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Cuba-US match ugly on the eye

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-16 09:12

Controversy erupted after Cuba's 5-4 victory over United States in Olympic baseball at the Wukesong Sports Center Baseball Field yesterday, after US manager Davey Johnson accused a Cuban pitcher of trying to injure US batter Jayson Nix, who was left with a serious eye injury.

Nix, who hit a home run earlier in the game, was hospitalized after being struck in the left eye when an 11th-inning fastball from Cuban hurler Pedro Luis Lazo struck his bat as he tried to bunt and deflected into his face.

"I'm sure he was throwing at his head," Johnson said ... There's a lot of blood, inside and outside of the eye."

Lazo denied the pitch that struck Nix was thrown intentionally to hurt the top Major League Baseball prospect. "I'm not accustomed to throwing at people. It's not good. As pitchers, we just try to get the batter out," Lazo said.

Defending champion Cuba is seeking a fourth Olympic gold medal in five tries in the eight-team tournament. Four teams will advance from round-robin play into next Friday's semi-finals.

Michel Enriquez smacked a two-run double in the 11th inning to give Cuba a 5-3 lead under a new tie-breaker system that allows teams to start wherever they like in their batting order and with runners on first and second base.

Cuban manager Antonio Pacheco fired back at Johnson, saying the pitch was not intentional.

Johnson played down the political rivalry as anything more than facing just another opponent, but was seething over the injury to Nix, who turns 26 three days after the Olympics end.

The checkered history between the teams in a sport destined to be deleted from the Olympic lineup after Beijing includes a 2000 Olympic meeting when a Cuban player slid into home plate and shoved his spikes into US catcher Pat Borders, sending the former major leaguer to the ground writhing in pain.

In its first Olympic baseball competition, China upstaged Chinese Taipei 8-7 yesterday in a game that went into extra innings and stopped work on most parts of the island as incredulous fans watched their team lose to the newcomers of the event.

"They should all go jump in the sea. This is the end for the team," said a 50-year-old man, surnamed Huang, in downtown Taipei.

Baseball represents one of Chinese Taipei's few medal hopes at the Games.

The island's team scraped a berth in the Games during qualifiers in March.

Agencies

(China Daily 08/16/2008 page15)