Even President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) now knows Taiwan needs a stronger defense.
With Chen among the crowd of more than 20,000 at Chengching Lake Stadium in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan self destructed with five errors in a 6-0 loss to the US last night in the Baseball World Cup.
The game was the second-straight contest where Taiwan suffered from defensive lapses. Taiwan overcame three errors in Saturday's 8-2 win over winless South Africa.
A must-win game for the US after losses to the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua, the Americans capitalized on Taiwan's miscues in a big sixth inning.
Orlando Hudson led off the inning with a double.
Taiwan third baseman Chang Tai-shan (
Taiwan got the next two batters out, but Chang made another error, bobbling a ball hit by Chris Snopek.
Chang compounded his error by hitting Snopek as he was running to first base, allowing the second run to score.
Matt Erickson followed with a single up the middle to make it 3-0.
Manager Lin Hua-wei (
Mark Budzinski hit another single to make the score 4-0. Marty Malloy followed with an RBI single. Budzinski completed the scoring when he scored on an error by Taiwan second baseman Huan chung-yi (
Predictably, Lin blamed poor defense for the loss.
"The US did an excellent job, but we just made too many errors. Our starting pitcher, Tsai Chung-nan (蔡仲南), pitched well; the problem was our defense," said Lin.
"I hope that we can use this experience to concentrate better in the field."
Taiwan (4-1) still needs to beat either the Dominican Republic tomorrow or South Korea on Wednesday to be assured of qualifying for the quarterfinals.
Lin said he would meet with his coaching staff to discuss changes to his line-up.
"Losing one game is not determinative," he said. "We hope that we can learn from this loss and make some adjustments for the next couple of games. What remains unchanged is our desire to win the World Cup."
US starting pitcher Scott Cassidy went six scoreless innings. Shane Nance, Tom Shearn and Ed Vosberg completed the shutout.
With their remaining games against Italy and France, the US (3-2) is now virtually assured of entering the medal round. American manager Terry Francona admitted after the game that Taiwan errors were the key to the game.
"Chinese Taipei just made too many errors on defense," said the former Philadelphia Phillie manager. "We are happy to beat Chinese Taipei [Taiwan] today, but today's victory doesn't mean that we will win tomorrow.
"It would have been a different story if we played this game tomorrow."
Russia 7, Philippines 6
At Tienmu Stadium, Russia rallied to overcome a courageous effort from the Philippines to earn its first ever World Cup win.
Down 4-0, winless Philippines started their dramatic effort in the sixth inning when they turned a triple play.
Japan 8, Australia 0
At Tienmu Stadium, Japan rolled to their fifth straight win and fourth shutout. Suda Yoshiteru allowed four hits and struck out nine in seven shutout innings.
Nicaragua 13, South Africa 0
In Chiayi, Edgard Lopez doubled, tripled and drove in four runs to lift Nicaragua over South Africa.
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