Taiwan last night fell to a 12-5 defeat to Panama in their Pool A opener at World Baseball Classic (WBC) at the Taichung Intercontinental Stadium.
Both sides put runners on in the first three innings, with Taiwan’s Hu Chih-wei (胡智為) and Panama’s Humberto Mejia starting, but could not capitalize.
In the bottom of first inning, designated hitter Lin Li (林立) slapped an infield single and two walks loaded the bases with two outs.
Photo: CNA
However, Meijia escaped the jam by inducing outfielder Wang Po-jung (王柏融) to hit a soft bouncer to first for the third out.
Panama pulled Mejia in the third inning for righty Randall Delgado.
Hu got into trouble in the fourth frame when shortstop Ruben Tejada ripped a double to lead off. Luis Castillo drove in Panama’s first run on a single with no outs.
Chen Kuan-wei (陳冠偉) replaced Hu, but could not contain the offense, with third baseman Jose Caballero knocking in another run for Panama.
With runners on the corners, Chen was tagged by first baseman Jahdiel Santamaria, who hit a drive down the third-base line for a double to make the score 4-0.
Two outs later, catcher Christian Bethancourt delivered another run on a single.
Taiwan got on the scoreboard in the fifth inning.
With Lin Li on second base, former Cleveland Indians player Yu Chang (張育成) hit an RBI single up the middle.
However, Panama rattled Taiwan reliever Tseng Chub-yue (曾峻岳), piling on seven more runs in the sixth frame to take the score to 11-1.
In their bottom-half of sixth frame, outfielder Cheng ripped a liner to right side to knock in one more run, making it 11-2, but in the next inning Panama chalked up their 12th run.
The disappointed Taiwanese fans had something to cheer, when facing Panama’s reliever Wilfredo Pereira in the seventh inning, first baseman Yu Chang got on base through an infield hit.
Then in-form slugger Wu Nien-ting (吳念庭) smashed a homer over the centerfield wall to chalk up two runs, but it was too little, too late.
In the eighth frame, Cheng ripped shot into outfield power alley for a triple, and next batter Lin Li drove him home to score, on a fielder’s choice, to complete the scoring at 12-5.
In the early game in Taichung, the Netherlands stunned Cuba, winning 4-2.
This is the first World Baseball Classic at which MLB players are eligible to play for Cuba, but even with former Oakland Athletics outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, Cuba were unable to top the Netherlands.
Cespedes was hitless and walked twice as Cuba managed only three hits.
The game was a matchup between the two favorites in the group, giving the Netherlands a big advantage in the group.
Cuba went ahead 1-0 in the second inning on a double by Yadil Mujica to score Yoelkis Guibert.
Didi Gregorius singled to allow Roger Bernadina to score and tie it at 1-1 in the third.
The Netherlands took a 4-1 lead in the sixth when Josh Palacios singled home Gregorius and a Chadwick Tromp single scored two more.
Cuba cut it to 4-2 in the seventh.
Play in Group B is to begin today in Tokyo, with South Korea to play Australia and hosts Japan — featuring Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani — up against China.
Additional reporting by AP
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