Major League Play Lets Cuba Win, 3-2

Before a paid attendance of zero, but with close to 60,000 cramming Estadio Latino Americano’s seats and aisles, Cuba one-upped the United States again Sunday, this time winning their Pan American Games baseball showdown, 3-2, on shortstop German Mesa’s game-saving play.

The overflow crowd, admitted free of charge, was hushed for the first time all day when the Americans loaded the bases in the eighth inning with none out. But after Jason Giambi struck out, a sharp grounder up the middle by Charles Johnson was speared by the diving Mesa, who from a supine position turned an inning-ending double play.

“This is big league ball,” U.S. coach Ron Polk said, “and German Mesa made a big league play.”

Relief pitcher Omar Ajete struck out the side in the ninth, after Dan Melendez from Pepperdine kept the Americans alive with a two-out, two-strike single.

The game pitted two unbeaten squads that before the Pan Am Games had split six exhibitions against one another. Yet any defeat would have to be considered an upset by the Cubans, who do not have a player in their lineup batting under .350.

There remains a chance that the United States and Cuba will play again next weekend in the gold medal game, and both teams already are assured of being in next summer’s Olympics in Barcelona. The top four teams here qualify.

Said Cuban Manager Jorge Fuentes: “I think people realize Cuba and the United States are the two best teams, the most powerful. I would like to play them again for the championship, but my nerves would prefer to see the final score something like 9-0, not 3-2.”

Sunday’s was a game the Americans wanted badly, particularly with compatriots in other sports here struggling.

Johnson, the U.S. catcher, said: “You know how much this means to Cuba. We get here at noon, two hours before game time, and the stands are already packed. I’ve never played before 60,000 people before. I’m from the University of Miami and, believe me, this was more like a football crowd than a baseball crowd.”

Starting pitchers were Cuba’s Jorge Luis Valdes, who no-hit Canada last time out, and Jeff Ware, a right-hander out of Old Dominion who was drafted in June by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Valdes was replaced in the sixth inning by Ajete, with the score already 3-2 and Johnson again the batter. This time, with two Americans in scoring position and one out, Johnson looped a soft line drive, advancing neither. Craig Wilson flew out, ending the threat.

Most of the offense for the Cubans came from the game’s oldest player, 34-year-old first baseman Lourdes Gurriel, who homered in the fourth inning to tie the score and doubled off the top of the center-field fence in the fifth inning to drive in Cuba’s final run.

Ware went the distance, somehow, throwing 116 pitches in eight innings and constantly falling behind on 3-0 counts or bouncing pitches into the dirt. He had some luck, one Cuban runner being called out at the plate when Ware’s wild pitch bounced off the backstop right back to the catcher.

Although Ware denied being nervous, he said: “These Cuban crowds are incredible. It’s almost like a World Series atmosphere.”

Back in June, when the Americans lost two of three to Cuba in exhibitions played in Millington, Tenn., Ware was the unlucky loser of a 1-0 game in which he gave up six hits. Lazaro Valle--since lost to the Cubans because of a blood clot in his arm--bettered him with a 12-strikeout three-hitter.

What gave the Americans hope was their series a month later in Santiago, Cuba, when they won twice. That was a morale boost, along with Cuba having lost two of its top pitchers, Rene Arocha recently defecting while in the United States.

After Sunday’s loss, Polk said: “We’ve been beaten by these guys four times now, and three of them were by one run. I couldn’t help feeling today that this was one of those games we just weren’t meant to win.”

The feisty coach from Mississippi State even stood toe-to-toe with the third-base umpire at one point, arguing a call, saying later that he wanted to make sure the crowd didn’t sway the officials.

Then again, this is the same diamond where a Dodger farmhand, one Tom Lasorda, once approached a plate umpire named Orlando Maestri to protest a pitch call, spotted the handgun in his waistband and called out: “Maestri, you’re the greatest umpire I’ve ever seen.”

Ware repeatedly escaped trouble, runners reaching scoring position in each of the first five innings. He was staked to a run in the fourth when the swift U.S. center fielder from Stanford, Jeffrey Hammonds, took three bases on a nubber to the mound. Valdes juggled it for one error, then threw it down the right-field line for another.

Steve Rodriguez, another Pepperdine player, drove in the run with a grounder to second.

Cuba answered with Gurriel’s leadoff homer, followed by a costly error by U.S. third baseman Giambi, whose throw after Jose Delgado’s routine grounder pulled Melendez off the bag at first. Delgado took third on a hit-and-run single by German Mesa, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Victor Mesa (no relation).

It was 2-1 until the fifth, when Antonio Pacheco doubled to left and Gurriel doubled inches from the glove of Hammonds at the top of the center-field wall. Hammonds opened the U.S. sixth with a double of his own and scored on a single by Giambi of Cal State Long Beach.

“The game was there for us to win,” Hammonds said. “I thought we did win it when Johnson hit that ball.”

Hammonds was referring to the eighth, when he led off with a single. When Rodriguez sacrificed, the pitcher bobbled the ball. And after Chris Roberts, a power hitter from Florida State, failed twice to bunt, his bloop single filled the bases with none out.

Ajete threw a fastball past Giambi, a .360 hitter in Cuba. Up stepped Johnson, batting .368. He ripped one past the pitcher’s legs, toward center field.

German Mesa did a bellyflop, fielded the ball cleanly and flipped to Pacheco, who turned the double play. The low-key Mesa said later he was simply doing his job, keeping the ball from reaching the outfield, but his manager, Fuentes, said: “I’ve seen German make many great performances, but this was one of the best.”

The crowd rose to its feet for several minutes, having fallen silent after seven innings of nonstop singing and cheering.

“We finally had them quiet,” Johnson said. “I wish we could have kept them quiet.”