SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — The U.S. Ryder Cup team, after being dominated by Europe for the better part on the past two decades, inched itself closer to not only ending Europe’s stranglehold on the 17-inch-high gold chalice, but doing it in a blowout.

The Americans carried their Day 1 dominance into Day 2, extending its commanding 6-2 Friday lead to 9-3 entering the Saturday afternoon fourball session.

The U.S. won the Saturday morning foursomes (alternate shot) session 3-1, same as they won each of Friday’s two sessions, and entered Saturday afternoon’s four matches needing just 5 ½ points to win the Ryder Cup.

Europe, the defending champion which has won four of the past five cups and nine of the past 12, won the first match Saturday when world No. 1 Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia overcame a 3-down deficit after the first three holes to defeat Daniel Berger and Brooks Koepka 3-and-1.

That match temporarily cut the Americans’ 6-2 Friday lead to 6-3.

But Europe would lose the next three matches, leaving itself in a massive bind to try to come back and retain the cup. Europe, which needs 14 point to retain the cup, entered the Saturday afternoon matches needing to win 11 of the 16 points still available.

The six-point lead through three sessions was the largest for either side since the Americans led by that much over Great Britain & Ireland in 1975.

No team has ever come back from a final-day deficit of more than 10-6 entering the 12 Sunday singles matches. The U.S. overcame a 10-6 deficit in 1999 to win and the Europeans overcame the same to win in 2012 at Medinah.

The U.S. added points in the Saturday morning foursomes with a 2-and-1 win by Dustin Johnson and Collin Morikawa over Paul Casey and Tyrrell Hatton, a 2-up win by Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas over Viktor Hovland and Bernd Weisberger and a 2-and-1 win by Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay over Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick.

Johnson’s win was his third in as many matches this week. Spieth’s win was his first point of the week, after he was the only U.S. player without one after Friday.

Spieth and Thomas were 3-down through six holes to Hovland and Weisberger and rallied. Cantlay and Schauffele didn’t take their first lead over Westwood and Fitzpatrick until the ninth hole and they never lost it.

“I’m proud of everybody on the team,’’ Thomas said. “We have a great team. A lot of guys are playing great and a lot of guys love the atmosphere and love the spotlight and I think their games are proving that.’’

Cantlay said the momentum of U.S. players seeing their teammates succeed has propelled the American side.

“One thing we all have in common is we all hate losing,’’ Cantlay said. “So, there’s that. All of us are so competitive and we look up at that board and if we see blue [European colors], we want to see red. I think that I can speak for my whole team … we fire each other up.’’

Though the scoreboard showed a lopsided result, every one of the Saturday morning matches made it to at least the 17th hole. But the Europeans were unable to make up the ground they’d hoped for after Friday’s results.

“Unfortunately, it just looks like the American guys are just playing a little bit better than us, and it’s a shame,’’ Garcia said. “We need more. What we did is not enough. Not in the situation we are in.”

Garcia’s morning victory gave him 27 ¹/₂ career Ryder Cup points, which is a record.

“It’s great but it’s not,’’ Garcia said. “We need more wins and unfortunately we are not getting them at the moment. But we are not giving up. We’re going to fight until the end as hard as we can.’’

Johnson, who three years ago went 1-3 in France and was 3-0 this week after the Saturday morning match, called the U.S. keeping the pressure on Europe “obviously really important.”

“Even though we had a nice lead after [Friday], played really well, there are still eight points [Saturday],’’ said Johnson, who at 37 is the oldest player on the U.S. team. “You’ve got to come out and get off to a good start. We’re just trying to win each session and keep that lead.”

So far, so good.