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World Baseball Classic - USA vs. Venezuela Thread

Played in Toronto. Go figure.

 

From MLB.com:

Lauded as the two best teams in Pool C of the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Venezuela is now set to play Team USA on Sunday at Rogers Centre.

Both enter Sunday's game having secured victories in the previous day's action. The Americans triumphed in a tightly contested matchup against Canada, 6-5, while Venezuela cruised to a 7-0 win over Italy.

Sunday's matchup figures to be interesting in that both lineups are chock full of All-Star Major League hitters. Charged with the task of taming such thunderous bats are Armando Galarraga and Roy Oswalt, the starting pitchers for Venezuela and the U.S., respectively.

In a news conference on Saturday, Oswalt said that he knew most of the hitters on the Venezuelan squad.

"In my head, I've pitched against some of these guys before," Oswalt said, "so I know kind of a way to get some of those guys out."

Venezuela manager Luis Sojo is also confident that his club will be familiar with the American hitters, unlike those from Italy.

"With the United States, it's very different -- there are a lot of batters that we know," Sojo said, adding that scouting the American players is not a hard task.

"We know their game," said the manager. "They're very feared, but I think that the pitching's going to kill the batting. I think if we can make the necessary adjustments to get the outs and to make the adjustments in order to be able to get to that shot, we'll ring the bell. Let's get it on. Because we want to win, and we have all the necessary reports to be able to have the necessary research."

The battle begins at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday.

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