World Baseball Classic 2009: USA vs. Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico cruises past United States.

Their opponents were the ones who had an All-Star at virtually every position, lineup depth that an All-Star team might envy. But it was Puerto Rico that assaulted Team USA from all nine lineup spots on Saturday night, unleashing an offensive fury in an 11-1 win that ended in the seventh inning due to the mercy rule.
Every Puerto Rican hitter scored a run, drove in a run or both. Seven of the nine had at least one hit, and in total, Puerto Rico amassed 13 hits and four walks despite not completing seven full turns at bat. Two-time All-Star Jake Peavy, who started for Team USA, barely got out of the second inning.

"It was a group-type game," said center fielder Carlos Beltran, the offensive star of the game if you had to name just one. "Good pitching, good offensively, good defense. When you put all those things together, you have lots of chances to win ballgames, and thank God I felt good at the plate."

Geographically, Puerto Rico was the visiting team, playing on United States soil. But by any other measure, the team in the white uniforms was very much the home club. Of an announced crowd of 30,539, a good two-thirds sounded as though it was cheering for Puerto Rico, which also benefited from having the last turn at bat.

Whatever support the USA may have had from its home-nation crowd dissipated quickly when Puerto Rico jumped out to a 6-0 lead against Peavy and his mates.

"We felt as if we were playing in Puerto Rico," Beltran said. "There was great support. I wasn't expecting that it would be as it was. I thought there were going to be more Americans. ... We're in the U.S. but I appreciate the support, and we thank the Puerto Rican fans for having supported us because we really do this both for them and for Puerto Rico."

Beltran led the assault with three hits including a home run, a walk, three runs scored and two RBIs, but he had tons of help. Felipe Lopez cranked a mammoth two-run homer and an RBI double, Carlos Delgado drove in two runs and Ramon Vazquez scored twice. The final, mercy-rule-triggering runs came off the bat of Mike Aviles, who deposited a two-run single into shallow right field.

It made for appropriate symmetry because Aviles had been the only Puerto Rican hitter without an RBI or a run up to that point.

And then there was starting pitcher Javier Vazquez, who stifled a potent United States lineup. Vazquez lasted five innings, holding the USA to a run on four hits, striking out two without walking a batter. He was all but untouched through the first four innings before escaping a two-on, one-out jam in the fifth.

"As a pitcher on our team, scoring early gives me a little breather to keep going," Vazquez said, "a little bit of confidence, and the guys did a great job scoring six runs off Jake Peavy in the first two innings. That gives you a little breathing room knowing that if you make a mistake, it really doesn't matter that much."

Three of the first four batters of the game singled for Puerto Rico, with Delgado's RBI knock and Alex Rios' sacrifice fly making it 2-0 in the first. An inning later, Geovany Soto drew a leadoff walk and Lopez homered for a 4-0 lead, Beltran beat out an infield single for the fifth run and Delgado's grounder to short made it 6-0.

The runs kept coming even after Peavy was out of the game. Beltran made the seventh tally happen in the fifth inning when he walked, tagged up on a fly ball and scored on Ivan Rodriguez's double. Beltran led off the seventh with a solo homer against Matt Thornton, and after two outs, his teammates hung the remaining three runs on Thornton with two doubles, a walk and Aviles' game-ender.

The USA made it interesting only once, when it put runners on second and third with one out and one in against Vazquez in the fifth. But Vazquez struck out Mark DeRosa and got Shane Victorino to fly out, ending the chance.

"That was a big inning, especially for Javy," Puerto Rico manager Jose Oquendo said. "He worked hard in that inning to get out. He did what he had to do in that inning."

Puerto Rico will face Venezuela on Monday night in the winners' bracket of Pool 2 of the Classic. The winner of that game will be guaranteed a spot in the semifinals next weekend at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

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[Macroscki]

hey indyfan you are just yellous that we can kick your ass in baseball usa team is a mess, usa was just lucky.

Maybe usa control us but, in baseball, we control usa!!!!!!!!!!

[morellmartell]

wepaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

[samadafish]

Dude PR is not part of the US we are an asociated terretory

[Yoda3542]

yeah, too bad we won tonight

[albizu2010]

@Canadacup09 then why we beat u 11-1?

[nick94jrod]

@Canadacup09 hahahahaha the score board says youre wrong,Mercy rule,Damn..thank god they suck,Imagine if PR was good,perhaps 31-1? HAHAHAHAHA ARRIBA PUERTO RICO!

[GoyaaxD]

Puerto Rico Para Siempree ! & The USA Has Latinos On their teams . Latinos are the backbones of baseball

[Canadacup09]

@Snowintosh Yes they did.. Who didn't play? They even had Americans like Rios, Snell, Aviles playing for them too.

[Snowintosh]

@Canadacup09 Puerto Rico didn't bring their best players either.

[TheMarkitos111]

@Canadacup09 Ok you said chuck norris... you win.

[Canadacup09]

@TheMarkitos111 It was their D team and they still knocked you out. USA ended their tournament with their D team LMAO.. You still haven't named 10 good PR players in the MLB now. probably can't even name 5 bc there are no good ones. You are just jealous of USA because Chuck Norris lives there!!!

[TheMarkitos111]

@Canadacup09 Yeah that explains the 11-1 victory huh?? WE OWNED YOU ASSHOLES

[Canadacup09]

@TheMarkitos111 LOL they are all retired or washed up LMAO.. That's like me naming Babe Ruth, Ted Willaims, Joe dimaggio etc.. How about somebody from today? Javier lopez, Santiago, Rios? What's this amateur hour? PR sucks at baseball btw Pudge was juicing his entire career and Beltran is the most overrated player in MLB.. does he still play? He's always injured. Don't ever compare Pr to USA in baseball ever again bc USA owns them.

[TheMarkitos111]

@Canadacup09 Haha! EASY: 1. Roberto Clemente 2. Ivan Rodriguez 3. Carlos Beltran 4. Carlos Delgado 5. Bernie Williams 6. Orlando Cepeda 7. Roberto Alomar 8. Alex Rios 9. Benito Santiago 10. Javier Lopez I can keep going