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Aeros player Matt LaPorta taken to hospital after being beaned. Pitcher ejected
By Beacon Journal wire services
Published on Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008
BEIJING: Injuries, hot tempers, ejections and a beanball war.
Not exactly what the crowd of 7,563 mostly Chinese fans thought they'd see when Team USA took on the host country in baseball.
They got all that and more as the United States earned an emotional, 9-1 victory in Olympic round-robin play at Wukesong Baseball Field.
The United States outhit China 9-3 with bats and 2-0 in home-plate collisions. China's pitchers outdid Team USA's 5-2 in hitting batters.
China lost starting catcher Wang Wei to a leg injury.
Team USA lost right fielder Matt LaPorta, who was nailed by a pitch in the head and was taken to a local hospital.
Indians officials said all tests on LaPorta, who plays for the Aeros, were negative and that he is day-to-day for resuming baseball activities.
''Emotions run high in the game of baseball,'' said Davey Johnson, Team USA's manager.
No kidding.
Lost in the commotion was that the United States (3-2) virtually clinched a spot in the semifinals, joined by Cuba, South Korea and Japan. China, Canada, the Netherlands and Taiwan are virtually eliminated, all with 1-4 records.
The Americans, designated as the home team, led 1-0 through 41/2 innings.
John Gall's RBI double in the bottom of the fourth made it 2-0, and LaPorta drew a walk.
Taylor Teagarden drove
Gall and LaPorta home with a double down the right-field line. LaPorta crashed into Wang, who earlier in the game had taken a foul tip off his foot. This time, he was unable to continue.
The next batter, Jason Donald, was hit by a pitch for his second consecutive at-bat.
An inning later, Team USA's Nate Schierholtz bowled over Wang's replacement, Yang Yang, scoring from third on a sacrifice fly to short center.
Chinese manager Jim Lefebvre, the former major-leaguer, had words for Schierholtz and then set after plate umpire Edwin van den Berk of the Netherlands for not ejecting Schierholtz. Yang was OK, but Lefebvre was not. He was ejected.
''It was a hard play at the plate where we lost our [starting] catcher,'' Lefebvre said. ''Just hard baseball, that's all. But I thought the other slide [by Schierholtz] was too high. In the States, you try to do that, you're ejected. He ejected me from the game and the umpire let the game get away. That's all there was to it.''
Schierholtz, a Giants prospect with Triple-A Fresno, defended his play.
''I figured there'd be a play and he blocked the plate, so I did what I had to do to score the run,'' he said. ''It was a close game at the time . . . and we've been playing close games, so I knew we needed the run. I wasn't trying to take him out.''
Now leading 5-0, LaPorta led off the seventh inning. Relief pitcher Chen Kun stuck a fastball in LaPorta's ear-hole, sending him to the ground and out of the game.
Johnson said LaPorta told him he was OK, but the manager had LaPorta taken to a nearby hospital for a CAT scan. Chen was ejected.
''It was pretty brutal to throw at a guy's head,'' Schierholtz said.
''I mean, you can hit guys in other places.''
BEIJING: Injuries, hot tempers, ejections and a beanball war.
Get the full article here.
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