{"id":27949,"date":"2015-07-15T11:46:42","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T18:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=27949"},"modified":"2015-07-16T11:57:55","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T18:57:55","slug":"day-4-pan-am-mens-fastball-with-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=27949","title":{"rendered":"Day 4 \u2013 Pan Am Men\u2019s Fastball (with preview)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>
Click logo for official webpage<\/figcaption><\/figure>Wednesday, July 15, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

14:00 SB001 Mexico v. Venezuela (11am on the West Coast)
\n16:30 SB001 United States v. Argentina (1:30pm on the West Coast)
\n19:00 SB001 Canada v. Dominican Republic (4:00pm on the West Coast)<\/p>\n

Preview:<\/strong>
\n(This was dictated for expediency; email me if you spot errors please, jim [at] fastpitchwest.com)<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday’s picks by the Editor<\/strong>:One for three, as Pete Rose took the rest of my lunch money. Picked Canada over Argentina, but then most did. I thought the Dominican Republic would rebound with their ace and get a win over Mexico. But Mexico is apparently using my picks for bulletin board material, and having a better go of it in the Pan-Ams than they did the WBSC. The Dominicans, Pool B winner at the WBSC with a 6-1 record has not won a game since the round robin portion of the WBSC. (Five losses in a row, New Zealand, Venezuela, United States, Venezuela and Mexico in that order).Where did that magic go?<\/p>\n

Picking the USA over WBSC bronze medalist Venezuela admittedly one from the hear. They took Canada to extra innings and they hung tough until the seventh against Venezuela. I thought they’d start Mancha after his 14K performance against them in Saskatoon, but what do I know. Josh Johnson was outstanding in the start, the offense just couldn’t solve Ramon Jones, as he continues to impress.<\/p>\n

Argentina took a 3-2 lead against Canada into the 5th, but the juggernaut that is Canada’s offense hung a crooked number with 6 in the 5th to cruise to their third victory at Toronto in as many starts. Just one loss since they started their “World Tour” at Saskatoon and Toronto, a winner’s bracket final loss to New Zealand, which they avenged a day later in the gold medal game. They are the class of the world field, though the Americans gave them a run on Monday, taking them extra innings, so they can’t be considered a lock. Games still played on the field and no one knows that better than Canada.<\/p>\n

That said, Canada’s offense put on quite a display yesterday, against perhaps the deepest pitching staff in th tournament. They touched up Gervasuitti for 5, Mata for 3 and Potoliccio for 1, with only Godoy not seeing duty. All 9 runs were earned. Canada scored 6 runs in the 5th inning, turning a 3-2 deficit into an 8-3 lead. Steve Mullaley (still on fire) had 3 hits, including a triple, 3 RBI and 3 runs scored. Jeff Ellsworth had 2 RBI with a home run and scored 3 runs. Derek Mayson had 3 hits, including a double and 2 RBI. Mathieu Roy had 3 hits. Pitch around them? Good luck with that one. Well, OK, hold up 4 fingers to walk Mullaley, it’s just another RBI for somebody behind him.<\/p>\n

Crunch time today, with just two round robin games left, and 6 teams vying for the 4 playoff spots. The USA v. Argentina game today is huge. Both teams are 1-2 and need the win to get in.<\/p>\n

Today’s Games<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve retired from predictions, will let the teams decide it from here.<\/p>\n

Mexico (2-1) v. Venezuela (2-1)<\/strong>
\nA motivated Mexico playing well, Samuel Villalvazo pitching well, with an opportunity to knock off a medal winner from the WBSC. Venezuela will likely be setting up their pitching for the playoffs. They face Canada tomorrow in the final round robin game, but I’d guess they’ll not show Jones to Canada until it really counts.<\/p>\n

United States (1-2) v. Argentina (1-2)<\/strong>
\nNo tomorrow for either team. Godoy or Poto for Argentina? I’d guess the former with Poto in the pen, but at this point, both teams likely to pull out the stops and choose pitchers situationally. Everybody will be ready.<\/p>\n

Canada (3-0) v. Dominican Republic (0-3)<\/strong>
\nTwo teams going in opposite directions. Cleary’s day to rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, July 15, 2015 14:00 SB001 Mexico v. Venezuela (11am on the West Coast) 16:30 SB001 United States v. Argentina (1:30pm on the West Coast) 19:00 SB001 Canada v. Dominican Republic (4:00pm on the West Coast) Preview: (This was dictated for expediency; email me if you spot errors please, jim [at] fastpitchwest.com) Yesterday’s picks by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,28,9,38,23,61],"tags":[126,323,322],"class_list":{"0":"post-27949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"category-featured","9":"category-international","10":"category-latinamerica","11":"category-tournaments","12":"category-usa-softball","13":"tag-panams2015","14":"tag-panamsoftball","15":"tag-tor2015","16":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27949"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27974,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27949\/revisions\/27974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}