Team USA Takes Advantage of Youth, Hold On For Victory

In their first tune-up game for the World Baseball Classic, Team USA took an early lead, used Yankee pitchers' inexperience to their advantage and then held off a furious rally for a 6-5 victory.

The Yankees struck first in the game off of Team USA starter Roy Oswalt. Brett Gardner singling, moving to third on Mark Teixeira's single and scoring on Jorge Posada's single. Team USA answered in the third inning with Derek Jeter's two-run single.

There was no more scoring until the sixth, when Team USA took advantage of Yankees pitcher Eric Hacker's wildness. He walked two batters, allowed two singles, including a two-run one by Kevin Youkilis, and threw two wild pitches. That opened up a five-run lead for Team USA.

The Yankees scored three in the bottom of the inning off of Matt Thornton, fueled by a two-run ground-rule double by Nick Swisher. Heath Bell and Johnathan Broxton had scoreless innings after that, but Matt Lindstrom struggled in the ninth, allowing two straight singles and a sacrifice fly. He got a pop out and a fly out with the tying run on second base to end the game, however.

Team USA only had six singles in the game, but they also had five walks. They play the Blue Jays next on Wednesday.

W - Roy Oswalt
L - Phil Hughes
S - Matt Lindstrom

EDIT: The W/L/S/HR really don't count, so the totals are removed.