Taiwan lost to Japan yesterday in its second match of the 25th Asian Baseball Championships in Sapporo on the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Japan scored the final point in the top half of the 10th inning to secure a 6-5 victory.
Taiwan starter Hsu Chu-chien (許竹見) ran into problems early, giving away several hits to allow Japan three runs in first two innings.
PHOTO: CNA
Hsu gave away five points in two-and-two-third innings before he was called into the dugout.
Japan, on the other hand, only gave up a single run in the first five innings — a homer by Kuo Ming-jen (郭銘仁) — while delivering nine strikeouts.
It wasn’t until the sixth inning that Taiwan scored again, closing the gap to 3-5.
In the eighth inning, Taiwan launched another attack, with a hit by Wu Tsung-chun driving home runners on second and third bases to level the score at 5-5 and force an extra inning after a scoreless ninth.
In the 10th, however, Taiwan reliever Wang Ching-ming’s (王鏡銘) generous pitching allowed the Japanese a double, a single and another double to drive in the winning run.
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