Chen Yong-ji grabbed the spotlight in the opening game of the baseball competition at the 2006 Asian Games at Doha for Taiwan by blasting two home runs to lead his country to a 4-2 win over South Korea yesterday afternoon.
The 23-year-old slugger, who has spent the past three seasons in the (US Major League Baseball) Seattle Mariners' minor league system racked up a total of eight bases thanks to a pair of solo homers in a 2-for-4 effort to account for half of Taiwan's total offense, making him the instant man-of-the-hour for the island nation.
Chen broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth by driving a pitch from South Korean starter Son Min Han over the centerfield wall for a quick 1-0 lead before fellow teammates Lin Chih-sheng (La New Bears) followed with an RBI single that scored designated hitter Chen Chin-fong (Bears) to put Taiwan ahead 2-0.
PHOTO: AFP
Resilient
A resilient South Korean attack would answer with a run of its own in the bottom of the same inning with a clutch single by Lee Jin-young that scored Lee Dae-ho, who led off the inning with a monstrous triple to deep-center off Taiwanese starter Kuo Hong-chih (Los Angeles Dodgers) to make it 2-1.
Hsieh Jia-shien's (Macoto Cobras) solo blast off Son in the top of the fifth promptly regained another two-run cushion for Taiwan in a 3-1 game, before South Korea rallied for its second run of the game in the bottom of the sixth when Lee Dae-ho led off the inning with a stand-up double off Taiwanese reliever Chiang Jien-ming (Yomiuri Giants of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball League) and scored on Lee Jin Young's lining single on the ensuing play.
The score remained at 3-2 after the seventh until Chen Yong-ji smashed his second homer of the game in the top of the eighth to provide Taiwan with an insurance run.
That was more than ample for Chiang as the Taiwanese reliever retired all but two of the final eight batters he faced to secure the all-important win for Taiwan.
Pocketing the win was Kuo, who allowed a run on six hits while fanning as many over five solid innings, beating his counterpart Son, who surrendered three of Taiwan's four runs in four innings of play, including the long balls by Chen Yong-ji and Hsieh.
The victory put Taiwan on the fast track for its first-ever gold medal in tournament history as its four remaining opponents (China, Thailand, Japan, and the Philippines) in the five-game preliminaries are unlikely to pose any serious threat to Taiwan, meaning that it will take on South Korea again in the medal rounds in what should boil down to be a two-team race for the gold.
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