In easily the most tense prelim game so far, although not scoring wise, the US defeated China 9-1 in baseball action to move to 3-2 in pool play. O’s farmhand Jake Arrieta threw six scoreless innings, striking out 7 Chinese, and then was followed by Mike Koplove, Casey Weathers (finally) and Blaine Neal, who never needs to get into a game again.

The main story was Matt LaPorta getting hit in the head with a pitch and the six hit batters in the game. Most were breaking pitches that Chinese pitchers had no control over but the last, a beanball that hit LaPorta in the earflap was in clear retaliation for Nate Schierholtz bowling over the Chinese backup catcher, who was in after their starter got hurt in a homeplate collision with LaPorta.

Clearly while Schierholtz was probably wrong to run over the Chinese catcher as he veered to do it intentionally while the ball was barely on it’s way, in retaliation for getting beaned in his at bat, what the Chinese did the next inning crossed the line. Hitting someone in the head is uncalled for, and you have to wonder if Jim Lefebre is the guy Major League Baseball wants spreading the game into China if that’s the type of ball he is teaching them. Lefebre, his pitching coach, and one of the Chinese pitchers were all tossed out of the game.

Next up for the US is a big game against Taiwan (no I will not call them Chinese Taipei). If the US is victorious it probably clinches a spot in the medal round, and winning their next two games can probably give them the #3 seed.

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