March 10, 2006
CAN DO:
Mexico routs Canada, helps U.S. in World Baseball Classic (The Associated Press, 3/10/06)
Jorge Cantu homered and drove in three runs and Esteban Loaiza allowed a run in five-plus innings Thursday night as Mexico defeated Canada 9-1 to leave the U.S. team a win away from reaching the second round. [...]Roger Clemens is set to pitch for Team USA today at Scottsdale Stadium, though most players on the team wished they could play again Thursday and get a chance to bounce back from the demoralizing performance against Canada in an 8-6 loss Wednesday.
Manager Buck Martinez compared the feeling to losing a playoff game in October.
"It was almost worse," said reliever Joe Nathan of the Minnesota Twins said. "It's like this feeling that you just let a whole lot of people down. I know for myself, I don't want to feel that way again."
It is worse. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 10, 2006 8:04 AM
On the other hand, if Clemens was to somehow lose this game, that would pretty much end his retirement talk. His competitive nature wouldn't allow him to go out on that note.
A Canadian win would've been fine too, because it would have dropped Mexico to 1-2. The only bad possible outcome was a narrow, low-scoring Mexican win, because it would set up the possibility of a 3-way tie with the US on the wrong side of the tiebreaker.
Posted by: John Thacker at March 10, 2006 1:04 PM