Taiwan proved no match for South Korea in the baseball opener at the Asian Games in Guangzhou last night, dropping a 6-1 decision to their archrivals from the north to begin the quest to defend their title on a down note.
Starter Lin Yi-hao gave up a pair of two-run homers to South Korea’s Choo Shih-soo that set his team back by four over the first three innings, a deficit that seemed insurmountable for the Taiwan offense against the outstanding pitching of South Korea starter Ryo Hyun-in.
Even though Taiwan’s bats seemed to come alive toward the end of the game when they managed to pound out seven hits, the lone run they had to show for it on the board told the story as they stranded eight runners to lose by a landslide.
Photo: AFP
“The two homers really hurt us today,” Taiwan head coach Yeh Chih-shien said in a post-game interview.
His troops fell behind early and were greatly affected by the deficit as the hitters grew impatient against the South Korea pitching, constantly swinging at bad pitches from the fourth inning onward.
Miscues in base-running also cost Taiwan dearly in the game as Luo Kuo-hui overran third in the top of the seventh to give South Korea a chance to tag him out at the home plate for the second out of the inning, negating an excellent scoring opportunity for his team as it turned what could have been a one-out with runners on second and third into a two-outs with a runner on first.
As a result, Taiwan failed to score in the inning after the first two hitters reached safely.
“He [Luo] really didn’t have to rush home on that play since we were behind by a few runs and we really needed more base runners instead of risking everything,” Yeh said after the game.
Despite the setback, there was one highlight for Taiwan, as reliever Yang Yao-hsun dominated the opposing hitters with nearly four innings of three-hit ball that kept South Korea from pouring on the runs.
Even though Yang was ultimately charged with two allowed runs on three hits over three-and-two-third innings of play, his timely surge probably earned him a start and a ton of Yeh’s confidence.
Picking up the win for South Korea was starter Ryu, who allowed a run on five hits over six innings, while the loss went to Lin, who lasted only two-plus with four runs charged to him on five hits.
Next up for Taiwan will be a weaker Pakistan squad that beat Hong Kong 5-3 in their opener earlier yesterday. The game is scheduled for 1pm at the Aoti Baseball Field.
Japan captain Wataru Endo on Thursday was ruled out of the FIFA World Cup with injury and announced his international retirement, three days before his team’s opener against the Netherlands. The Liverpool midfielder pulled out of the tournament after failing to recover from a foot injury and was replaced in Japan’s squad by Shuto Machino. The 33-year-old Endo said on social media that he was “frustrated” at not being able to play, but backed his team to impress in Group F, where they face the Netherlands, Tunisia and Sweden. “There will definitely come a time in the future when Japan win the World
FIFA on Friday blamed the empty seats during the FIFA World Cup match between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara, Mexico, on fans who watched from the concourses. There were many visible empty spots at the 45,664-capacity Guadalajara Stadium, with sections in the middle of the stands showing many unoccupied spaces and with other empty seats scattered around the venue. The announced attendance was 44,985 — including FIFA president Gianni Infantino. “Official attendance figures reflect the number of tickets scanned and spectators present within the stadium footprint, rather than visual assessments of seating occupancy at any given moment
About 100 people gathered at a bar in Taipei to watch the FIFA World Cup kick off in Mexico, despite the early hour of 3am last night. All seats had been reserved before the game started, said a clerk at Brass Monkey, a bar in Taipei where customers can watch live sports broadcasts. The Group A clash between Mexico and South Africa drew supporters from multiple continents to the venue. For Misael Alanis, a Mexican student who has lived in Taiwan for two-and-a-half years, the atmosphere was just as important as the game itself. "There are a lot of Mexicans here and you can
A rotting body was found on Friday in the trunk of a car parked near the stadium where Iran’s FIFA World Cup team is training in Mexico. The gruesome discovery came with games under way in the tournament, which is being jointly hosted by Mexico, the US and Canada. Reporters watched as police in Tijuana opened the trunk of the gray Toyota SUV, which had California plates, in the parking lot of a supermarket directly across from the Caliente Stadium, where Team Melli are training as they prepare for three games in the US. Specialists in white protective suits worked
RSS