A Puerto Rican party broke out at Dolphin Stadium on Saturday night -- and Jake Peavy and Team USA ended up serving as the piñata.

Continuing their torrid run from Round 1, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and a potent Puerto Rico lineup took turns bashing San Diego's 2007 Cy Young Award winner in a game that needed the mercy rule to stop the Americans' bleeding.

Puerto Rico scored six runs on six hits in the first two innings, setting the tone in a dominating 11-1 victory that has Team USA and its all-star lineup on the brink of elimination in the second round of the World Baseball Classic. And it left a mostly pro-Puerto Rican crowd of 30,595, who brought their flags with them, a bit stunned.

''Nobody expected this in this game,'' Puerto Rican manager Jose Oquendo said.

``The guys played aggressive from the start, going for extra bases. Javier [Vasquez] did a great job pitching. Just a great game. The win is a good win for us, good for morale. The guys played well. People in Puerto Rico watched this game with great enthusiasm. We shared it with them.''

Team USA (3-2) will send right-hander Roy Oswalt to the mound Sunday at 7:30 p.m. to face the Netherlands, which will counter with Marlins right-hander Rick VandenHurk. Both pitchers received no decisions in their first starts of the tournament last week.

PUERTO RICO ON A ROLL

Red-hot Puerto Rico (4-0) will take on Venezuela (4-1) in the winner's bracket game Monday night. If it ends up being like any of Puerto Rico's other games in the tournament, Venezuela could be in serious trouble.

Including Saturday's knockout of the Americans, Puerto Rico has outscored its first four opponents by a combined score of 26-2. The bullpen has yet to give up a run in 16 1/3 innings.

Saturday, Vasquez pitched five strong innings, retiring the first seven hitters he faced (a group that didn't include reigning AL MVP Dustin Pedroia) to improve to 2-0 in the tournament. The newly acquired Braves right-hander scattered four hits, struck out two and got out of a crucial jam in the fifth when he struck out Mark DeRosa and got Shane Victorino to fly out with runners on second and third and one out. Of Vasquez's 67 pitches, 50 went for strikes.

''I just wanted to throw strikes, go after these guys,'' Vasquez said. ``They have a great lineup. But you can't back down. Getting those runs early really helped me breathe and feel like it was OK if I made a mistake.''

On the other side, Team USA simply could not contain the Puerto Rican lineup. Jesus Feliciano started the game by sending Peavy's first pitch into center field on a line drive single.

AN ONSLAUGHT

Beltran followed two batters later with another line drive single before Delgado drove in Feliciano from second with a screamer to right field. Alex Rios then made it 2-0 with a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring the speedy Beltran easily from third.

The second inning started with Geovany Soto drawing a walk before Felipe Lopez drilled a 1-2 fastball into the seats in right-center to make it 4-0.

The onslaught continued when Beltran and Delgado drove in two more runs later in the inning to make it 6-0. Manager Davey Johnson didn't bother to bring Peavy back out for the third.

''I take full responsibility for what happened [Saturday night],'' Peavy said. ``You tip your hat to Puerto Rico because they have a good team. But I didn't make a whole lot of adjustments with my pitches. I couldn't get the job done.''

Catcher Brian McCann finally broke through for the United States when he smacked a hard line drive past first base and down the right-field line for an RBI double, which scored Adam Dunn from second in the fifth. Dunn finished 2 for 3.

• Pedroia pulled his left oblique muscle Friday and has been replaced on the team by Orioles infielder Brian Roberts. It was unclear whether Pedroia will be ready for the start of the season for the Red Sox.

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