David Wright celebrating his game-winner                   and Jimmy Rollins has been fantastic Photo by Hans Deryk-NY Sports Baseball                              Photo by Doug Benc - Getty

After Carlos Beltran of Team Puerto Rico made one of his smoothest yet most spectacular catches ever against Brian McCann earlier in the game, my spirits flagged, but I hadn't given up hope yet on what I knew to be a very talented if not deep U.S. team.  They sure waited long enough, but in the end, they showed remarkable toughness at the plate to come back and beat Puerto Rico in the ninth, thus sending the tough Puerto Ricans home and advancing themselves into the semifinal.  They'll face Venezuela on Wednesday night to determine seedings.

But what a ninth inning!  Against JC Romero, one of the toughest lefty relief pitchers in the game, they began their comeback slowly and continued it inexorably.  Bit by bit, single by single by walk by walk, they ate away at the lead and the nerve of that great Puerto Rico team.  Half the team participated in the comeback, Victorino and Roberts had consecutives singles and, after Jeter flied out, Jimmy Rollins produced a very tough at-bat for Romero, finally walking on a  3-2 pitch to load the bases and bring Kevin Youkilis to the plate with the bases loaded and just one out.

Puerto Rico replaced Romero with right-hander Fernando Cabrera, who seemed determined not to throw the ball anywhere near the plate.  Youkilis meanwhile was all-jaw, finally drawing another walk to drive in a run but the U.S. was still behind.  This brought up Wright, the guy who's had some trouble in big spots before.  I thought "double play", but then tried to dismiss it from my mind. 

After taking three pitches and with the count 2-1, Cabrera let go with a low fastball that I was horrified to see Wright swing at, but he was able to drive it to extreme right to drive in Roberts and Rollins with the game-winning runs. 

Never was a Mets fan happier.  While acknowledging that Wright had his troubles last year driving in runs in big spots, I wanted to believe he'd do better this year.  Well, he surely did better last night.  We can only hope as Mets fans that his previous failures were the result of sad coincidence only, and that last night's big hit was only the first of many in our future.

But it was truly a team win, which bodes well for the U.S. going forward.  After what could have been a debilitating mercy-rule loss in their round two opener, they came back stronger than ever to defeat the Dutch handily and then eke out this one with a determined ninth-inning comeback.

And maybe now we'll be able to say, "oh good, Wright's up."  I know that's what I'll say...


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