By ALAN SCHWARZ
SAN DIEGO — The last time Cuba’s powerhouse baseball team lost before the final in a major international tournament, in 1959, Fidel Castro had spent less than seven months as his nation’s prime minister. In the 50 years since, the team through which Castro — a former top pitcher himself — has vicariously lived has reached the final of 50 straight tournaments and won a staggering 43 of them.
More than 18,000 days have passed since the Cuban baseball team felt the ignominy of being unable to play for a major championship. It might be less than one before they do so again.
Cuba lost to Japan and its ace, Daisuke Matsuzaka, 6-0, on Sunday afternoon in San Diego, endangering its prospects of surviving the second round of the World Baseball Classic only nine innings after it started.
To keep its string alive, Cuba must win Monday against the loser of Sunday night’s South Korea-Mexico game, and then win on Wednesday, possibly against Japan again.
Japan can relax until it plays the South Korea-Mexico winner on Tuesday, when it will probably start the young star Yu Darvish. That game’s winner automatically earns a berth in the semifinals beginning Saturday in Los Angeles.
“Today, we were beaten by better pitching — there was no question we were not in our top form,” Cuba’s manager, Higinio Vélez, said through an interpreter. Asked by the Cuban news media how his nation’s fans at home should feel, he said, “They should have every faith that these guys can come back.”
Matsuzaka dominated in a rematch of the 2006 Classic final. He has since joined the Boston Red Sox and won a World Series, and he posted an 18-3 record last season despite leading the American League in walks.
But Matsuzaka was strikingly efficient against the Cuban hitters, throwing far more strikes — particularly early in the count — than he typically does for Boston. (Matsuzaka led the major leagues by walking 13.1 percent of hitters he faced last season.) Those Cuban batters were less jumpy than just plain ineffective against Matsuzaka’s legendarily varied repertory. He retired the side in order in three of his six shutout innings and had eight strikeouts with no walks.
It was probably the best pitching performance against the Cubans since the United States’ Ben Sheets defeated them, 4-0, in the gold medal game of the 2000 Olympics. It delighted a good portion of the crowd of 20,179 fans at Petco Park.
“I knew Cuba was a good team, but particularly there was nothing I was too worried about,” Matsuzaka, who gave up only five singles and threw 61 of his 86 pitches for strikes, said through an interpreter. Referring to serving as his nation’s ace rather than that of the Red Sox, he said: “I want to be on behalf of Japan. I want to be the pitcher.”
Just as they did in their 10-6 gold medal victory in 2006, when Ichiro Suzuki’s first-inning double was their only extra-base hit, the Japanese hitters vexed Cuba with small ball. Four singles and a sacrifice fly scored three runs in the third inning, knocking the hard-throwing Cuban phenom Aroldis Chapman from the game. One run in the fourth, fifth and ninth gradually sounded like nails pounding into what could become Cuba’s coffin.
It is by no means closed. But Cuba appeared increasingly unnerved as Japan’s lead mounted. Cuba is not known for throwing wild pitches (two), grounding into double plays (two) and striking out looking (five). Although the Cubans committed no errors, it was a lethargic and sloppy loss for a team known more for having steamrolled others.
“The bottom line is we couldn’t get to Matsuzaka,” Vélez said.
The game began as an enticing matchup between Matsuzaka, the veteran, and Chapman, the young left-hander who threw a pitch clocked at 100 miles per hour during the Classic’s first round in Mexico City. Matsuzaka made clear that it was he who won the gold medal W.B.C. game on the same mound three years before, when Chapman was 18.
Chapman worked behind and into full counts against too many hitters. After two precarious innings, he finally threw some strikes in the third, but three of them were hit for singles before he was removed. All three runs scored after Norberto González relieved him and promptly threw a wild pitch that brought home Akinori Iwamura, yielded a two-strike, soft run-scoring single to Norichika Aoki and then a sacrifice fly. Not exactly power ball, but good for a 3-0 lead for Japan.
Cuba has not been in this shaky a situation in years, maybe decades. In the 2006 Classic, Cuba lost one game in each of the first two rounds but never had to win two straight games to advance. The Cubans breezed through the first round this year in Mexico City, going 3-0.
The last major international tournament in which Cuba entered but did not reach the final was the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago. The Cubans next won the old Amateur World Series in April 1961 and have dominated since as a mysterious but undeniable power.
At the Classic three years ago, Vélez said that his team of relative unknowns was “made of men and not names.” Either way, those players must win on Monday — and Wednesday — or go home as Cuba’s most disappointing team in half a century.
SAN DIEGO — The last time Cuba’s powerhouse baseball team lost before the final in a major international tournament, in 1959, Fidel Castro had spent less than seven months as his nation’s prime minister. In the 50 years since, the team through which Castro — a former top pitcher himself — has vicariously lived has reached the final of 50 straight tournaments and won a staggering 43 of them.
More than 18,000 days have passed since the Cuban baseball team felt the ignominy of being unable to play for a major championship. It might be less than one before they do so again.
Cuba lost to Japan and its ace, Daisuke Matsuzaka, 6-0, on Sunday afternoon in San Diego, endangering its prospects of surviving the second round of the World Baseball Classic only nine innings after it started.
To keep its string alive, Cuba must win Monday against the loser of Sunday night’s South Korea-Mexico game, and then win on Wednesday, possibly against Japan again.
Japan can relax until it plays the South Korea-Mexico winner on Tuesday, when it will probably start the young star Yu Darvish. That game’s winner automatically earns a berth in the semifinals beginning Saturday in Los Angeles.
“Today, we were beaten by better pitching — there was no question we were not in our top form,” Cuba’s manager, Higinio Vélez, said through an interpreter. Asked by the Cuban news media how his nation’s fans at home should feel, he said, “They should have every faith that these guys can come back.”
Matsuzaka dominated in a rematch of the 2006 Classic final. He has since joined the Boston Red Sox and won a World Series, and he posted an 18-3 record last season despite leading the American League in walks.
But Matsuzaka was strikingly efficient against the Cuban hitters, throwing far more strikes — particularly early in the count — than he typically does for Boston. (Matsuzaka led the major leagues by walking 13.1 percent of hitters he faced last season.) Those Cuban batters were less jumpy than just plain ineffective against Matsuzaka’s legendarily varied repertory. He retired the side in order in three of his six shutout innings and had eight strikeouts with no walks.
It was probably the best pitching performance against the Cubans since the United States’ Ben Sheets defeated them, 4-0, in the gold medal game of the 2000 Olympics. It delighted a good portion of the crowd of 20,179 fans at Petco Park.
“I knew Cuba was a good team, but particularly there was nothing I was too worried about,” Matsuzaka, who gave up only five singles and threw 61 of his 86 pitches for strikes, said through an interpreter. Referring to serving as his nation’s ace rather than that of the Red Sox, he said: “I want to be on behalf of Japan. I want to be the pitcher.”
Just as they did in their 10-6 gold medal victory in 2006, when Ichiro Suzuki’s first-inning double was their only extra-base hit, the Japanese hitters vexed Cuba with small ball. Four singles and a sacrifice fly scored three runs in the third inning, knocking the hard-throwing Cuban phenom Aroldis Chapman from the game. One run in the fourth, fifth and ninth gradually sounded like nails pounding into what could become Cuba’s coffin.
It is by no means closed. But Cuba appeared increasingly unnerved as Japan’s lead mounted. Cuba is not known for throwing wild pitches (two), grounding into double plays (two) and striking out looking (five). Although the Cubans committed no errors, it was a lethargic and sloppy loss for a team known more for having steamrolled others.
“The bottom line is we couldn’t get to Matsuzaka,” Vélez said.
The game began as an enticing matchup between Matsuzaka, the veteran, and Chapman, the young left-hander who threw a pitch clocked at 100 miles per hour during the Classic’s first round in Mexico City. Matsuzaka made clear that it was he who won the gold medal W.B.C. game on the same mound three years before, when Chapman was 18.
Chapman worked behind and into full counts against too many hitters. After two precarious innings, he finally threw some strikes in the third, but three of them were hit for singles before he was removed. All three runs scored after Norberto González relieved him and promptly threw a wild pitch that brought home Akinori Iwamura, yielded a two-strike, soft run-scoring single to Norichika Aoki and then a sacrifice fly. Not exactly power ball, but good for a 3-0 lead for Japan.
Cuba has not been in this shaky a situation in years, maybe decades. In the 2006 Classic, Cuba lost one game in each of the first two rounds but never had to win two straight games to advance. The Cubans breezed through the first round this year in Mexico City, going 3-0.
The last major international tournament in which Cuba entered but did not reach the final was the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago. The Cubans next won the old Amateur World Series in April 1961 and have dominated since as a mysterious but undeniable power.
At the Classic three years ago, Vélez said that his team of relative unknowns was “made of men and not names.” Either way, those players must win on Monday — and Wednesday — or go home as Cuba’s most disappointing team in half a century.
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