US upset Cuba to win baseball gold

Larry Fine

The United States dethroned Cuba as Olympic baseball champions on Wednesday, toppling their arch-rivals 4-0 in a stunning upset victory to claim the gold medal.

Overpowering pitching by starter Ben Sheets, who shut the Cubans down on three hits, and a questionable pitching strategy by Cuba manager Servio Borges tipped the balance in favour of the underdog Americans.

The victory was only the fourth for a US team against 25 defeats to Cuba in official championship events.

The Americans poured out of the dug-out to celebrate after leftfielder Mike Neill made a sliding catch to end the game and give the United States, birthplace of baseball, their first Olympic championship.

"I can't put the feeling into words," said centre fielder Brad Wilkerson. "It's unimaginable. I'm shocked."

Sheets, a prized prospect of the Milwaukee Brewers, was raised up in the air by teammates before the triumphant squad did a victory lap around the Olympic Park Stadium waving American flags.

The US triumph came in the first Olympics to allow professional players to compete in baseball, although the Americans were playing with a team of minor leaguers and former major league players.

Borges elected to use a committee approach to pitching in the gold medal game, starting relief pitcher Pedro Luis Lazo, and it backfired as the United States scored one in the first and three in the fifth inning off three Cuban hurlers. Sheets did the rest of the work.

Cuba won the first two official Olympic baseball tournaments, in Barcelona and Atlanta, and carried an unblemished 18-0 record into the Sydney tournament.

Their perfect record was ruined earlier in the round-robin phase when they were upset by the Netherlands, and their title was taken away by Sheets, who got offensive support from two of the more veteran US players, Ernie Young and Pat Borders.

South Korea took the bronze medal earlier on Wednesday, defeating their Asian rivals Japan 3-1.

Neill got the Americans their first run with an opposite-field homer to left-centre off Lazo in the first inning.

Lazo lasted just one batter into the second inning, leaving in favour of Jose Ibar after giving up a double to left by designated hitter John Cotton.

Ibar, the starter and winning pitcher in Saturday's 6-1 round-robin victory over the United States, came on and got out of that jam, but ran into trouble in the fifth.

The 37-year-old Borders, the 1992 World Series MVP for the Toronto Blue Jays, lined a double into the gap in right-centre, scoring Doug Mientkiewicz, who had walked to start the inning.

Ibar made a nice play to nail Borders at third on a sacrifice bunt attempt, but Brent Abernathy delivered a hit and run single to put runners on the corners.

Borges then summoned hard-throwing reliever Maels Rodriguez, who walked Wilkerson to load the bases before giving up a sharp single up the middle to Ernie Young that scored another two runs.

Rodriguez, who hit 100 miles per hour (160 kph) on the radar gun during the inning, struck Cotton on the hand with a pitch to load the bases again but got out of the jam.

The Americans might have been in the mood to retaliate for the plunking of Cotton, given the rough play that marked the teams' first encounter on Saturday, but they knuckled down to the business of winning the gold.

Sheets retired the Cubans in order from the sixth inning on, stifling the team with the best offense in the tournament to secure the first-ever US gold medal.

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