Olympic Preliminaries, Wednesday, Aug 20

Cuba 17, China 1
Ouch. I can barely even look at this boxscore. That’s how ugly it is. Or is that just how different the level of competition is? Was China running its Youth for Communism Cadet Corps out there? Sadly, no. And so, like rubbernecking at a nasty car wreck on the highway, let’s take a look at highlights: Giorbis Duvergel (4 RBI), Ariel Pestano and Michael Enriquez (4-for-4 with 3 RBI) all homered for Cuba. Starting pitcher Elier Sanchez barely had a chance to work up a sweat; he was lifted after two innings of work, departing with a 9-0 lead. Even the vendors were glad when the mercy rule was invoked in lieu of the seventh-inning stretch. Boxscore.


Korea 10, Netherlands 0
Two things strike me as amazing about this game. One, that coming as it did on the heels of a 17-1 blowout, the final score doesn’t seem so bad. Two, it’s amazing how the field begins to separate after only one week of games—honestly, it’s probably best for everyone that the preliminary round is finally over. It was basically the Lee Show for Korea: Jongwook Lee was 3-for-5 with a run; Yongkyu Lee was 4-for-4 with two runs and an RBI; Daeho Lee was 2-for-5 with a homer and three RBI; and Taekkun Lee was 3-for-5 with two runs, two RBI and a jack. Together, the Lees accounted for six runs, six RBI and two homers while batting a collective .647 on the day. They recorded 12 putouts (one by Jinyoung Lee, who came in off the bench in the eighth) and two sacrifice flies. The only blemish? Yongkyu was caught stealing in the third. Boxscore.


Chinese Taipei 6, Canada 5
Finally! A game to write home about! And all of 1,600 fans were on-hand to see it! Taiwan wins it in the twelfth on Chih-Hsien Chang’s RBI single, and manages to end their 2008 Olympic experience on a high note. The Clutch Performance Fist Jab of the Day must go to Taiwanese pitcher Fu-Te Ni, who, thanks to the new extra-inning slow-pitch softball rules, entered the bottom of the twelfth with a man on first and second and nobody out. Unfazed, Ni struck out the side to end the game. Boxscore.


United States 4, Japan 2
It took the slow-pitch softball rules to get either of these two teams to score a run—this game was goose eggs all the way through the tenth inning. What the Cuba-China game was for offense, this game was for pitching. Four different pitchers went two innings each for the US, each striking out two; Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka and Kenshin Kawakami pitched a two-hit shutout for Japan until Hitoki Iwase gave it up in extras, in his second inning of work. Centerfielder Dexter Fowler was 2-for-3 for the States; Hiroyuki Nakajima went 2-for5 with a double for the Land of the Rising Sun. Both of these teams knew they were advancing before the game even began; this was more like the first round of a heavyweight boxing tournament, with both fighters sort of just feeling one another out. Semi-finals begin Friday. Boxscore.