will be one and two in Group G.
Team USA beat Italy 12-3 and Justin Smoak continued his unreal World Cup, setting a cup record with his seventh and eighth home runs.
It’s a semi-surprise that the lone Asian team advancing will be Chinese Taipei, who in spots played very well, and will be an interesting underdog in the final round. It’s hard to pick against the U.S. team, which hasn’t looked back since dropping its first game to Venezuela. Cuba will continue to be strong and both the Dutch and Australians seem like an interesting wild cards.
Following Monday’s makeup games, the final round will begin with four games on Tuesday in Grosetto, Nettuno, Firenze and Messina (Italy). The final round will continue all week, with the Gold Medal game being played Sunday, 27 September in Nettuno.
9 responses so far ↓
1 DJ // Sep 24, 2009 at 5:46 am
The Netherlands humilated Taiwan yesterday, 11-2. And Australia nearly upset Cuba in a 2-1 loss.
2 DJ // Sep 24, 2009 at 6:53 am
And today Canada beat Venezuela 9–2, Australia downed the Netherlands 5 – 2, and Team USA continued its tear by knocking off Puerto Rico 3-0.
3 DJ // Sep 24, 2009 at 7:55 am
Oh, and Cuba smoked Taiwan, 8-0.
4 Shinsano // Sep 24, 2009 at 10:18 am
Thanks DJ. Hard to see anyone beating the US…whoever it ends up being the title game.
Here’s Baseball America’s coverage:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=6576
5 DJ // Sep 25, 2009 at 6:38 am
Team USA beat Cuba 5-3 today, and remains undefeated in the third round. And Taiwan lost once again, this time 8-2 to Puerto Rico.
(By the way, can we please stop hearing now that the Cubans are the best baseball players in the world? Thank you.)
6 Shinsano // Sep 25, 2009 at 10:14 am
Yeah, I was thinking that too. This post in Baseball America goes into it a little:
“Cuba, which has won 25 World Cups (no other nation has won more than three), has slipped in recent years. It hasn’t won a major international tournament since the 2005 Cup in the Netherlands, including championship-game losses to South Korea in last year’s Olympics, to the U.S. in the ‘07 World Cup and ‘06 Olympic qualifier, and to Daisuke Matsuzaka and Japan in the ‘06 World Baseball Classic. The Cubans have sent their top players to the World Cup—many of the same players who failed to make the final four at this spring’s WBC—and had an 11-1 record coming into Thursday’s game. However, Cuba continued to have some offensive struggles against the U.S., as righthanders Lucas Harrell and Ehren Wasserman, both White Sox farmhands, did the job on the mound, with help from Cedrick Bowers.”
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=6611
7 DJ // Sep 26, 2009 at 3:25 am
But how could that be possible, Aaron? Baseball is in the Cubans’ blood!
8 Shinsano // Sep 26, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Yeah, the dream is dead for a number of armchair socialists.
9 DJ // Sep 28, 2009 at 3:50 am
Tough times, indeed, in Castro’s socialist paradise. Team USA dominated Cuba in the World Cup finals, 10-5. It was close through the 7th, when the USA put up 6 runs. Viva la Revolucion.
In other news, Team Canada finished up its outstanding tournament with a 12-3 record and a 6-2 win over Puerto Rico in the bronze medal game. A vindication of sorts for Ernie Whitt and the team’s sorry WBC performance.
Puerto Rico’s 4th place showing is its best international showing in years. Could boost them a bit in the IBAF rankings.
The bottom line here, I think, is that the USA is now clearly a top–perhaps the top–country in international baseball. Cuba can no longer take anything for granted. The days of Cuban dominance are done.
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