San Francisco Giants: Posey, Crawford Pull Team USA Through to Second Round

Team USA is moving on to the second round of the World Baseball Classic in large part because of contributions from San Francisco Giants.

Both Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford were instrumental in helping team USA go 2-1 in pool play to advance to the next round.

In fact, the only game that Team USA did not win was the one game that Posey did not play in … a coincidence – I think not.

The San Francisco Giants catcher was 2-7 with a home run and 3 RBIs in the two games he played. He started out slow going 0-4 in their first game, which was against Columbia. But he helped guide the pitching staff to a 5 hit, 2 run performance with 11 strikeouts in that game.

Posey sat out against the Dominican Republic in a game where the bullpen blew a 5-run lead by giving up seven runs in innings 6-8. I bet if Posey were catching those innings Team USA would have gone undefeated in pool play.

He came back for game three and helped Team USA punch it’s ticket to the next round by beating Canada 8-0. The pitching staff was dominant again with Posey behind the plate tossing a shutout and only allowing 4 hits with 15 strikeouts.

The backstop also hit a solo homer in the seventh inning and drove in two more runs in that game.

But it’s Brandon Crawford who has been tearing it up for Team USA. He has started in all three games and is 5-11 with a run, a walk and 2 RBIs, while hitting out of the 9-spot in the order.

On top of that, he’s proving to everyone why he is the best defensive shortstop in the game by making every play with ease. His defensive talent was especially on display in game one when Team USA really needed it because they were in a battle with Columbia.

Crawford was 1-3 with a run and a walk in that first game. Against the Dominican Republic he was 2-4 with a double and 2 RBIs. And then against Canada he picked up a couple of more doubles.

It’s great to see that these San Francisco Giants are already in mid-season form, and hopefully it carries over into the regular season.

Next: San Francisco Giants: Let #SFGiantsMadness Begin

Posey, Crawford and Team USA will be back in action on Wednesday against Venezuela. Make sure you tune in to watch your favorite Giants, and check back with Around the Foghorn for more updates.