A pair of big swings and a parade of strong arms got the US off to a successful start in the World Baseball Classic.
Derrek Lee and Chipper Jones homered, Jake Peavy and six US relievers combined on a four-hitter and the US beat Mexico 2-0 on Tuesday.
Lee connected off starter Rodrigo Lopez and Jones homered on the first pitch he saw in the tournament -- off Oscar Villarreal in the seventh.
PHOTO: AP
Peavy allowed one hit -- an infield single by Karim Garcia to start the game. The 24-year-old San Diego Padres right-hander struck out three, throwing just 23 pitches.
Mike Timlin, Chad Cordero, Dan Wheeler, Todd Jones, Joe Nathan and Brad Lidge each threw an inning of relief for the US squad, which has 11 relievers on its roster.
No Mexican hitters advanced past first base. Three runners were erased on double plays.
Dominican Republic 11, Venezuela 5
In Kissimmee, Florida, David Ortiz and Adrian Beltre each homered twice, leading the Dominican Republic to victory in the opening game of Pool D.
Bartolo Colon pitched three scoreless innings for the win before leaving after 50 pitches -- well below the opening-round limit of 65.
Johan Santana yielded Ortiz's first homer and took the loss. He threw 61 pitches in 3 1-3 innings.
Ortiz and Beltre each hit a two-run homer in the ninth as the Dominicans broke open a 6-5 game.
CUBA
Osmany Urrutia trusts that all his Cuban teammates will return home after the inaugural World Baseball Classic rather than defect from the communist island as US Major League Baeball pitchers Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez and Livan Hernandez did years ago.
"I think that the team that is representing our country is going to do it with dignity," Urrutia said on Tuesday. "And we'll return to our country with the medal of dignity. We will never betray our `comandante.'"
The Cuba national team met President Fidel Castro on Sunday before flying into Puerto Rico for the first round of the tournament. Cuba practiced Tuesday at Hiram Bithorn Stadium, the site for Pool C.
Manager Higinio Velez said he had not decided on a starting pitcher for Cuba's opening game against Panama on Wednesday.
"We have many options," Velez said. "Panama has some new players that we've never seen before. So we'll be closely watching [Tuesday night's] game against Puerto Rico."
Velez said he wasn't worried about the stadium's artificial turf, a surface on which Cuba rarely competes.
"We have played on turf before in Japan. There's a little difference, but not much," Velez said.
He thanked American government officials for letting Cuba enter Puerto Rico, a US territory, to play in the tournament.
"We told the [US] State Department that we wanted to come here to play baseball, not to make money. So we donated all our money to the victims of Hurricane Katrina," Velez said.
Urrutia said Cuba, the 2004 Olympic champion, is ready for the challenge presented by Puerto Rico and other teams with US MLB regulars on their rosters.
"This is one of the toughest tournaments that I've been in," the designated hitter said. But "facing these major league players is normal."
Local tournament organizers have said the final game in Pool C on Friday between Cuba and Puerto Rico is sold out.
Ichiro Suzuki arrived at Seattle Mariners camp on Tuesday to practice with the Japanese national team and acknowledged he aired complaints about the Mariners' direction to manager Mike Hargrove after last season.
And that discussion -- reports of which caused winter ripples on two shores of the Pacific Ocean -- has left him refreshed and optimistic for 2006.
"We've talked about this over the offseason," Suzuki said of the Mariners, through interpreter Ken Barron. "And for me, rather than keeping something inside, it's better to get things out in the open.
"Now that things are out in the open, I feel really good right now, ready for the next season."
Hargrove acknowledged the meeting last month. He called it productive for both him and Suzuki.
The Mariners finished last in the American League's West Division last season with a 69-93 record.
Suzuki was in the Mariners clubhouse to say hello Tuesday to a few teammates and personnel still around hours after the team's exhibition game at nearby Maryvale. Japan practiced in the evening on the Mariners' fields. Japan has an exhibition game today against the Mariners at the adjacent Peoria Sports Complex.
The Japanese team arrived Monday morning having advanced from the first round of the World Baseball Classic. Japan begins the second round in Anaheim, California, on Sunday.
Suzuki is 3-for-13 with an RBI, three runs scored and a stolen base through three WBC games. Two were Japanese routs. Then came Sunday's 3-2 loss to South Korea, after which Suzuki said: "I feel ashamed. If I was satisfied with my performance I should quit baseball."
`Game of Shadows'
Major League Baseball home run record holder Barry Bonds used a vast array of performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and human growth hormone, for at least five seasons beginning in 1998, according to a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters.
An excerpt of Game of Shadows, which provides details of the San Francisco slugger's extensive doping program, appears in the March 13 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Bonds, who testified before a San Francisco federal grand jury looking into steroid use by top athletes, repeatedly has denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Phone messages left by AP seeking comment from his attorney and publicist were not immediately returned on Tuesday.
Authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who led the newspaper's coverage of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) scandal, detail the specifics of Bonds' drug regimen, which they write started in 1998 with injections of Winstrol, a powerful steroid also linked to Rafael Palmeiro. Former world record-holding sprinter Tim Montgomery also was linked to the US government investigation of BALCO.
According to the book, Bonds was using two designer steroids, known as the cream and the clear, plus insulin, human growth hormone and other performance enhancers by 2001, when he hit 73 home runs to break Mark McGwire's single-season MLB record.
The seven-time player of the year in MLB's National League enters this season with 708 homers, seven shy of passing Babe Ruth and 48 from breaking Hank Aaron's career mark.
Game of Shadows is scheduled to be published on March 27 by Gotham Books.
The reporters, who based the book on a two-year investigation, included an extensive summary on their sources, including court documents, affidavits filed by BALCO investigators, documents written by federal agents, grand jury testimony, audio recordings and interviews with more than 200 people.
Japanese playoffs
The Central League, one of Japan's two professional baseball leagues, decided on Tuesday to introduce postseason playoffs next year In a move aimed at boosting declining attendance, an official said.
Representatives from all six Central League clubs, including Japan's most popular professional team -- the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants -- agreed to hold playoffs starting in the 2007 season, said acting league director Hideo Okoshi.
The measure is designed to attract more fans to ballparks, he said.
The number of people watching games at Japanese ballparks fell about 15 percent to 11.67 million last year, Okoshi said.
Analysts say the declining attendance is partly the result of a dearth of popular stars, who have tended to play for US Major League teams in recent years. They include Seattle Mariners slugger Ichiro Suzuki, New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui and Chicago White Sox infielder Tadahito Iguchi.
The Pacific League, Japan's other professional league, resumed playoffs two years ago after earlier holding them from 1973 to 1982, resulting in an increase in attendance and fan interest.
Pacific League games this season begin March 25, while the Central League starts March 31.
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