Taiwan’s baseball team fell to Team USA 4-2 last night, dropping to 1-5 as its Olympic nightmare in Beijing continued. They fell just short in a close game that might have been won with forward-thinking managing.
Team USA starter Brandon Knight picked up the win with 6 1/3 solid innings of work, outdueling Taiwanese starter Hsu Wen-hsiung.
Knight and Hsu traded scoreless frames through four innings until Taiwan broke the scoring drought in the top of the fifth when shortstop Lin Che-shen scored on first baseman Matt Brown’s error, giving the team a 1-0 lead.
The US responded quickly in the bottom of the 5th on Brian Barden’s RBI double to right-center field, scoring Dexter Fowler and tying the game at 1-1.
The US got to Hsu in the bottom of the sixth when US catcher Lou Marson led off the inning with a solo shot to left field, a missile that put the team up 2-1.
Shortstop Jason Donald walked, and then scored on Fowler’s double down the left field line off reliever Lee Chen-chang to make it 3-1.
Lin homered in the top of the seventh inning to pull the game within one run, but the US added an insurance run in the top of the eighth when Donald singled in outfielder John Gall, making the score 4-2.
US reliever Kevin Jepsen worked a perfect ninth to pick up the save.
Taiwan manager Hong Yi-chen continued his pattern of erratic substitution patterns and questionable bullpen management, again sticking with pitchers too long and hurting his team’s chances of victory in a winnable game. His bizarre substitution of Chiang Chien-ming for fellow outfielder Lin Che-hsuan during the fifth inning cost the team one of its few left-handed bats.
Hong will be questioned for not removing a fatigued Hsu after the fifth inning, and not putting in lefty specialist Ni Fu-te to face a string of left-handed hitters in the US lineup.
The US instead pounced on Hsu and righty sidearmer Lee in the sixth, putting the team up for good.
Out of contention for the finals, Taiwan play their final game against Canada tonight at 6pm.
In other results, Canada walked over the Netherlands 4-0, South Korea downed Cuba 7-4 and China were annihilated by Japan 10-0 after the mercy rule was invoked.
Also See: Olympic coverage
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS