U.S. clinches berth in medal round

Fowler leads Americans to victory over Chinese Taipei
By Mark Newman / MLB.com
08/19/2008 11:40 AM ET

BEIJING -- Despite some tense moments along the way, the four favorites advanced from the original field of eight and will meet in Friday's semifinal games at the Summer Olympics on Friday: Korea, Cuba, the United States and Japan.

The U.S. clinched a place in the medal round Tuesday by rallying for a 4-2 victory over a Chinese Taipei team that personified the intense competition from top to bottom at the Games. All that remains are the exact matchups, which will be determined when all four teams play their seventh and final games of the preliminaries on Wednesday, including the U.S. vs. Japan at 7 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) at the Wukesong Main Field.

"We came halfway around the world to get to the medal round, and like I said early on, this is the best competition I've been involved in with the Olympics," said U.S. general manager Bob Watson. "You're going to have someone get into the semifinals with three losses. We've only got half of our work done. We've got some games to play against some tough clubs, and we'll have to play our A-game.

"I've heard a lot of people say they want to see us play Cuba for the gold medal. The way I look at it, we've got to play them all anyway. I just want to be there. I don't care who we play, as long as we've done our part to be there."

Korea beat Cuba on Tuesday to remain the only unbeaten team at 6-0. Cuba is 5-1. The U.S. and Japan are each 4-2. Korea will be the No. 1 seed, Cuba will be No. 2, and the other two clubs will decide their order of seeding with Wednesday's game. No. 1 will play No. 4 at 10:30 a.m. local time on Friday, and No. 2 will play No. 3 at 6 p.m. that day. The losers will play for the bronze medal at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, and the winners will meet at 6 p.m. that day to decide the gold and silver.

"This game was huge for us, because it alleviates some of the pressure going into [the Japan game], even though we're not just going to show up against them," said shortstop Jason Donald, who showed the representative emotion after getting to first base with an RBI single in the eighth that produced the final run. "The goal is to get in. Obviously we're not satisfied with the worst-case scenario of a bronze medal or no medal. We're going for the gold medal. That's why we're here."

Chinese Taipei struck first, when Chih-Sheng Lee led off the fifth inning with a double, was bunted over to third and scored on an error by first baseman Matt Brown. But the U.S. team answered immediately in the bottom of the inning, getting a run of its own on a leadoff triple by Dexter Fowler and an RBI double by Brian Barden.
中華隊率先展開攻勢，林智勝（編按：原文作者將大師兄的名字誤植為Chih-Sheng Lee，應該是Chih-Sheng Lin才對）於第五局無人出局時率先擊出二壘安打，靠著犧牲觸擊推進到三壘，並藉著美國隊一壘手Matt Brown的守備失誤攻下第一分。然而美國隊很快的就在下半局有所回應，由Dexter Fowler擊出leadoff的三壘安打，再靠著Brian Barden的二壘安打追平比數。

The U.S. played this game without outfielder Matt LaPorta -- who will be unavailable against Japan because of the mild concussion he sustained when he was beaned Monday night against China. Yet the U.S., also missing second baseman Jayson Nix -- who expects to play in the medal round after being hit in the face by a pitch last Friday -- once again made up for a key absence, particularly in the outfield.

Nate Schierholtz threw out Chin-Feng Chen at home with a perfect peg from right to preserve a 1-1 score through the top of the sixth. Fowler was on base all four times, hitting a triple, double and single and drawing a walk. John Gall led off the sixth with a homer and the eighth with a double and run.
Nate Schierholtz在六局上半，完美的外野長傳將鋒哥阻殺在本壘之前。Fowler四次的打擊機會全都上壘，分別敲出三壘安打、二壘安打、一壘安打和一次的四壞球保送。John Gall在六局下半率先擊出了一支全壘打，又在八局下敲出二壘安打並且回到本壘得到了一分。

The sixth inning was decisive. After Schierholtz's big play in right, Gall led off the bottom of that inning with a homer over the wall in left-center. The U.S. never trailed again. Lou Marson walked, Donald sacrificed him over to second -- "I haven't had a sac bunt the whole year in Double-A and now I've had three here," Donald said -- and then Fowler slashed a double to left while hitting from the left side. That gave the U.S. a 3-1 lead and made an eventual winner out of Brandon Knight (1-0).

"Everybody on our team feels like we've earned it, because we battled in the trenches the last several days," Gall said. "It's been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the way this crowd is up every night, the competition being this top-notch. It has been intense. Every team we play is gunning for us. It's really amazing the talent across the world, and that was a great baseball team we just beat tonight."

In his second start of the Olympics, Knight was effective early, striking out five of the first seven batters he faced. Although he did not record a strikeout after the second inning, he was able to battle and keep Taipei from no more than two runs in the game.
在本屆奧運的第二次先發，Knight一開始就投得很有效率，面對前七位中華隊的打者，他就三振了其中的五名。雖然從第二局之後，他就沒有再投出三振過，他還是可以持續奮戰下去，並且讓中華隊無法在他手中拿下超過兩分的分數。

"[Chinese Taipei] was what we expected and I was just very impressed [with them]," Knight said. "I think it is something that I have been through having played in Asia. They really do a good job of making adjustments. Their scouting is second to none and they really pay attention to what is going on.
「中華隊是我們期待碰到的對手，而且我也對他們感到印象深刻。」Knight說。「我認為這是我在亞洲打球（的這段時間）讓我一直感受到的。他們的調整真的做的很好，他們的球探報告是獨一無二的，而且他們也很專注球場上的所有情勢變化。」

"The first time through the order I was able to make some good pitches and get some swings and misses. But they made the adjustment. They started taking some good pitches and taking some good swings on others. I was impressed but I also wasn't surprised."
「在面對第一輪的打者時，我可以投出一些不錯的球，並且讓打者揮空。但是他們馬上做出調整，他們開始選擇某些好球做攻擊，並且打的很扎實。這讓我印象深刻，但我並不感到驚訝。」

Chinese Taipei cut the U.S. lead to 3-2 when Chih-Sheng Lin answered Gall's leadoff homer with a leadoff clout of his own in the seventh. Knight stayed on to retire one more batter, and then Mike Koplove came in from the bullpen induced two groundouts to end the inning. He threw a 1-2-3 eighth to extend his Olympic perfection to 4 1/3 hitless innings. Kevin Jepsen got the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
在七局上半，大師兄馬上回應了在上個半局（六局下）率先敲出一支陽春全壘打的Gall，他（大師兄）也來了一發，將比數改寫為2比3，僅落後美國隊一分。Knight繼續留在場上，等他解決了下一棒的打者之後，Mike Koplove從牛棚當中上場接替投球，並且成功的製造了兩個滾地球出局，結束了這個半局。第八局他也成功的投出了一個三上三下的半局，也讓他在本屆奧運比賽中，無安打的投球局數來到了四又三分之一局。Kevin Jepsen也完成了三上三下的第九局投球，並順利的拿下了救援。

There were some tense moments early in this tournament, as the U.S. started 1-2 with tough losses to Korea and then Cuba sandwiched around a 9-0 win over the Netherlands. Some people might even have had a sudden doubt about whether the Americans were going to make it past the semifinal cut.

"There was never a doubt in my mind," Donald said. "There was not one guy who pushed the panic button here. We had to persevere. And we're in the medal round."

Now the baseball team has a chance to add to the U.S. overall lead in the medals standings. It will be gold, silver, bronze or zip. All of that remains to be seen, but the first objective has been accomplished.

Mark Newman is enterprise editor of MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

News source：http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080819&content_id=3332001&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

PS：僅翻譯與中華隊有關的片段。原本不太想翻譯的，但是看到有鋒哥的照片，還是忍不住把有關中華隊的內容順手翻了一下。