by Nicholas Beaudrot Having lost already to South Korea, Team USA put together an inspired performance against the patsies of international baseball, The Netherlands. The team eschewed the international game, which features more speedy hitters and finesse pitchers, in favor of a more properly American "chicks dig the long ball" roster that features power and plate discipline on offense, coupled with lots of strikeout pitchers. Yesterday that bet paid off. Matt Brown and Matt LaPorta (who was the centerpiece of Milwaukee's deal to get CC Sabathia) both homered, the team drew four walks, and college fireballer Stephe Strasburg struck out 11 in seven innings to get the 7-0 win. Cuba and Japan are also medal favorites, and with a loss to South Korea already, we'll have to have finish ahead of Taiwan in order to get to the playoffs. Up next is Cuba, where a win would go a long way to pushing the team into medal contention. For those of you watching the medal count, bear in mind that the almost entire Chinese advantage in gold medals comes from two sports: weightlifting (six golds) and diving (four). Since Americans can expect to dominate the Athletics/Track & Field events, as long as the women's gymnastics team can garner a split in the individual competitions we should be in decent shape.
