Canada scored early and often against Dontrelle Willis and Al Leiter this afternoon and, sparked by the bat and glove of Adam Stern, upset the United States 8-6.Canada 113 210 000 - 8 13 1
USA 000 060 000 - 6 9 0
Batting in the 9th spot, Stern singled, tripled, and hit an inside-the-park home run, driving in half of Canada's runs. He also had two hits in Canada's first game, an 11-8 win over South Africa.
In center field, Stern robbed Chase Utley of extra bases with a leaping catch at the wall in the bottom of the eighth. Utley was celebrating what he thought was a three-run home run (which would have given the US a 9-8 lead) right out of the batter's box. Instead, Stern's grab ended the inning.
The US, which trailed 8-0, cut the to 8-6, thanks in large part to a grand slam (!) from Jason Varitek. (All of the Red Sox players are doing extremely well.)
Canada can clinch a berth into the second round if Mexico loses to South Africa tonight, or by beating Mexico themselves on Thursday night. The US needs to beat South Africa on Friday afternoon to advance to the second round.
Also: Lenny DiNardo started tonight for Italy against Venezuela. ... The Dominican Republic plays Italy tomorrow afternoon.
1 comment:
Happy to see the US go down. Can't in good conscience root for that team, but was quite happy to see Tek slam the ball out with bases loaded and 2 out. And to have that followed by him throwing out Koskie trying to steal for the 3rd out? Glorious.
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