Cuba too strong for Team USA

Cuba – USA 10-2

USA 000 110 000   2  6 2
CUB 002 101 06X  10 14 2

Box score

Recap on USA Baseball

In the end the powerful and experienced offense of Cuba was too strong for Team USA, winning the second semi-final 10-2 and joining Korea in the gold medal game on Saturday. It is the 50 straight final for Cuba at one of the five big international tournaments (Olympics, World Cups, Pan American Games, Intercontinental Cup and World Baseball Classic) in the past few decades. They now have won seven of the eight games played so far in Beijing and now meet with the lone opponent they couldn’t beat in the preliminary round. All is set for an interesting final.

However the score of 10-2 is quite misleading, as the game itself was close till the eighth inning. Cuba took an early 2-0 lead in the third, when Hector Olivera hit a RBI triple and scored on an error at the same play by second baseman Brian Barden.

Team USA cut the deficit to a run twice in the following through a sac fly by Matt Brown and a RBI single by Jason Donald. But Cuba regained the two-run advantage each time shortly after through homeruns by Alfredo Despaigne and Frederich Cepeda.

Still, the gap between the two rivals was not that big until Alexei Bell and Ariel Pestano hit three-run shots in the eighth against relievers Jeff Stevens and Blaine Neal to decide the outcome definitely. The Americans tried to rally a last time in the top of the ninth, putting runners on second and third with no outs, but Pedro Lazo recovered to close out the game with a flyout to second and two strikeouts.

Norge Luis Vera (W 2-0) started and allowed four hits, two runs (1 ER) and a walk in six innings. Lazo struck out four in three two-hit innings to finish the match for the save. Phenomenon Stephen Strasburg (L 1-1) struggled a bit in the most important start of his young career. He gave up three runs (2 ER) on six hits in four innings. He struck out five.