Olympic Preliminaries, Tuesday Aug 19

Canada 4, Netherlands 0
Canuck starter Brooks McNiven rebounds from a rough first start to throw six innings of shutout baseball. Catcher Emerson Frostad (2-for-4 with one run, one RBI, and a triple) and (who else?) Michael Saunders (a double and a run scored) provided the firepower for the Maple Leafs. The Dutch, who have now been shut out in four of their six Olympic games, manage only two hits. As if the IOC needed another reason to contract baseball from the 2012 Olympics, a whopping total of 641 people attended this game. Yeah, that’s less people than went to my high school. We had bigger crowds for afternoon assembly. The last person through the gates was disappointed—only the first 640 received free goose eggs signed by the Dutch team. Boxscore.


Korea 7, Cuba 4
In the battle of two unbeatens, Korea bests Cuba for the first-time ever in an Olympic baseball game. Korean starter Seungjun Song bounces back on two day’s rest (he went Sunday) to throw 6 1/3 innings of three-run baseball. Left fielder Hyunsoo Kim doubled twice and scored a run; second baseman Youngmin Ko goes 2-for3 with two runs, two RBI and a stolen base. The Cubans, described by official Olympic coverage as lethargic, took the lead in the second inning on an Ariel Pestano that scored Freddy Cepeda and Alexei Belle; Giorbis Duvergel later singled him home. But Korea responded with five in the fourth, and Cuba could only muster a solo home run by Cepeda the rest of the way.Regardless of this outcome, both teams are now guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals. Boxscore.


Japan 10, China 0
I think this is the kind of score most people were expecting once China received an automatic tournament bid: the mercy rule is invoked here for the first time in these Olympic Games as the umpires call this one after seven. Japanese starter Hideaki Waiku goes the distance, allowing two hits and striking out six. DH Tsuyoshi Nishioka is a perfect 3-for-3 with a run, three RBI, and a homer. Japan ran like the pox over the Chinese starting pitchers, stealing four bases. Boxscore.


United States 4, Chinese Taipei 2
Who is John Gall? How does 2-for-3 with two runs, and RBI, a double and a sixth-inning jack sound to you? Centerfielder Dexter Fowler also helped the cause, going 3-for-3 with a triple in support of starter Brandon Knight, who went 6 1/3 and struck out five, allowing five hits, two walks, and two earned runs. Shortstop Chih-Sheng Lin homered for Taiwan, whose loss here eliminates them from the tournament. It was “win or go home” time for the US, who was missing their slugger Matt LaPorta after LaPorta was beaned on Monday. Reports today are that his original condition was much overstated. This is good news for the States, who wraps up a semi-final spot with this victory. Boxscore.