Olympics: USA and China trade insults after fiery baseball clash

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

BEIJING - The United States and China traded insults after a bruising Olympic Games baseball clash which ended with the Chinese manager and relief pitcher thrown out of the game.

America's 9-1 win was overshadowed by fierce on-field rows which will make for a high-voltage final should the two sides now get through their semi-finals and meet in the gold medal match.

China manager James Lefebvre was the first man to be ejected after twice leaving the dugout to protest plays before relief pitcher Chen Kun was also given his marching orders for delivering a fastball drilled into the helmet of Matt Laporta.

In the course of the game, China catcher Wang Wei was injured and had to leave after a collision with Laporta while replacement catcher Yang Yang was taken out by Nate Schierholtz.

Not to be outdone, US manager Davey Johnson also came out of the dugout when Laporta was hit.

"We not only lost the game but we may have also lost our catcher Wang Wei for the rest of the Olympics. He got hit in the leg. They play hard and we play hard," said Lefebvre who was furious with Schierholtz.

"If you have a guy at homeplate, you never come up and try to hit the guy in the chest. I felt that was an illegal slide and the umpire should have ejected him. After that the game got out of hand."

Lefebvre also defended Chen's controversial pitch.

"We do not throw to hit people. He tried to throw the ball inside and it got away from him. The umpire lost control of the game. He created this."

Schierholtz insisted he did not mean to hurt Yang.

"We're not here to fight. I would rather have slid but the catcher was in the way," he said.

The United States (3-2) will face Taiwan (1-4) on Tuesday for a place in the final while China (1-4) tackle Japan (3-2).