USA Baseball roughs up Canada, 9-1
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The U.S. Olympic baseball team used strong pitching and hitting Sunday to beat Canada, 9-1, in an exhibition game at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C.
Brandon Knight struck out 10 and the U.S. team hit four home runs. The U.S. has outscored Canada, 16-3, during the first three games of a series that ends Monday night with a final meeting in Durham.
Knight, the 32-year-old Mets farmhand who is the oldest athlete on the U.S. team, allowed just two hits during five scoreless innings. He retired 15 of 18 hitters, and struck out six in a row before Emmanuel Garcia — the last batter he faced — flew out to center field.
“Once I started throwing my breaking ball for a strike, that makes my fastball a little bit better,” Knight told the Associated Press. “It’s not like I can blow people away with what I have, but once I get the breaking ball over, it helps out a little bit.”
Matt LaPorta and Mike Hessman homered in the second inning, Nate Schierholtz hit a grand slam in the eighth and Terry Tiffee also homered.
“It takes a game or two to get on a roll,” Schierholtz told the AP. “The last two games, everyone on this team can hit, so it was just a matter of time before we came around and started scoring some runs for the pitchers.”
-- Greg Johnson