Great March Baseball–in Canada

There was no quit in Canada Saturday, not in their WBC team, not in the fans. They gave Team USA all it wanted in the World Baseball Cup in an exciting matchup on Saturday, ultimately won by the U.S. 6-5. It was ironic that such good baseball could be played in March and it probably surprised the hockey fans on both sides of the border with edge-of-your-seat drama throughout the late innings.

The Rogers Center was filled with 42,000 proud Toronto baseball fans and when Joey Votto knocked one into the second tier seats in the third inning, the red maple leaf flags were waving madly. But it was Votto’s broken bat double in the ninth inning that brought the fans to their feet and the Canadian team to the edge of a win. Then J.J. Putz got Jason Bay, representing the winning run, to save an exciting 6-5 win in the ninth.

Team Canada made it a ballgame from the very first inning, but they lacked the pitching depth and experience to really get the upper hand. After being criticized when past star-studded lineups lacked for intensity, Kevin Youkilis and Adam Dunn were emblematic of Team USA’s new commitment to the WBC. Some may have begun to wonder about the new team when they fell behind early but Youkilis golfed one over the center wall to tie the score in the bottom of the fourth. Then Brian McCann put the U.S. ahead 4-2 with a two run homer and they never trailed again.

Canada kept coming at the Americans throughout the game. Jason Bay and Mark Teahen got hits against Joel Hanrahan and brought Team Canada within a run at 4-3 at the top of the sixth. Then Adam Dunn took one deep for a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning. Those two runs proved to be the difference.

Jake Peavy had good stuff to start the game, but the Canadians All-Star lineup roughed him up for two runs. Team USA pitching depth showed not just in having a quality starter in Peavy, but in the proven big-leaguers that came in to relieve him. Latroy Hawkins and Matt Thornton had perfect innings for the USA in the fourth and fifth innings. Team Canada meanwhile could not put anyone on the mound with appreciable major league experience.

Team Canada started Mike Johnson on the mound because Steve Francis, Erik Bedard and Rich Harden were unavailable because of injury. Johnson last pitched in Taiwan and American hitters had few ideas what to expect from him. It showed for the first few innings, but Team USA measured him in the fourth with two homers and three runs.

Skeptics could argue that with Adam Dunn starting in right field for the U.S. and Matt Stairs in right for Canada, the WBC competition is still not drawing the best the game has to offer. But Dunn made a great sliding catch early and later ran down a ball in the gap that surprised his critics. Jimmy Rollins made some nice plays in the hole and for early March the level of play was anything but shabby.

Still, the story of the game was the electric atmosphere of the Canadian crowd. In the seventh inning, the U.S. loaded the bases against Canadian prodigy, Phillipe Aumont. Curtis Granderson came to the plate with a chance to break the game open, but with everyone in the park standing and cheering, Aumont struck him out on a nasty put-away pitch. The Seattle prospect set Granderson up with an even more impressive 96-mph fastball.

Team Canada was behind 6-4, but no one left the stadium, no one was giving up. In the bottom of the eighth inning the U.S. again loaded the bases with less than two out. But Canadian pitcher Dave Davidson–whose only big league experience was a cup of coffee in 2007–brought the crowd to their feet once again with two strikes and a chance to wriggle off the hook. He got Chipper Jones swinging over the top of a breaking pitch and the Canadian faithful cheered their anonymous hero loud and long.

With the crowd still on their feet for the top of the ninth, Russell Martin got a one-out double against J.J. Putz. Then Joey Votto brought Canada within a run on a double into the gap. The score was 6-5 and Votto stood on second base with the tying run and only one out. Justin Morneau and Jason Bay–the heart of the Canadian lineup–were coming up. Putz got Morneau quietly, but Bay fought off several good Putz fastballs. Then to end the game he flied out to center to extinguish Canadian hopes of an upset.

Canadian fans may have left without a win, but they went home with their pride intact. More importantly, they provided an exceptional level of excitement to the WBC game and pushed Team USA to provide a level of effort that some would say has been missing in the past.