JP Howell Pitches A Perfect 8th In The World Baseball Classic

It wasn’t technically a perfect inning, but Rays reliever JP Howell pitched a 10 pitch, 6 strike, 1 walk, 0 H 8th inning vs those stinking Canadian nationals today in the USA’s first game of the World Baseball Classic.  

Kevin Youkilis, Adam Dunn and Brian McCann homered for USA.  Shane Victorino and Derek Jeter also had two hits a piece.  

The pitching was rather shaky with Jake Peavy giving up two runs, and Joel Hanrahan, Scott Shields and JJ Putz each giving up a run a piece in the relief effort.  Putz came in to close the game, and almost gave it back with that run.  

The US plays the winner of the Italy vs Venezuela game, currently going on as I type tommorow @ 630 PM on MLB Network.