U.S. Baseball shows its power

The Americans hit four home runs in a 9-1 exhibition win over Canada.

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — This is exactly the kind of groove the United States Olympic team wanted to find itself in before heading to Beijing — both at the plate and on the mound.

Brandon Knight struck out 10 and the Americans hit four home runs in a 9-1 exhibition victory over Canada Sunday.

Cleveland Indians prospect Matt LaPorta and Mike Hessman homered in the second inning, Nate Schierholtz added a game-breaking grand slam that highlighted a five-run eighth and Terry Tiffee also went deep for the U.S.

The Americans have outscored Canada 16-3 in winning the middle two games of the four-game series after the Canadians won the opener 4-3 in 10 innings. The series concludes tonight.

“It takes a game or two to get on a roll,” Schierholtz said. “The last two games, everyone on this team can hit, so it was just a matter of time before we came around and started scoring some runs for the pitchers.”

Knight, who at 32 is the oldest player on the U.S. roster and a Mets farmhand, allowed two hits in five scoreless innings and retired 15 of 18 hitters.

He struck out six in a row before Emmanuel Garcia — the last batter he faced — managed to fly out to center field.

“Once I started throwing my breaking ball for a strike, that makes my fastball a little bit better,” Knight said. “It’s not like I can blow people away with what I have, but once I get the breaking ball over, it helps out a little bit.”

The Canadians’ only run came in the sixth, when shortstop Brian Barden couldn’t handle Emerson Frostad’s hard grounder off reliever Kevin Jepsen, allowing Stubby Clapp to score from second.

“You just can’t continue to not generate offense during the ballgame,” Canadian manager Terry Puhl said.

Schierholtz broke the game open in the eighth by homering for the second straight game, this time connecting with the bases loaded against reliever Steve Green. His drive cleared the seats in right field and struck a portable souvenir stand on the concourse.

“I’m comfortable at the plate, had a week off to rest and I’m just seeing the ball well — put a couple of good swings on the ball the last few days,” he said.

Canada starter and San Francisco farmhand Chris Begg struck out five in six innings, allowing four runs on five hits while serving up three homers.

“He wasn’t as sharp early as he was late,” Puhl said. “He’ll still be one of our guys that we really look to [in Beijing].”

LaPorta and Hessman homered into the center-field shrubs to put the Americans up 3-0 in the second.

U.S. manager Davey Johnson moved LaPorta up two spots to No. 5 in the batting order, and he justified the move by connecting on Begg’s low 3-2 pitch for his second homer of the series.

Schierholtz then singled through the right side, and Hessman sent the first pitch he saw into a bush over the fence, about 5 feet from where LaPorta’s drive landed. That helped Hessman, who has 286 homers in 13 minor league seasons, snap an 0-for-4 start to the series.

Tiffee made it 4-0 an inning later with a two-out drive to right that hit midway up the foul pole. He went 3-for-4 and finished a triple shy of the cycle.