Mexico ousts U.S. team
Roger Clemens was a loser in what might have been the final start of his outstanding career, and Mexico eliminated Team USA from the World Baseball Classic at Anaheim, Calif.
Oliver Perez and seven relievers combined to pitch a three-hitter Thursday night as Mexico beat the Rocket and the United States 2-1, giving Japan another shot at Korea in the WBC semifinals.
The outcome was a stunner, considering Team USA fielded a lineup loaded with All-Stars even without Derrek Lee and Johnny Damon, sidelined with sore left shoulders.
South Korea had a 3-0 second-round record in Group One, with Team USA, Japan and Mexico all going 1-2. Japan earned the second semifinal berth from the group by allowing the fewest runs in games between the tied teams.
Japan, which has already lost twice to South Korea in the Classic, faces its archrival in Saturday’s opening semifinal game at Petco Park in San Diego, with the Dominican Republic meeting Cuba on Saturday night. The winners play Monday night for the championship.
Clemens, who has won 341 games and struck out 4,502 batters in his big-league career, has said he’s leaning toward retirement after the Classic. He wasn’t at his best against Mexico, allowing six hits and two runs in 4 1/3 innings with no walks and four strikeouts. He threw 73 pitches – seven less than the maximum for the second round.
Perez allowed only one hit in three scoreless innings, and the Mexican bullpen later retired 12 straight batters until Chipper Jones drew a one-out walk off Jorge De La Rosa in the ninth. Luis Ayala then walked Alex Rodriguez, but David Cortes needed only one pitch, getting Vernon Wells to ground into a game-ending double play.
Selig: No Bonds decision
Commissioner Bud Selig is proceeding cautiously before deciding whether baseball should launch an investigation into allegations that Barry Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs for at least five seasons.
Selig dismissed a report in the New York Daily News, citing an unidentified baseball official, that the commissioner had already decided to investigate Bonds.
“It’s just something I’d rather not discuss right now,” Selig said before the WBC game between Mexico and the United States in Anaheim, Calif. “I’ll make the decision based on all the factors that are involved and go from there, and do what I think is in the best interest of everybody involved.”
Bonds, who broke Mark McGwire’s single-season record with 73 home runs in 2001, is accused in an upcoming book of using steroids, human growth hormone, insulin and other drugs for at least five seasons beginning after the 1998 season. Baseball did not have a joint drug agreement with the union banning steroids and other performance-enhancing substances until September 2002.
“Game of Shadows,” which will be out Thursday, is based on a two-year investigation.
Korean players rewarded
South Korea decided to exempt national team members competing at the WBC from mandatory military service as a reward for advancing to the tournament’s semifinals.
South Korea beat Japan 2-1 Wednesday to clinch a berth in the semifinals of the inaugural tournament.
The Defense Ministry will soon introduce a bill that exempts the players from the usual two-year compulsory military service, the ruling Uri Party said.
The privilege will benefit 11 of the squad’s 30 players who have yet to fulfill their military duties.
South Korea also had exempted its World Cup soccer players from military service when they advanced to the second round for the first time in 2002.
All eligible South Korean men must serve in the military for an average two years, a legacy of the long standoff with communist North Korea. The 1950-53 Korean War ended without a peace treaty, and the two Koreas remain technically at war.
Jays extend Halladay
Toronto pitcher Roy Halladay signed a $40 million, three-year contract extension, the latest in a series of big-money moves for the Blue Jays.
The deal could keep the 2003 A.L. Cy Young winner with the Blue Jays through the 2010 season. The 28-year-old righty was 12-4 with a 2.41 ERA in 19 starts last year when his left leg was broken July 8 by Kevin Mench’s line drive in Texas.
“The chance to be here for another five years is something I didn’t want to pass up,” Halladay said. “I really appreciate the way things have been handled. I couldn’t be more thrilled than to have the opportunity to be here an added three years. I just can’t express how excited I am.”
Clearing the bases
Washington Nationals shortstop Cristian Guzman will try to avoid surgery on his injured right shoulder, but if two weeks of rest and rehab do not work, he could miss much of the season. … Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior has a strained right shoulder and could miss the beginning of the season. … Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Damaso Marte won’t be able to pitch for at least a few days because of a sore left shoulder he felt while playing for the Dominican Republic in the WBC.