With Japan beating South Korea in last night's thriller 4-3, Taiwan still have a chance to make next year's Beijing Olympics today in Taichung.
There's a but though -- only a big win over Japan will do.
With South Korea expected to beat the Philippines easily in today's other game in the Asian Baseball Championship, Taiwan need to win to achieve a 2-1 record, level with the Japanese and the South Koreans.
PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP
A win by a big enough margin would be enough to see the hosts victorious in the tournament, and book an Olympic berth.
Taiwan blanked the Philippines in their second game of the championship yesterday afternoon with a 9-0 triumph at Taichung's Intercontinental Baseball Stadium to improve to 1-1.
Chen Chin-fong continued his productive hitting with a three-run home run off Filipino starter Ernesto Binarao in the opening inning to give the hosts a 3-0 lead, as they went on to defeat the visitors by a big margin.
The former Los Angles Dodger followed his two-for-three hitting with an RBI in the opener with another multi-hit effort, this time going two-for-four to lead his team with a .571 batting average.
Also starring for Taiwan was slugger Peng Cheng-min (Brother Elephants) who went three-for-four and scored three times in a winning cause.
Taking the mound for Taiwan with seven shutout innings of play was lefty Lin Ying-jeh, who surrendered four hits and fanned four while walking one to earn the victory.
The former Macoto Cobras ace, currently playing for Japan's Rakuten Eagles, kept the Filipino hitters off-balance with a repertoire of pitches consisting of a 140kph-plus fastball and a nasty slider together with an occasional change-up.
Veteran right-hander Hsu Ming-jeh (Japan's Seibu Lions) tossed a hitless eighth in relief of Lin before lefty Shen Yu-jeh (Chinatrust Whales) did mop-up duty with a scoreless ninth to keep the shutout intact.
"We did what we were supposed to do and that's all I can ask for of this team; even though we could have done a lot of things better, a win is a win," Taiwan's head coach Kuo Tai-yuan said after the game.
Defensively for the Philippines, four different hurlers were used in the game, with starter Binarao allowing five runs on eight hits over four frames and Charlie Labrador giving up a pair of runs and hits in as many innings before Roy Batuto and Darwin Dela Calzada lost the final two runs in the ninth.
Binarao ended up taking the loss on behalf of the Philippines as they remained winless at 0-2 in the three-game medal round after dropping the first game to Japan on Saturday 0-10.
Later yesterday, Japan held on in a thrilling contest to beat South Korea 4-3.
Japan now have a 2-0 record, and any sort of result against the hosts today would see them qualify for next year's Olympics.
Additional reporting by staff wriTer
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