No fancy headline today. Italy must go down in baseball flames tonight when they play Canada at the Rogers Centre. First pitch is 6:30 p.m. EDT.
Former Jays prospect Vince Perkins, now in the Cubs system, gets the start for the Canucks. The winner tonight will play Venezuela Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. EDT while the loser goes home.
In other World Baseball Classic action, Korea won the "A" Pool with a 1-0 victory over Japan early this morning. Korea and Japan both move on to Round 2, China and Chinese Taipei are out. In Pool B, Australia racked up more hits than Crowded House with 22 safeties as they hammered Mexico 17-7 in 8 innings. In Pool C, the USA have advanced to Round 2 thanks to a 15-6 whomping of Venezuela. It should have been 14-6 but Ryan Braun's blast just left of the left-field foul pole was ruled fair and that meant Venezuela couldn't tie it with a touchdown and two-point conversion in the ninth. In Pool D, the Dominican Republic sent Panama packing with a 9-0 whitewash.
------------------------
Lost in the World Baseball Classic hoopla was the Jays losing 6-5 to the Reds in 10 innings yesterday afternoon in Grapefruit League action. Scott Rolen and J.P. Arencibia went deep for the good guys and David Purcey put up three nice innings of pitching. Brett Cecil? Well, not so much! The Jays are 5-4 on the exhibition season.
Today, they're playing the Yankees in Tampa with Brad Mills getting the start for Toronto.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20090309124802755