Team Taiwan closed out the warmups for the IBAF Final Olympic Qualification Tournament against the Sinon Bulls in Taichung on Monday night with an impressive 10-0 shutout win.
Yang Jien-fu (Sinon Bulls), a likely starter in Friday's showdown with Spain, held nothing back against his longtime teammates by tossing three shutout innings on a pair of singles and three strikeouts. His bullpen finished the job with six combined innings of three-hit ball to keep the shutout intact.
"Given the fact that we were playing without four of our starters, I am quite happy with our performance tonight," Sinon manager Hu Chang-hao said afterwards, referring to the absence of Yang, catcher Yeh Jung-chang, third baseman Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan and centerfielder Chang Jien-ming, all of whom wore Taiwan uniforms on the night.
Hu must have been in a very positive frame of mind, because Taiwan battered hired gun Jose Espinal's pitching for five runs (only two earned) on six hits and a pair of walks over three-and-a-third innings. Setup man Du Yen-jeh, meanwhile, surrendered four runs in the eighth on back-to-back, two-run doubles.
Lin Yi-chuan's one-run single after Chang's RBI groundout put Taiwan 2-0 ahead at the top of the first, before two singles and a double, together with a costly error by the Sinon outfield, made it 5-0 in the fourth.
Taiwan scored again in the sixth on a one-run triple by Tsang Chih-yao to make it 6-0, before a four-run eighth concluded the scoring.
The 13-hit burst by Taiwan's batters made a welcome change for head coach Hong Yi-chung (La New Bears), especially in light of premier slugger Chen Chin-fong's (Bears) withdrawal as a result of injury.
Also starring for Taiwan was Chang Chih-jia, who entered the game in the fourth and calmly threw two innings of hitless relief.
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