Baseball: Taiwan can blame loss to Canada on wind

Swirling wind at the Helliniko Olympic Baseball Center in Athens cost Team Taiwan dearly in its 7-0 opening loss to Canada on Sunday. The unpredictable wind pattern not only led to two of Team Taiwan's four uncharacteristic errors, it also "pulled" two long balls hit by Taiwanese bat-ters that would have easily been home runs in other ball parks: One ended up being fouled and the other only good for a double.

The stadium's close proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, which is less than a kilometer away, had been the center of attention in terms of the adjustments that Team Taiwan had to make in fielding fly balls that could be affected by the unusual wind patterns. But no one expected the widely publicized "killer wind" to have the dreadful impact that it did on the outcome of Sunday's contest.

Starter Chang Chih-jia (張誌家) simply could not overcome the erroneous plays by the defense that put an extra four runners on, despite a decent outing from the mound that included nine strikeouts in the six innings that he pitched. Chang allowed a total of three runs, two unearned on three hits, before reliever Lin Ying-jeh (林英傑) let the game slip away with two runs in the seventh and eighth to put the game out of reach for Team Taiwan.

Slugger Richard Clapp's two-out, two-run single opened the scoring in the bottom of the second for Team Canada after Taiwanese short stop Cheng Jau-han's (鄭兆行) drop on a routine infield fly due to the wind, a walk by Chang, and another drop on a liner by first baseman Tsai Fong-an (蔡豐安) had loaded up the bases.

Canadian starter Mike Johnson was not overpowering with his assortment of pitches, but very effective in limiting the Taiwanese bats to just four hits in seven scoreless frames before relievers Chris Mears and Aaron Myette kept the shutout intact in the eighth and ninth.

Lack of timely hitting, along with some bad luck, really hurt Team Taiwan on the offensive front. Three different batters hit into double plays that ended scoring threats for Team Taiwan, while two more runners were tagged out at the plate on their slides to the home plate.

"If you take away the two runs in the second [inning] due to the errors and count our would-be runs that were either called out at the plate or pulled in by the wind, all of a sudden we have a close ball game," a disappointed skipper Hsu Sheng-ming (徐生明) said after the game, reflecting how the game might have turned out had the breaks gone his way.