Team USA battles Japan in the semi-finals of the World Baseball Classic tonight.
The winner faces Korea, but tonight's game at Dodger Stadium, which will begin at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
The game should be a good one. Japan is the favorite to win the tournament while the U.S. is the host team and well, it's our national pasttime, so pride is at stake.
And there are many great storylines.
- First, we have a pitching match-up that equals almost anything in any World Series Game 7 (Other than the Roger Clemens-Curt Schilling tilt in 2001, the Jack Morris-John Smoltz pairing in 1991 and the Denny McClain-Bob Gibson juggernaut in 1968). It's Roy Oswalt (17-10, 3.54 ERA, .668 career winning percentage) set to face Daisuke Matsuzaka (18-3, 2.90 ERA in '08, .688 winning percentage)
- The injury riddled Team USA has abandoned the miserable Adam Dunn-at-first base expiriment and will start Mark DeRosa
- The San Francisco Chronicle's Bruce Jenkins says the United States needs to get on the bandwagon.
- Newsday's Ken Davidoff blogs about the good and bad of the WBC
- the Los Angeles Times says baseball should let the city of angels put on a show.
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