Wowing the 16,000-plus fans in the stands with a pair of home runs, the MLB All-Stars outfought a resilient Taiwan national squad to run away with a 6-4 win in Game 5 of the 2011 Taiwan All-Star Series at Chengcing Lake Baseball Stadium in Greater Kaohsiung yesterday afternoon, sweeping the friendly exhibition series in grand fashion.
Robinson Cano (New York Yankees) showed off his expertise in the long-ball category with a solo shot off Taiwan reliever Yang Yao-hsun (陽耀勳) in the top of the third that put the visitors ahead 4-3. Ty Wigginton (Colorado Rockies) followed with a pinch-hit blast off Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ching (林煜清) to lead off the seventh that provided an insurance run for the Big Leaguers.
The highly anticipated showdown between Jeremy Guthrie (Baltimore Orioles) and Taiwan’s very own Major Leaguer, Wang Chien-ming (王建民), of the Washington Nationals did not live up to its hype, as both starters failed to shut down the opposing hitters by serving up three runs apiece through the first two innings of play.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
After surviving a shaky first that saw him give up a walk and a single without surrendering any runs, Wang found himself in trouble in a three-run second by giving up two doubles and a single even though two of the three runs were unearned.
However, Guthrie returned the favor by allowing a two-run double to Taiwan’s Pan Chih-fang (潘志芳) before an RBI groundout by Lin Che-hsuan (林哲瑄) tied the game at 3-all in the bottom of the second.
That set up Cano’s homer, which gave the All-Stars a 4-3 lead that they added to with a run in the fifth inning when Logan Morrison’s (Florida Marlins) double off reliever Cheng Wen-hao (鄭文豪) drove in Ryan Roberts (Arizona Diamonbacks) all the way from first to make it 5-3.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Even though Taiwan’s hitters plated a run in the bottom of that frame against reliever LaTroy Hawkins (Milwaukee Brewers) to again reduce the deficit to one run, that was as close as they managed against the stingy bullpen work of Rich Thompson (Los Angeles Angels), Jose Veras (Pittsburgh Pirates) and Mark Melancon (Houston Astros), who combined for four shutout innings of two-hit relief to deny Taiwan any chance for a rally.
Thompson earned his second win of the series with two innings of shutout ball. He allowed a hit, while fanning four and walking one to beat counterpart Yang, who gave the Major Leaguers the lead for good on the homer to Cano.
“It’s been a very positive influence for baseball in Taiwan,” Major League skipper Bruce Bochy (San Francisco Giants) said after the game.
Photo: Reuters
His troops came in and showed why the Major League is still the premier stage where only the elite can compete and thrive in the game of baseball.
‘HONORED’: The DPP’s Lin Fei-fan said friends working in the foreign media, the diplomatic corps and at think tanks congratulated him for making the sanctions list The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday slammed China for sanctioning Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and six other Taiwanese officials for being “diehard separatists,” saying its attempt to intimidate Taiwanese would backfire. China has no authority to dictate the actions of Taiwanese, because Taiwan is a democratic nation that upholds the rule of law, and would never yield to intimidation and threats from an authoritarian regime, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news conference in Taipei. China’s state-run Xinhua news agency earlier yesterday reported that the Taiwan Work Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee has imposed
THAI ASSISTANCE: The representative office in Thailand worked with local authorities to help trafficking victims return home, while one in the group has been charged Eight Taiwanese who were lured to Cambodia with lucrative job offers only to be forced to work illegally were brought home on Sunday night in a joint effort between Taiwanese and Thai authorities, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said. Nine people — six men and three women aged 23 to 42 — boarded China Airlines Flight CI-836 from Bangkok, with assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 9:55pm and were taken to the Aviation Police Bureau for questioning before entering home isolation in accordance with Taiwan’s COVID-19 regulations. The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday
ORDNANCE: Under a five-year plan, the Chungshan Institute would make about 200 Hsiung Feng II and III/IIIE, and Hsiung Sheng missiles, an official said The Ministry of National Defense plans to counter the Chinese navy by producing more than 1,000 anti-ship missiles over the next five years, a defense official familiar with the matter said yesterday. The comments came after China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy began a series of military drills in a simulated naval blockade of Taiwan proper following a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Although China has in the past few years rapidly produced many warships and added them to its navy, these large vessels are more suited for warfare on the open sea than in the narrow
The organizers of WorldPride 2025 have canceled the Kaohsiung event because its licensing group, InterPride, demanded that it remove “Taiwan” from the event’s name, they said in a statement yesterday. Kaohsiung was to host WorldPride Taiwan 2025 after being granted the right by the global LGBTQ advocacy group. However, the WorldPride 2025 Taiwan Preparation Committee said that InterPride recently gave “abrupt notice” asking it to change the name of the event and use “Kaohsiung” instead of “Taiwan,” even though it applied for the event using “Taiwan” in its name. The name was initially chosen for its significance to the Taiwanese LGBTQ community, as
RSS