Aug. 22, 2008
BEIJING (AP) -- In one game-breaking inning against the Americans, Cuba demonstrated exactly why it has been so dominant on the world baseball stage for decades.
The U.S. team will find no gold in Beijing. And the Cubans are back in the very place the know so well -- playing for an Olympic title.
Alexei Bell hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to put the punctuation mark on Cuba's 10-2 rout of the Americans on Friday night.
"We knew it was going to be difficult to beat the United States, but it's always great to play against the U.S. and leave them out of the race," Bell said. "It's important both because of the sports and political history we have together."
Bell let his emotions show for the thousands of spectators. He raised his hand to signal No. 1 while rounding the bases, then Ariel Pestano added his own three-run shot three batters later to seal it.
Alfredo Despaigne hit his second homer against the U.S. this tournament and Frederich Cepeda also connected.
"The offense surprised me," manager Antonio Pacheco said. "We were well prepared but I didn't expect that many runs."
Anything less than gold will be considered a failure for the Cubans, who have won three of the previous four Olympic tournaments since baseball became a medal sport in 1992.
Cuba (7-1) will play Saturday night against unbeaten South Korea (8-0), and the U.S. (5-3) will face Japan for bronze in the first game of the day. South Korea rallied past Japan 6-2 in Friday's first semifinal.
"Playing for bronze isn't what we came here for, but it's what we're doing now," said American reliever Jeff Stevens, on the mound as Cuba started the eighth-inning onslaught. "We want to bring home a medal. We don't want to leave here empty-handed. Japan's thinking the same thing."
After the final out, the Cubans celebrated mildly on the mound. The team includes Antonio Castro, the team doctor and son of the country's former president.
Cuba finished runner-up to the U.S. in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics before winning again four years later in Athens. Capturing gold in China might mean even more to the island, considering baseball will come off the Olympic program for the 2012 London Games and might not be back.
Cuba also received a big boost from Hector Olivera, who earned the start at first base in place of Alexander Malleta. Pacheco benched Malleta after he claimed he was playing with a hurt wrist and blamed the injury for his struggles.
Olivera, making only his second appearance of the tournament, put Cuba ahead 2-0 in the third. He hit an RBI triple and then scored after second baseman Brian Barden took the cutoff and threw wildly past third. The Americans' defensive miscues hurt them in their two previous Olympic losses.
The big inning hurt, too.
"It was brutal," catcher Lou Marson said.
Cuba starter Norge Luis Vera pitched six strong innings, allowing only one earned run and two hits. Imposing reliever Pedro Lazo followed and was nearly as impressive in three scoreless innings, earning a save.
"I did my job. I came out with the game 4-2 and the important part was I shut down their offense," said Lazo, who deemed himself available for the gold-medal game.
Matt Brown had a sacrifice fly in the fourth and the Americans scored in the fifth when Lou Marson's shallow fly dropped between second baseman Yuliesky Gourriel and Bell in right field.
This was an anticipated rematch of Cuba's 5-4, 11-inning victory last Friday in which Jayson Nix of the U.S. fouled a ball off his left eye and needed microsurgery to repair the wound. He hasn't played since.
Afterward, American manager Davey Johnson accused Lazo of purposely throwing at Nix's head. Lazo and the Cubans vehemently denied it and Johnson later softened his stance.
Johnson planned to play both Nix and Matt LaPorta on Saturday. LaPorta suffered a mild concussion when he got hit in the head with a pitch against China on Monday.
This time, Bell got the first hit off U.S. starter Stephen Strasburg with one out in the second, beating out an infield single with the pitcher covering first. But Bell was thrown out trying to steal second moments later.
Johnson pushed back Strasburg's scheduled Wednesday start against Japan in the finale of the preliminary round so the hard-throwing right-hander could go in a more important game.
Strasburg, the probable No. 1 pick in next year's major league draft, out of San Diego State, dazzled in his Olympic debut but wasn't nearly as sharp and faced trouble in three of his four innings. Because Strasburg has thrown so many innings this year, Johnson took him out after 75 pitches.
"Under normal circumstances I probably would have let him throw 130," Johnson said.
In his previous outing, he carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and struck out 11 in the Americans' 7-0, rain-shortened victory over the Netherlands last Thursday.
Cuba was on a roll, too, coming off a 17-1 rout of China on Wednesday.
"We couldn't get any offense going," Johnson said. "We were in a really good position, we just didn't hold them. Too many mistakes."
Wukesong Stadium was nearly full, save for a few open seats in the outfield bleachers. Cuba's fans chanted of "Let's go Cuba!" in Chinese, standing to clap and wave their country's flag. The team even had its share of supporters from China.